You Are Always the Last to Know: Dealing with Depression
Recent years have opened the eyes to many about the sheer number of people that grapple with depression. Almost everyone knows a person that has either struggled with depression and often times more than one. Overall, people are more accepting of depression and understand the damage it causes and are more accommodating to people that suffer under its effects. The problem is that in some ways it has gotten too large, and too many people think that they know about what depression looks like. As a result, they feel like imposters when they begin to show some of the telltale signs because it does not look as severe as what they have seen in movies or on TV. With this misdiagnosis in mind people do not treat their own symptoms appropriately as a result it is only when they are on the verge of catastrophic consequences do they even think of seeking help. Sometimes, that help comes too late to matter. This is why it is so important to recognize so of the early signs and decide what to do about it. From my own personal experience these are some of the things that I felt and what helped me get to where I am.
What Can You Do?
One of the first things you can do is talk about it. Be open with how you are feeling; it can be a close friend, a loving parent, or even just putting what you think out into the internet, or something as simple as writing a journal. It is important to entertain the idea as if it is real, with that mindset take another look at the facts and how you are feeling. This can help to overcome the inherent bias that you may have about feeling fake, as if your own depression is somehow less valid than another just because some symptoms differ.
One of the hardest hurdles to overcome is understanding that the problem will never really go away. When you watch a movie or read a book you see the character overcome the trial and go on to accomplish their goal, any trace of struggle in the distant past to them. That is not how reality works. You are not broken so there is nothing to fix. It is important to accept that this struggle is something that you will likely have to live with, it is not about solving the problem so much as coping with the symptoms. This is really important to grasp or it becomes very easily to backslide and lose all the hard progress that they earned.
Apathy is a very common symptom of depression and one that many struggle with. Not only does apathy prevent you from finding join in your day to day life, it can lead to real life consequences as you fail to fulfill your obligations, thus worsening your mood. Many resources encourage outdoor activities and exercise to try and fill that gap, and while I agree the evidence demonstrating your impact is sound, it does not have to be the only thing. When struggling with depression, it is hard to find the motivation to do anything at all. So don’t make it harder and force yourself to try and do things you hate, this will only help damage your self worth as your mental image of a healthy and well adjusted individual will conflict with you current self-image. The most important thing is to find some source of joy, this often helped me create motivation for myself, by creating a reward that I could earn after accomplishing a small task for the day.
Setting a routine for yourself is a piece of advice that nearly everyone gives because it does have an impact. However, while most encourage it to help cope with depression that is not the only use it has. When I started to see the light at the end of the tunnel and was getting my depression under control; I realized I had a major problem, reintegration with society. my depression was so severe that I withdrew for people for the most part, it had interfered with my social life, my education and my work. As a result, when I went back and tried to begin all these facets of my life again I realized that I had no idea where to start, and I had to relearn how to do a lot of basic things that I knew how to do before and the lack of information led to worsening the anxiety I already felt. Setting a routine helps to keep you in practice with a lot of daily necessities, even something as simple a grocery shopping or getting a haircut become easier if you have a method in place.