Depression Support Group
Depression is a real and debilitating condition that is often misunderstood by family and friends. Its meaning can range from a prolonged period of sadness to an actual mental illness with specific symptoms. Find and share experiences with others who are going through the same struggles.
Hey everyone. I'm Hope and I'm new. I just recently got out of a psychiactric hospital after a stay of three weeks. I've been depressed for about a year now and I've been dealing with anxiety for about six years. The depression started after my parents divorced. I was very close to my mother, as a caregiver because she has Lupus, and she cheated on my dad and left. As a Daddy's Girl, it was hard watching him go through it. And as a daughter that had put her life on hold for her mother to just up and leave so easily, it hurt. I've never been one to express my emotions. I've been supressing feelings for about thirteen years now and it has been taking a toll on me. I'm hoping these support groups will help me grieve over the divorce and learn how to process my emotions and not bottle them up.
Getting them out of the bottle may be difficult, but it is doable.
One key I have found is to give yourself permission to do it! You might find yourself saying things that you feel you should be ashamed of.
Forgive yourself!
I was stressed out over my dad's very slow recovery from surgery. (He died about a month after the surgery) One day I was screaming inside me that I wished he would just die and get it over. Since then I've learned that I'm not the only adult child who felt that way, and it helped me deal with things.
And I forgave myself for thinking like that.
There is a post here from Thumpa where she talks about missing who she thought her parents were. Or perhaps who she thought they should have been. Here case is quite extreme, but the emotions are there. The cause is different, but the emotions are very much the same: mourning the relationships that should have been.