Battling Depression

  Everyone struggles with something, whether it be mourning, physical fatigue, maybe school is stressing you out, but if you’re part of the majority you probably struggle with mental health, which includes battling depression. Saying that you are “battling depression” isn’t just figuratively, it’s quite literally always battling and fighting with your mind and body that feels like it’s always against you. Getting out of bed in the morning can be the biggest struggle for someone, cleaning your room, getting food in your stomach, these things can be easy for someone who doesn’t struggle with any mental health issues. To us, the people who are suffering, just getting out of bed can be the hardest thing you do for the day, and the hardest part of it all is that people just don’t understand why you feel the way you do. 

     Something some people fail to understand is that the littlest and easiest things for you can be the hardest and biggest thing to overcome for someone battling depression. Making yourself food becomes a chore, cleaning your room feels like the end of the world, doing the things you love the most becomes the things you resent and have no motivation to do. Depression is much more than just some temporary sadness, it’s severe emotions, emotions that feel stronger and more confusing than ever. You’ll often find yourself confusing yourself because you can’t quite comprehend what emotions you’re feeling or why you’re feeling them, and how to control them without feeling completely having to surrender to your emotions. Not knowing how to cope or help these emotions ease is scary because you are stuck feeling hopeless. 

     Depression isn’t something that comes alone, depression has friends, anxiety, eating disorders, feeling of being manic, all of these things are possible to have if you get diagnosed with depression. People don’t realize how exhausting it is to have depression, it is almost as if there’s constantly a lingering feeling of this heavyweight on your chest like you just can’t get up or get better. This is something that can’t be cured, it can’t be fixed permanently; depression is a chemical imbalance in your brain that can only be fixed with antidepressants, and even then that is a very temporary fix. To be diagnosed with depression is so hard to handle because like I said it’s a chemical imbalance in your brain, more people need to realize that depression affects people way more than what you can see on the surface. It’s a constant war in your body, making you lose love for things you used to, not wanting to eat or have the motivation to even get up to make food, isolating yourself from others, there are so many things some people just don’t take into consideration when becoming close with someone who deals with depression. 

     Getting better isn’t always easy, in fact, it’s not going to be easy but to pull yourself out of a depressive episode takes strength and determination to do. It isn’t easy realizing you need to reach out for help, getting help can be scary to do because of the negative outlook people have on people who struggle with mental illnesses. People think you’re faking it or it isn’t as bad as it seems, and trust me hearing that is crushing and so invalidating, but you’re valid and your mental health and feelings are valid and you have every right to express that in any way you need too. Help and support are there if you ever decide to come forward and let yourself get better, you just need to get rid of those toxic people in your life and surround yourself with loving people and happy people who bring you joy.