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.
I posted in another group about particular life issues going on and everyone is all "you can help yourself" "do this or that" like I haven't looked at my options. Everyone thinks everything can be fixed or will get better. If I've learned anything in my 26 years its that life doesn't get better for everyone. Not everything is temporary. Suicide happens for a reason.
Getting on and staying on medication is number one determiner of if a person can find a way through.
The second most important thing is to simply walk away from the mal-adaptive situations depressed people find themselves in. That's hard to do. You think the cheating spouse or the disrespectful parent is your rock or the only one holding things together when they are the very thing keeping you down. Under the cloud of depression, it's easy to get confused and hard to know who to trust.
The third most important step is to do what's so hard that it seems impossible. Do it and keep doing, until it becomes second nature to you. Go out every morning for a run or walk. Stop by a coffee shop or shop for fresh vegetables. Push and force yourself to make incremental progress. Take a chance and talk to that stranger. You may never see them again or they might turn out to be your best friend. If you don't speak, you'll never know! These are the way's people dig themselves out and find happiness.
All of that is contingent upon you understanding that every single person in the world matters, and that includes YOU. You have the right to respect, happiness, a safe warm place to lay your head at night, and fierce friends who always have your back. You're a good person on the inside and you deserve to feel better!
You also have the ability to make that happen for yourself. Even if you have start all alone, living in a homeless shelter, you can make it happen one step at a time, just by building one tiny success upon another. I know, because I did it!
But I couldn't be happier I was alive today.
My 15 year old friend had just turned 16 and he killed himself last week. He was going to be a leader, and was destined to succeed. But he cut his life short.
There is no doubt in my mind it was an impulsive mistake.
90%of suicides are instant regrets that can't be turned back.
You can do this, but not on your own. You're right. People like me, or a professional counselor CAN help.
I've been where you are. I'm here for you. Message me if you need anything
There's not been one point in my life where I was truly happy and not dealing with some kind of hardship. Addict parents, violence at home, sexual abuse. Homeless and on my own at 18 because I refused to give my parents drug money. Married young, dealing with infertility and multiple miscarriages, and a cheating spouse for 7+ years now. I can't have kids, I am not close to the few relatives I have that are still alive, and I have no friends. And at this point, I don't have my marriage either. If I move out of the house my husband and I share, I will be homeless. And there is nothing for me to look forward to except loneliness and grief. I fought hard to get on my feet after being homeless. I fought hard to have the family I dreamed of. I fought hard to try to fix my marriage. Sometimes fighting isn't enough, even if you do everything in your power. Sometimes misery is not temporary.
Life sucks. Take a walk, drink a tea, watch a movie - it's probably still going to suck after too. I've taken a thousand walks and drank all the fancy teas and seen every interesting documentary there is and I can tell you it doesn't pretty much nothing but distract you for ten minutes so the immediate feeling of "I will die right now" passes to a "I want to die right now" to a "I'm just kind of thinking about dieing right now". You're going to spend a lot of time tricking yourself and filling your time with "busy-work" and hopefully you'll eventually trick yourself long enough or find a "break" in the busy-work and something will change.
It's very easy for someone who's depressed about their cat dieing or not passing a test or not being able to go home for Xmas to say "just take a walk". You cannot "take a walk" from an abusive or traumatic situation. In fact, as you walk, you may carry the trauma still from those situations. So do whatever you want to do. If you want to lay in bed today, lay in bed. If you want to hang out at the park for five hours away from the d-bag you live with, do it. It might not be fixed, it might not get better but the only think you can know for sure is that you don't know. You just don't know. You cannot say. It coul be 37 years of the worst and 25 years of the best. You don't know. I have a fear of the unknown and I think I am more fearful of the unknown of what could have been vs the unknown of death. Maybe your favourite band puts out a really great album. Maybe you get a chance to climb the Rocky Mountains. Maybe you get to eat escargot shipped from France. Wear a 24k diamond necklace. You don't know! I don't know! I think there is as much probability in one year's time of me being a homeless depressed mentally ill person as there is of me pretending to be apart of someone's family to fill a void which may or may not allow me other opportunities like visiting a museum I didn't get to see or go somewhere I wouldn't have been able to on my own.
Life is still not easy for me and sometimes it’s so hard that bitterness and resentment sets in. But with Jesus walking with me, taking my hand, the burden is lighter. He did not promise a trouble free life but He did promised the burden will be lighter. I hope you are living near a church. Do sit in for a sermon or two and see how you feel. Praying for you. God bless!