1. I don’t want to hurt you
Sometimes we push people away – even people we love.
Depression is a very selfish illness and sometimes we push people away because we think we’re protecting them or because we have so much going on inside our mind. We have our own “little” fight with our thoughts.
2. We can’t just snap out of it.
For some people it’s hard to understand this, but we can’t just snap out of it – our depression. No matter how hard we try – we just can’t.
Depression feels like a constant battle and it’s exhausting.
It takes time.
3. There is not always a reason.
Depression can affect anyone and it’s an illness.
Depression doesn’t have to have a reason to take over your entire body, mind ect.
Sometimes it just show up and stay.
4. Depression and being sad are not the same thing.
Depression and sadness mean two different things.
Sadness is a normal emotion – If something bad happens you might feel sad for a while. But depression can last for weeks, months or even years.
Again – Depression is an illness and sadness is a normal emotion such as being happy.
5. Depression isn’t a choice.
We didn’t wake up one day and said “I want to be depressed.”
We don’t choose to have a low mood all the time. Depression is out of our hands and we can’t do anything to stop it happening to us.
We aren’t weak because we have depression – I actually think we’re strong because we have a fight with out thoughts every single day but we don’t give up.
6. We can feel like a burden and that we?re too much to deal with.
We can sometimes feel we’re too much to deal with.
This is when friends and family need to be compassionate and reassure we are not a burden to them. By letting us know we can talk to them about how we are feeling, we can gain a sense of safety and support around us.
We are not a burden – we have a burden and we need someone.
7. Achievements that you see as small are big to me.
Achieving goals that we set for ourself makes us feel proud.
Other people’s goals may be to get high grades or get a job but sometimes just getting out of bed or talk to someone about how we are feeling is a achievement.
Be proud of us.
These achievements bring us a step closer to recovery and some day we will be able to achieve bigger things, but for now it’s about achieving little things to give us that sense of accomplishment.
8. We can still have good days.
Yes, we can still have good days.
We can have days were we just lay in bed all day and do absolutely nothing. But we can have good days. Days were we can go out shopping with friends and have a smile on our face. Depression is a mixture of good and bad days.
9. We appreciate your kind words and how you’re trying to help.
We know it can be hard to know what to do to help us, but sometimes offering some kind words is enough. It can be hard for us to show feeling of gratefulness but the kindness shown really means a lot to us.
10. We’re tying our best to get through it.
Depression is something we have to work through. Recovery isn’t something you choose once – you have to choose it over and over again.
We can’t just let go and ignore the depression – it’s an illness and we need help.
Depression makes us feel isolated and lonely but having someone by our side makes us feel less alone.
Be patient, we try our best.
// Sarah Katrine
Instagram – Sarahkatrinekat
Youtube – https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRJ0yEwyfmdNc-JGYibXGVw
Mail – Sarahkatblog@gmail.com