Dealing with Depression
This series is a collection of personal anecdotes about depression and how to deal with it. I’ve included tips and tricks to help manage your feelings and some funny stories about myself.
Update: Check out Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4 on KnowledgeBottle. Submit your own scribbles about productivity, mindfulness or life.
Part 1
So, one of my good friends got me into speaking out about how I deal with depression, literally. For years I’ve been keeping a journal where I would vent and describe in as many details as possible how I felt in various situations but also how I dealt with those situations and what helped. Recently, I’ve actually started recording my experiences and re-listening to them from time to time. I decided to write a series of articles based on my personal experiences that they may help others who are battling depression or anxiety.
I’d like to start by making a disclaimer: I am by no means a doctor, therapist or any type of authority on the subject so what I wrote here is strictly my experience and my way of dealing with things. I strongly encourage anyone who’s facing this type of feelings to seek appropriate help and reach out to their family or friends.
In order for this series to make sense, I guess I should start by defining what depression is. For me, it’s a state of deep sadness that occurs every now and then and manifests through various physical and mental sensations, most of them not great, obviously. Sometimes it feels like I’m just a little bit tired, other times it feels like I don’t deserve the life I have or that I am imagining my problems or even that I am not worthy of living. Depression takes various shapes and sizes for each person. The way it manifests is wildly different because we are wildly different individuals. Our experiences, lives, family, and friends make us perceive emotions in a unique way. But in addition to the social context, there’s also a chemical component to it all. And just so that everyone’s clear, I’m referring here to the chemistry of the brain. Since you’re reading this on Medium, I’m guessing you’re more than capable of conducting your own research on the subject.
One of the things I’ve struggled with the most is accepting that depression is a part of me that’s not necessarily bad. And by now I figured this is not a particularly popular opinion, based solely on the considerable number of self-help books, articles, vlogs etc. that condemn depression and label depressed people as diseased. Whenever I hear people talk about positivity, mindfulness and other such fancy buzzwords it makes me wanna hit a millennial. Happiness is overrated, Y’all. Ironically, what the majority of people fail to do is focus on the positive aspects of depression. Let me elaborate on that.
I’ve been a sensitive person all my life. I’m the kind of gal that would sit in the most neutral corner of the classroom, virtually invisible to peers and professors. Later throughout college, I got to meet some interesting people that helped me explore both my good and bad sides and eventually I got a job that allowed me to find some balance between personal and professional life. So how does depression fit into all that? Depression forced me to take time to myself. It pushed me to focus my attention on me. It fed my need to always improve myself and it made me particularly empathetic. I’m a good people manager now because I have a better understanding of what other people feel. It made me patient, resilient, calculated. And for those of you wondering how on earth does depression affect your strategic thinking give some thought to all the excuses you’ve come up with to NOT go out with your friends on weekends. All in all, depression makes me feel special, different. And who would want to give that up?
I hope you enjoy the read and find the suggestions useful. If not, you’ll at least get the chance to laugh a little. Stay tuned and remember to stay positive! Just kidding :)
