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Val feels fine most of the time. But every now and then something will happen, however small or insignificant, that will push him off the cliff. The feeling can't be ignored, and it can't be rationalized away by telling one's self there's nothing to be upset about. Once you're there, you're there, and all you can do is ride it out until the end. It still surprises Val sometimes how quickly and unexpectedly this change can come about, how easily a good day can turn into a bad one. All it ever needs is a stimulus, and then it's there to stay for hours, days, sometimes even longer.

Who else here has the same problem, or anything similar? Do you have any common triggers? How do you cope?

This happens to me any time I mess, well, anything up. Although it's never stayed with me for more than a day.

As some of you might know we've been having a LOT of problems with this apartment. We didn't have a proper refrigerator for four months (though we each had a minifridge, and used the broken one as a freezer), and pretty much as soon as that got resolved (at the end of January) we started having problems with our hot water. COLD SHOWERS REALLY SUCK. SHOWERS THAT GET COLD AFTER THIRTY SECONDS OF LUKEWARM BLISS SUCK EVEN MORE. And there's also financial crap that, while not nearly as bad as it could be, was still stressful. Thursday I pretty much hit my breaking point. For basically no reason. Was a sobbing mess all day. But that's all I could do, cry it out.

So, yeah, there's my advice. Cry until you can't anymore. Failing that, I just do everything I can to distract myself until I'm in a better mental state to cope with whatever came up to cause me to freak out.

For me, it's more common at night. Does anyone else seem to have this happen to them?

I used to cope with entertainment and a healthy dose of denial when I was young. That did the trick nicely, and I'm paying the consequences for it now.

There's no duration for it, or time it starts, it's just omnipresent. The only solid reprieve is sleep, any other moments of "non-depression" are few and far between, fleeting, and I can always feel it nagging.

Well, sorry for being a downer, haha.

For a long time, it has been difficult for me to enjoy things like other people do. I have fun, I love drawing and playing video games, but they just don't give me the same feeling they used to when I was a kid. This feeling is usually present, and normally I feel unfulfilled and empty through the day. I try not to be. I don't know why I normally have such a difficult time feeling good or happy. I've tried so hard to fill that void with something. Sometimes I feel great for a while, and I think it's over, and then it comes again without warning nor reason. I think the worst of it is how alone I feel sometimes, despite that feeling being illogical. I know I have friends that'd help me and have my back (you guys are prime examples of that).

There's often not any triggers for this. It just happens and I don't know why. I assume that I'm depressed on a clinical level or something, but I've never been formally diagnosed.

I get the blues from time to time, part of the heritage i guess but i ride it out i know it something that happends to me and that it is usally over something (i usally think in hindsight) minor.

To fix it i usally try to do stuff i find fun to do, playing music playing games etc

I have bipolar disorder. My depressive periods tend to be patterned, though there's usually external circumstances that assist the **** feelings. Those same circumstances also tend to exist in my life in those times I'm not depressed, too...

By this point it shouldn't be too much of a surprise what my main coping methods are...

MDD sufferer here. I've recently started treatment of weekly counselling sessions and Mirtazapine. Thus far treatment is going well despite absurd side effects from the anti-depressants.

Generally speaking I have incredible difficulty coping with loss and change. My 'triggers' tend to be varied, very frequent ones are feelings of inadequacy when compared to my peers, thinking on 'how great everything was before x incident' and general existential crises's, by which I mean gripping with the knowledge that on a cosmic scale, I as an individual human will never amount to anything *seriously* worthwhile.

My coping mechanisms are the aforementioned anti-depressants, gaming, eating absurd amounts of my favourite food of the moment (currently watermelon) and simply trying to appreciate all the little things in life. I tend to realise the importance of the small things in life, such as food and drinks, family and friends and just the general beauty of the world around me towards the end of an Episode, in that regard, in a twisted, ironic sort of sense I'm quite thankful that I get to experience that realisation so often, it reminds me of how much we take for granted.

Depression sucks, but those moments where we can forget our brains' hate us makes it all worth it, in my eyes.

From my perspective, overcoming depression is a two-step process: 1) change of thought, and 2) acting based on that thought.

First, let's look at the change of thought. When the people I talk to experience depression, it's usually (but I guess not in every case) because they're a bit too concerned with something in their own lives, but they could be spending more time thinking about others. One of my favorite Biblical verses reads: "Choose you this day whom ye will serve." I love this because it doesn't have to apply exclusively to serving God vs. serving the devil. It can also apply to serving unselfish thoughts vs. selfish thoughts. So, basically, the first step to overcoming depression is to spend more time thinking about others and what you can do to make a difference in their lives. The joy received from self-indulgences is only temporary, but the joy you receive from giving joy is much more permanent.

Now, what do you do when you've changed this thought? I recommend your first baby step ought to be to find someone experiencing a personal problem of his own and working with that person to solve it. If that person says, "I don't want your help," think of ways you can gain that person's trust. In the end, you'll make that person feel happier, and you'll feel happier knowing you made a difference.

