So to understand some parts of suffering I want to showcase you the major aspects between sadness and a depression:
I think the biggest difference between those are: Sadness is an emotion and depression is a mental illness. It’s very important to understand and separate these two things from each other because;
We all do feel sad sometimes, up and downs, that’s totally “normal”, but often your sadness will fade away after a time. While dealing with depression, there are a lot of symptoms you’ll be confronted with.
I remember how my depression was on it’s peak: I had absolutely no energy. I’ve done binge-eating, waking up in the morning was the most difficult thing ever, I was extremely fatigue – really no energy for nothing. Everything that brought me joy before, haven’t anymore. There was no joy, nothing to be happy for. It felt like there was nothing was worth living for, everything was just really, really dark. Also, my self-esteem was at it lowest. My Sleep was horrible, and I felt like a total mess. I have lost the hope that things will get better…
May I give you some typical symptoms:
- Feelings of helplessness and hopelessness
- Loss of interest in daily activities
- Appetite or weight changes
- Anger or irritability
- Loss of energy
- Concentration problems
- Unexplained aches and pains
- Lack of self-esteem
The problem with this illness is losing hope that things will get better. Having no energy in this period of time is awful, keeping your head up by yourself is really, really hard. Also, it’s very hard to be open with it as society won’t accept it. – Mental illness isn’t something you can see directly. Often if you’re open with it, people still will say stuff like: “you have everything, what should you be depressed about in your younger age” – try to ignore things like that, be around people where you feel safe with, try to be open about it even if people won’t accept or understand it. Most important, don’t give yourself up, search for help, figure out what you can do to help yourself as you know it the best.
What I’ve done to keep my own head up:
- Reading quotes – Tumblr is the best platform, it’s like a healing platform
- Meditation – As your brain is working 24/7, overthinking, making up things that won’t happen, meditation can help to calm your mind with the goal to think about NOTHING
- Being open with it
- Talking
- Searching for professional help
So what should you take with you with this post? Don’t give yourself up, search for help, understand the difference between emotions and illnesses! Emotions are fine, that’s you. Feeling down is okay, that’s you. Giving yourself up is not okay… never. Try to understand yourself more, experience yourself, figure out the triggers that make you feel some type of way and find a way to manage these emotions, so you can manage these situations better.
Cheers and take care! 🙂