Depression and stress

[Kate]

Ash, thank you for the encouraging words.. I suppose it just strikes me so harshly now because I've never been this badly depressed before. Then again, everything seems extreme when you're a teenager, I think.

This too shall pass.

*smile* It better.

-K

 

[Ash]

Ash, thank you for the encouraging words.. I suppose it just strikes me so harshly now because I've never been this badly depressed before.

You need to encourage yourself! Depression can do weird things to your head. I understand how skewed thinking can become and how things look different than they really are.

Then again, everything seems extreme when you're a teenager, I think.

LOL You might have something there.

This too shall pass.

*smile* It better.

Oh, it does. I promise you that. It might not be today or tomorrow but things do get better! One of my biggest challenges was to understand that depression is something I go through, it's not something I am. Nothing lasts forever, good or bad. Knowing that has helped me tremendously through those dark times when I didn't think I could go on.

 

[Cat Dancer]

You need to encourage yourself! Depression can do weird things to your head. I understand how skewed thinking can become and how things look different than they really are.

So true!

One of my biggest challenges was to understand that depression is something I go through, it's not something I am. Nothing lasts forever, good or bad. Knowing that has helped me tremendously through those dark times when I didn't think I could go on.

Very wise advice.

 

[David Baxter PhD]

One of my biggest challenges was to understand that depression is something I go through, it's not something I am.

I say something similar to depressed clients: When you feel you are slipping into depression, you may feel as if you are hovering on the edge of a pit... and you are terrified you will fall in and never be able to climb out again. But in fact depression isn't a pit at all... it's more like a dark tunnel through which you travel until you emerge out the other end into sunlight again.

It took me a while to uinderstand this for myself but once I did it felt like a kind of freedom...

 

[^^Phoenix^^]

David

Your post is very true, and a loverly way to look at the cruel cycle of depression. Because we do eventually get through it. It may take ages, and we may need help from lots of people and things. I guess it is just so hard to see that there is a bright side when all that is infront of you is darkness.

Robs

 

[Ash]

Yes. And I also believe that whatever doesn't kill us, makes us stronger. A big factor in being able to look at depression this way is that you must SEE what is going on with yourself. It can take awhile to get to the point where you're aware of your moods. Catching it quick is not always easy, but very important.

 

[Nutmeg]

Hi Kate,

I'm a new member and just read your original post. I wonder what you heard from Harvard? Good news, I hope.

I was very moved by your post(s). You have so much talent, intelligence, discipline, humor, warmth, sensitivity, everything that is interesting and makes a person likeable and a good conversationalist. I was sad that you are a teenager stuck in the grim confines of adolescent peer-pressure. When you're an adult (I am 47- ack), you won't have to worry about that and your life will be a lot easier. Unfortunately you have to pass through the doldrums and asininities of high school which may seem unending right now.

What you wrote about your parents (esp. mother) particularly moved me. I was so saddened at how your parents are so unconnected and detached from their beautiful, intelligent, amazing daughter. If you were my daughter I would be thanking heaven every day for such a prize. They are taking you for granted and not helping you through these difficult years. My parents didn't either. I got the platitudes and criticisms. The only difference was that I became so hostile and angry that they SENT me to a psychotherapist. I was incredibly ashamed/embarrassed by this. But it started me on a path of getting better. Too bad they didn't see shrinks, themselves...

Anyway, I could give you advice about dropping the extracurriculars because *everyone is replaceable* (yes, it's true), and these activities wouldn't fold/die without you. If you could singlehandedly cause their collapse, then they shouldn't be existant anyway. But I think advice is a bit useless to you. You probably just need someone to hear you and see who you really are. If I could try to do that through this medium, I will.

Nutmeg