So, do you know anyone who might be in need of your support?

^ They're not talking about just being down, the discussion in this thread is mostly about clinical depression. I can explain this quite briefly being unpleasantly familiar with such ideas: any concern about other people tends to get swallowed up by feelings of actions being universally inconsequential and even positive results generating no positive emotion. Clinical depression isn't just the inability to feel happy, it's also largely absence of the ability to care or feel cared for, which isn't easily solved by telling someone to care or feel cared for.

lol @ pic

Uh. It doesn't work like that. I like to believe myself a charitable person when I can be, whilst I can be a huge ******* to some people, I do my best every day to be a good person, depression or no depression.

Depression is not simple. It's not something that can be cured by suddenly 'thinking differently.' Depression is having a normal day, until one little thought spirals off and becomes a massive web of personal weaknesses, fears, hatreds, self-loathing, disappointment, hopelessness. Depression is having a completely different mindset to a regular person, it's not being to to think in the same way as another. Depression is your brain specifically having low levels of chemicals in it, literally changing the way you are. Depression is being loved, but not feeling loved, or cared for. Depression is a complex disease and is different for everyone.

You cannot compare one person's depression to another persons, you cannot apply a mass fix to everyone. We are not the same computer program with a bug, a universal patch doesn't fix it. We have all had something happen to us, something significant enough to alter our frame of mind, sometimes there doesn't need to be this trigger that sets you down, sometimes you're just born that way. Fixing these problems requires more than goodwill and love for our fellow man. Fixing these problems require us to improve our state of mind, to be able to understand what it is that set us down this path, and how to get out of it. Everyone fights this differently. I use medication and therapy, some people take up exercise, others focus their energies and thoughts onto a hobby, or a creative pursuit. Even then, a lot of people never do truly leave depression behind them, it's something that very well may be always there.

I don't mean to be rude or dismissive Colonel KR, but depression is far more complex than you insinuate.[DOUBLEPOST=1399240703,1399240251][/DOUBLEPOST]double post:

[QUOTE="Random User, post: 1460835, member: 35827"]For a long time, it has been difficult for me to enjoy things like other people do. I have fun, I love drawing and playing video games, but they just don't give me the same feeling they used to when I was a kid. This feeling is usually present, and normally I feel unfulfilled and empty through the day. I try not to be. I don't know why I normally have such a difficult time feeling good or happy. I've tried so hard to fill that void with something. Sometimes I feel great for a while, and I think it's over, and then it comes again without warning nor reason. I think the worst of it is how alone I feel sometimes, despite that feeling being illogical. I know I have friends that'd help me and have my back (you guys are prime examples of that).

There's often not any triggers for this. It just happens and I don't know why. I assume that I'm depressed on a clinical level or something, but I've never been formally diagnosed.[/QUOTE]

RU, I'd really suggest talking to a doctor, a councillor, or anything. The most important thing with depression is learning how to manage it. If you get diagnosed, it becomes a lot easier to cope with. I went without any form of help for about two years or so, which resulted in a less than savoury lifestyle for myself. There are specialist treatments for the many different conditions in the depression-spectrum, don't make assumptions of what you think you may be dealing with and try to get help when you can.

[QUOTE="LASER BEAR ASSAULT UNIT, post: 1460989, member: 30168"]Fixing these problems require us to improve our state of mind, to be able to understand what it is that set us down this path, and how to get out of it.[/QUOTE]

I should've stopped it right there and not gone onto the second step, because that is the point I was trying to make: no depression is without cause, even if it seems that way sometimes.

Uh your 'first step' literally is about helping others. :P

I can't speak for everyone else, but changing my frame of mind wouldn't really help since a lot of my personal problems are also circumstantial, and most of the circumstances are unchangeable.

^^Maybe, but like you said, it's the frame of mind that counts. When I start thinking of others, I forget all about me and my woes. Depression itself is just so..."me"-centered. E.g., I am depressed. I can't change my life. I loathe myself.

Wouldn't it just be easier to not think about "me," even for a single moment?

^ "Even for a single moment?" What are you, a servebot?

That won't work.

[QUOTE="Colonel KR, post: 1461004, member: 38410"]^^Maybe, but like you said, it's the frame of mind that counts. When I start thinking of others, I forget all about me and my woes. Depression itself is just so..."me"-centered. E.g., I am depressed. I can't change my life. I loathe myself.

Wouldn't it just be easier to not think about "me," even for a single moment?[/QUOTE]

You're just being incredibly ignorant now and are you quite frankly offending me, and I am going to ask politely for you to stop.

Oh, no, not this again. I try to build on another guy's statement, and I rub somebody the wrong way.

You know what? You're right. I now accept that depression is often not something people can control. For some, it's just there for life, but in any case, go ahead and indulge yourself in whatever makes you happy, screw what other people think.

Where's TML when you need him?

Depends on the person's case. It's not always controllable. Some strong people with mild depression can probably control it with support, but not everyone has that. Some people are weak, and the depression is overpowering, and they have nobody and nothing but their problem. Surely you can comprehend this.