A Little Bit About Living With Depression

This will be a short post, but I think it is a useful one for helping people truly understand what it is like to live with depression. Also, you'll get a little glimpse into my personal struggle and why I decided to start this website.

You can look like the happiest person ever, but still be suffering from depression. You can even feel like the happiest person ever and still suffer from depression. It’s been about 10 years since I was diagnosed as manic depressive and most days, I don’t feel like I have depression anymore. But here’s the thing I’ve learned, it never really goes away. Yeah, I’m happy, for the most part and I usually look forward to every day, but then out of nowhere my depression comes crashing back into my life like a tsunami hitting the shore. It doesn’t even really have any type of trigger or warning notice, it’s just all of sudden there again. It makes me not want to leave my bed or my house, it makes me think that people I know love and care about me, don’t anymore. Sometimes, it just lingers there in the back of my brain, waiting to sneak back in. This is what I think a lot of people don’t realize or know, that even that person you think is always happy / always smiling can be struggling to get through their day. So, just remember to be kind to people, treat them the way you want to be treated on your worst day (hell, even your best day) because you have absolutely no idea what’s going on in their life or their head. Kindness goes so much further than you can ever imagine and it’s so easy to be kind. Smile at a stranger today, give them a compliment, tell them to have a great day. Tell your friends / family members that you love them, you support them, and you’re proud of them. There’s too much pain and hatred in this world to be an ugly, mean person.