What is depression for you?
I don't know what depression is for you, but I want to describe it to you as I see it, as I experienced it. This post will be very personal, not only because of me, but because in the comments you will express your testimony with depression, whether you have suffered it yourself, or if you lived it closely with a family member or friend. Read to the end because there are some questions that I would love to answer.
What is depression for me?
The following you will read is not a concept from a medical book or dictionary. Not even from the DSM-IV Manual. This is a purely subjective, personal, very much my own description.
Depression is a real hell. It is the anxiety that eats you up inside, it is the feeling that the world is cruel, and at the same time the realization that it has done nothing to you. It is feeling bad and not knowing why. It's lying in bed with thoughts of worthlessness, guilt and sadness swirling around in your head. The cause? You can't find it. That's the nightmare of depression as an illness. It's like you're in a bottomless pit that you want to climb out of and feel good, but your mind, body and emotions are on "pause," in a suspended, depressed state.
In this disease, because, yes, it is a disease like any other, thoughts of suicide haunt the mind. The person thinks and feels that it is better to cease to exist than to be a burden to others. The depressed person thinks that family and friends have enough problems of their own to deal with. Faced with so many sad and anxious thoughts, only sleep seems to be the only way to stop thinking and feeling.
You want to go out and do things, distract yourself, but for a depressed person to go out and see the world is a big burden. You can try, but it is difficult. Sometimes you feel like you don't have the strength anymore, that you want to give up. "I'm sick of pills, psychologists, doctors, all that. I can't take it anymore," many of them say.
Clumsiness and forgetfulness are normal, if you go to do something and you forget, you have to go back two or three times because you forgot what you were going to do. There is also a lot of anxiety about food, you want to eat all the time, or you just don't eat at all.
It is a desire to enjoy and share with your family and an inability to give more; as if your batteries are running out, as if the world is passing you by or you can't keep up, or over you and you are crushed by its harsh reality. It is crying with disconsolation because of the despair of not being able to live a normal life and wanting to be alone because the world is too big and overwhelming for you. It is crying because you feel guilty that other people's lives have to adjust to you because they have to and want to take care of you or help you in the process. It is crying out of sadness, crying almost uncontrollably because you don't want to be like that, or feel like that. You want to live life to the fullest, but no matter how hard you try, you don't always succeed.
That's depression. It's that painful, overwhelming and often completely hopeless.
What is depression for you?
Answer the following questions:
Have you suffered from depression or know someone who is suffering from it or has suffered from it?
What was or has been your experience with this illness? Could you describe it in the comments?
What caused it and what was its main negative or positive consequence in your life?
Before I say goodbye, I leave you with these words of encouragement.
If you know someone who suffers from depression, do as much research on the subject as you can first. Ignorance on the part of loved ones is the main reason sufferers feel misunderstood and try to help, but don't know how. Find out all you can about the disease. Finally, talk to the depressed person (if they are willing to do so, don't force them if they don't want to talk); not all cases are the same, there are different levels of depression, not to mention that each person is different in their way of thinking, feeling and the reasons that led to the illness. If you want to help, learn more and teach less, talk less and listen more.
You can also get in touch with someone who has been affected, sometimes there is nothing like experience to learn something. I am available as a good person with experience in this area. As I have said before, I have also suffered from depression.
G. S. Bilbao
hello @garybilbao,
you describe very well the feeling of being depressed, I think in my particular case depression comes when I can't do things right, that's when I think I'm not good enough at something and I want to give up but giving up just makes me feel like a failure, but what helps me is reading and exercising to come to my senses and get out of those emotional states that don't help at all.
Greetings friend @garybilbao, a great topic to discuss what you share with us, there are many ways to define depression, from my point of view I consider it as that moment when we lose the courage to follow our goals, the strength and will to keep fighting for what we want and let everything pass by us, letting those great opportunities escape, it should not be easy to overcome the depression that some people suffer, but it is possible, thinking about our desires and the desire to move forward that we should never lose.
Hollo! Great topic discussed, depression can be in any form base on our individual definition. Truly it may be very difficult to overcome depression but we must just try to understand that life have something better for us than of present.
Greetings!
Hello buddy!
I remember you once commented on one of my posts related to depression, and now from what you've said I guess I can see why it's so hard for you. I haven't been depressed before yet I've seen many people that are close to me like that, they always seem sad but when I ask for a reason it usually didn't make sense to me yet it was so hurtful for them and they usually bring many reasons and not one only. It seems tough to understand for someone who haven't felt the same.
Thanks for sharing, I have better knowledge about what might people with depression feel now.