Can anyone relate to me?
Posted , 5 users are following.
Hi everyone,
I've come to this forum to see if anyone can relate to my situation. For almost 9 years since I was a young teenager I have suffered from what I can now say with more certainty is depression. I can say without a doubt that it is the worst thing I have ever experienced in my life. One of the main things that was keeping me in the cycle of depression was believing that I would never be able to stop feeling this way, that there was something intrinsically "wrong" with me and I was different from everyone else - these thoughts kept me stuck in it.
However, I am now on the road to recovery My priority now is reaching out to anyone who's ever felt this way. I think it's so important to release the stigma attached to depression that it's not a real illness or not as serious as others.
I've listed the symptoms I had below:
Feeling completely disconnected from myself and other people including family and loved ones. At times I wondered if I even still loved them.
Feeling ashamed of being like this, criticising myself for everything
Everything seems to be measured on a lower set of scales than everyone else in terms of mood ie. sadness feels 100% stronger than it would to a normal person, whereas happiness was almost "diluted".
I never truly got happy/excited/or looked forward to the smallest most trivial things like taking a bath, shopping or sleep.
Strong proccupation with the past
Seeing only negative things in life & negative in even the things that weren't there
Constantly afraid of interaction - for me, social anxiety went hand in hand with my depression
At my most depressive time a few years ago, I was on the train and looking out the window the trees seemed to sway. It was a horrendous experience and I believe it was due to my feeling so depressed with a vortex of thoughts swirling in my head.
Intrusive thoughts
Feeling completely useless and unimportant. I think this more than anything was the cause of my depression, but it's strange because I had a very normal childhood.
All in all, I think the fact that I am just a very sensitive person must've played a big part in triggering the depression. They also say that depression can sometimes have no cause, so I suppose I was one of those unlucky ones.
I'm getting better now though and I just wanted to know, can anybody relate to this, even slightly?
Thanks for reading, if you did.
0 likes, 12 replies
lynne05476 isnowdropi
Posted
isnowdropi lynne05476
Posted
I'll be looking into that book x
julie1111 isnowdropi
Posted
isnowdropi julie1111
Posted
Thank you for your reply, and good luck to you!
julie1111 isnowdropi
Posted
You are so right i should start helping my self more it is probely because i want to be liked! and needed..its a pattern i need to stop doing! true word and thank you..julie
jackie82937 isnowdropi
Posted
Thanks for your post it's helped me understand why my husband is struggling and why he is stuck and how it affects your feelings for loved ones. He has said he feels everything is permanent and negative, I know it won't be permanent as I've had anxiety myself and got through it eventually.
I couldn't understand why I had anxiety as I'm normally confident and kept thinking why me, I thought I must be weak but it can happens to anyone, although I felt very ill at the time I'm now much stronger as a result.
It's great to hear you are getting better and coming out the other side.
isnowdropi jackie82937
Posted
Glad that my post could be of help to you. You're right, nothing is ever permanent, I think that human faith is a very strong thing and change is possible for everybody. You're right as well, that anxiety/depression can affect anybody and sometimes it is simply a chemical imbalance in the brain.
It's great that you are feeling stronger despite having to go through such difficult obstacles
All the best and take care.
jackie82937 isnowdropi
Posted
Sadly my husband has felt things are permanent for the past 12 months, he left us 8 months ago after 34 years together, we all know he's acting and behaving out of character but he's trying to sort this on his own wihtout meds and cousnelling which is why it's taking so long. I found diaries going back to his teenage years where he had written about feeling depressed. We've done all we can but of the advice of the MH support Group are now totally ignoring him like the naughty child in the corner.
All we hope is he eventaully sees he needs help and asks for it. He's presently trying to divorce me as he feels I will be better off without him, told me about rainbows he'd paid to kill me, the need to live on his own to control food, shopping and cleaning. I've faced two family deaths and skin cancer so Divorce is the least of my worries, the main worry is reposession of our home and bancruptcy. I try and laugh most days or I to would go down the depression route.
Thanks again.
abraham62199 isnowdropi
Posted
isnowdropi abraham62199
Posted
I'm sorry you are feeling low. I've never heard of the doctors following up on patients to the extent of actually calling upon your door; I've given my details to my local mental health team and they've never broached upon my privacy. However, if you don't want them to contact you, that is fully up to you. My own experience with them has been very helpful, I was with 'Steps to Wellbeing' who are based in areas around the UK. I've done CBT therapy sessions with them and they valued my privacy as well as helped me get out of my depression quite significantly. Everybody is different though and I can understand if you would rather not have therapy. Sometimes it's a case of self-help, including meditation and looking within yourself.
I can completely understand feeling like there is a limit to your happiness and it's all too easy to believe you will stay that way. But I encourage you to never stop striving for the happiness you deserve, because everyone deserves to be happy.
Thank you for your well wishes and good luck to you, isnowdropi
AnonymousWoman isnowdropi
Posted
It's great you're on the road to recovery, me too! I guess just sometimes it can be slow going! Wish there was a time machine instead!
I absolutely agree with getting rid of the stigma. There is nothing worse for a depressed person than for someone to basically tell them to get over themselves and stop complaining/over-reacting/fussing/accusing them of crocodile tears. I think it's very hard for people to understand unless they've gone through it but I guess that means that it's up to us who have to speak up and let them know!
I wish you all the best isnowdropi! Things will be better!!
anonymousgirl
isnowdropi AnonymousWoman
Posted
I'm glad to hear you're on the way to being better as well You couldn't have put it better than me! A time machine would be brilliant. But one of the most important things, I suppose, in dealing with depression is focusing on the here and now, the present.
Yes, it's never nice to hear those words and of course it's worse when you have depression because you are even more sensitive to those words!
I wanted to ask as well, do you know of any groups/societies or campaigns to bring awareness to depression? I'd love to be able to speak up about it and help people like us if that's at all possible.
Wishing you all the best too, keep strong and steady,
isnowdropi