This is What Depression Feels Like

The Harvard Crimson ^ | 4/12/16 | Morris

[pabianice]

You eat, but you aren’t able to taste your food. You try to write your paper, or work on your p-set, but all you can do is think to yourself, “What is the point?” You try to get out of bed in the morning, but you just can’t escape its almost magnetic hold over you.

So you sleep. And you sleep. And you sleep. Sleep becomes your drug of choice, and you abuse it constantly. Your old hobbies and passions no longer have the same appeal. None of them match the sense of security you feel when you’re wrapped up tight in your bed sheets. You sleep to escape the thoughts, the fear, the overwhelming sense of hopelessness and dread that seems to seep from your pores.

But when you leave the house, you keep a smile spread on your face, because you know your friends won’t understand. You feel isolated, alone, like there is no one in the world who can possibly understand the darkness. God, you wish and you pray that the pain can go away.

But it doesn’t. It gets worse, and worse, and worse. And then you think to yourself: Should I end it all? Eventually, that’s all that you can think about, that question. And more questions follow. What does it mean to be alive? Why are you here? What’s the point? You drown in these thoughts—you’re drowning, and you feel like no one is there to save you.

[erlayman]

Or you can do both. My boss is suffering from major depression, he still gets up every morning and stares at the computer monitor all day. He is also deeply religious and has been in therapy over a year. There are some advantages like not being evaluated on anything as an employee but when you are seeing it up close it is obvious why it is widely known as one of the worst diseases you could ever have.

[AppyPappy]

I had a friend whose wife had CFS and Depression. She was bed-ridden much of the day but both largely went away when she visited her family in Louisiana. I found that really odd.

[I want the USA back]

And the article didn’t blame Whitey, men or Christians.

[Obadiah]

My heart aches for you. Seeing your kid earlier in his life happy, coping, seemingly normal, and then encountering this depression and changing your kid into someone so, so different. One who struggles with the simplest things in life. Longing with all your heart to help that kid in any way possible, but in the end being able to do so little.

My prayers for you and your family.

[donna]

Find an old person in your neighborhood and sweep and tidy their front porch and then walk their dog.

[ThisLittleLightofMine]

Who told you that?? Depression/despair is a normal part of life, and the the cure is to look up at your Creator rather than your circumstance.

I do think that is a neat idea, caring for something other than ourselves gives us purpose and joy.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

Sunlight from the right angles.

Humans are odd creatures.

[ThisLittleLightofMine]

This is required reading at my childrens high school fresh men year.

[right way right]

HOME
LOG IN
BibleGateway
Search

Thank you Jesus, and Bible gateway.

Matthew 6:25-34 New International Version (NIV)

Do Not Worry
25 “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? 26 Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? 27 Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life[a]?

28 “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. 29 Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. 30 If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? 31 So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. 34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

[Madame Dufarge]

Hello to you, too!

It really was an amazing story, wasn't it? I may have shed a bucket of tears at the dog part...

And here we are now, with this pathetic Harvard breeding stock sobbing because mommy probably didn't pack enough tagless undershirts for their trip away from home.

God help us!

[Madame Dufarge]

It’s encouraging to hear that.

[murron]

I’ve suffered depression, but it was because of certain events happening in my life at the time. When I was going thru it, I felt like I was an observer of the rest of the world living their lives and that I wasn’t really a part of the events around me. I just wanted to get thru each day and hope that the next day would get better, which it didn’t for a good while. But I did get thru it, and I am a reasonably happy person today and look back on that time as a dark period of my life that I hope I never go thru again.

[right way right]

I just posted those words of Jesus to you.
Yet, I still do have a constant struggle with depression, I don’t want to appear otherwise.
I could use those puppys and kittens.
Those words keep me going.

[murron]

One thing I will add to my previous comment. During my days of depression, I never turned away from God. I still attended Mass and prayed a lot. I believe that’s what got me thru this. I never once contemplated suicide because I believed that Got would get me thru this and He did.

[gg188]

What if that puts you on “the list”? NSA or whatever. They come get your gvns? Can’t purchase? Is it worth it? Get help but also lose that right? This is a serious question.

[ozzymandus]

Prozac saved my life, no matter what sceptics say. When someone would ask me “What have you got to be depressed about?”, or “Why don’t you just snap out of it?”, I’d say “You couldn’t handle it.” Nobody can understand depression if they haven’t been there. Sometimes I wish the holier-than-thou types could spend a week in the hell I lived in for a year.

[eccentric]

I’ve never understood why depressed people would stop taking their meds. I’ve been on anti-depressants for nearly 20 years. They aren’t perfect but I hated how I was without them.

[ozzymandus]

+1. Ignorance is bliss.

[central_va]

I’ve heard people complain about the jitters on Prozac and Zoeloft.

[ozzymandus]

I agree completely. One reason I suffered so long was that my GP was reluctant to prescribe a large enough dose of anti-depressants. The psychiatrist told me to take the maximum dosage, and within a couple of days I began to feel much better. After I recovered, I was able to cut back to a lesser dosage for maintenance.