Sometimes it feels that life is going really well. You feel fairly good about yourself. You have stopped beating yourself up about the things that you don’t get right and you might have started accepting yourself. Liking yourself even. Maybe your relationships are going quite well and even work doesn’t feel too bad. You seem to be able to do the things you want to and feel like you have some control over your life. And then one day you wake up and things feel so different. You notice tears rolling down your face. It’s hard to get up. You want the world to leave you alone. Out of nowhere. The sun doesn’t seem to shine so brightly. You look around and wonder what it’s all about. Worse still the people around you might be very unsympathetic. Not this again.
All I know is that this too will probably pass. But while you’re feeling like this it doesn’t seem like that. The symptoms and feelings commonly associated with depression include feeling tired, sleeping problems, loss of appetite, feeling like you’ve let yourself or other people down and/or difficulties in concentrating. If you think you are feeling depressed it might be helpful to talk to your GP and discuss the options available. Many people find antidepressant medication helps but many people don’t want to take medication. If that’s the case then counselling or CBT may be able to help you.
Unfortunately one of the problems with feeling depressed is a lack of motivation. It can feel like a huge step even to ring a therapist, let alone make an appointment. And it needs to be you that does this, not your worried partner or friend. Making that first contact is a really important first step in your recovery. Depression is often a relapsing condition. So even if you get past how you’re feeling now, it is possible that you may experience similar feelings in the future. Counselling and CBT can help you to look at the underlying issues and to develop some coping strategies to help you. Feeling depressed can be a very lonely experience. It doesn’t have to be.