My Battle with Depression: One Person’s Story of Struggling and Surviving One day at a Time
Depression is a topic that isn’t often talked about, but it is something that many people struggle with. Depression can be looming over someone like a dark cloud, and it can be hard to outrun or hide from.
It’s like darkness is around every corner and no light is bright in any room.
For me, depression manifests itself as lost days where I can’t focus on anything and my mind just keeps shifting from one thing to another.
Recently, my doctor increased my meds and I’m finally reaching out for help. In this blog post, I want to share my story of struggling and surviving with depression in the hopes that it will help someone else who might be going through the same thing.
What is Depression?
Depression is more than just feeling sad. It’s a serious mental health condition that can have a profound effect on your life.
Depression can cause physical symptoms, too. It can make it hard to concentrate, sleep, eat, and enjoy the things you used to love. Depression can even lead to suicide.
“Depression is feeling like you’ve lost something but having no clue when or where you last had it. Then one day you realize what you lost is yourself.”
Symptoms of Depression:
- Feeling sad or empty most of the time
- Loss of interest in activities you used to enjoy
- Trouble sleeping or sleeping too much
- Difficulty concentrating or making decisions
- fatigue or low energy
- Changes in appetite, leading to weight loss or gain
- Feelings of worthlessness, helplessness, or hopelessness
- Thoughts of death or suicide
Depression is different for everyone, and it can be tough to understand if you haven’t experienced it yourself. But if you are struggling, know that you are not alone and there is help available.
If you think you might be depressed, the first step is to talk to your doctor. Depression is treatable, and the sooner you get help, the better. Depression is a serious condition, but it is also very treatable. With the right treatment, people with depression can feel better and function well in their daily lives.
“People who have never dealt with depression think it’s just being sad or being in a bad mood. That’s not what depression is for me; it’s falling into a state of grayness and numbness.” — Dan Reynolds, Imagine Dragons
Personal Story/issues
It’s hard to talk about it to the world of all the problems I’m going through. I’m not going to break them down in detail, but I’ll put them down in bullet points, cause you know how much I like them…
- Mother has Alzheimer’s Disease at a younger than normal age for this type of thing.
- My Father is an Alcoholic and chooses not to get help, very hard-headed. He isn’t physically abusive but is mentally to his family and my mother.
- I’m on my second marriage and that was a good thing, my first wife and I couldn’t get along at all. We tried counseling for two years before we ended it. The bad part of this is I have lost my daughter and I still get to see her every other week, but that is hard!
- My current wife and our son are the worlds to me, without them I would probably be in a worse situation with my depression.
- Our issue is like a lot of people, we have a mountain of debt and it feels like we don’t have a way out.
- Inflation is killing us just like any family in the US or across the world.
- Great job with Amazon as a Manger, but that puts a lot of stress on top of a lot of issues.
- Depression and anxiety are hurting my job, and my life and making me feel very lost.
- I love alcohol but have quit most of it, I still drink wine every few days. I had a lot of issues with it a few months back and my wife was threatening to leave me over it if I didn’t get it fixed. I did and don’t drink much anymore. Even though I think about it all the time, the taste, the way it made me feel after a few, it was high like a drug user might get.
Recap and understanding:
As you can tell, I know I have issues and a lot of them. That is why I went to my doctor yesterday and she increased my medication. That is why I have reached out to a hotline/app that my company provides to try to get professional help.
Depression is real, it’s not just feeling sad. Depression has caused me to lose focus at work and in my personal life. Depression has caused me to lose interest in activities I used to enjoy. (photography)
Depression has caused me to change my eating habits and my sleeping habits. Depression has made me feel worthless at times and very dark inside as I do now.
If you have any of these symptoms or feel like this, please seek help from a professional or even just talk to someone you trust. Depression is serious and can be deadly if not taken care of.
I’ll continue this story another day, but for now, this is all I can handle. Depression is hard to talk about, but it’s even harder to deal with day in and day out.
31 of 75 in the 10-day Challenge for Alzheimer’s Awareness.