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Depression Real Stories

Depression: Real Stories


Real stories are personal stories shared by members of the DIYHealth community. These are stories of hope and triumph over a medical condition, inspiring us to stay the course.

Top Real Stories

1. Life is hard

I have grown old with depression and still continue to live with it each day. When I was 11 my mother was diagnosed with schizophrenia and I spent my childhood in various hospital wards in different parts of the country. In those days the treatment my mother was put through was horrific and I still remember shouting at nurses โ€œyou canโ€™t do that to my motherโ€. I grew up and got married, which brought a temporary phase of respite in my life, but soon depression re appeared with the discovery that my husband was bi polar. I would stay in bed all day long and smoke two packs of cigarette a day and sometimes even three. My family was objective and supportive and they would never pity me or insult me. They accepted my vulnerability and gave me as much love as possible. I decided I would never use anti depressants; instead I decided to use their love as a healing power. I am 75 now and till date whenever there are symptoms of depression, I simply look at the smiling faces of my children and my grandchildren; thatโ€™s my medicine.ย 

2. Revelations

It all started with insomnia; I would go to bed at 10 and wouldnโ€™t sleep until 3 or 4 oโ€™clock in the morning. All the time I would be awake I would suffer from extreme anxiety and feel deprived and lonely. I lost weight constantly and the biggest challenge I faced was accepting that something was wrong with me. In my country males are ideally supposed to be the strong silent types and I guess this ran in my blood too. I could not look up to my family for solution, but a friend of mine told me to snap it out of me and took me for a workshop organized for helping the depressed. Attending it I realized that counseling would help me more objectively than any help from my personal relations as it will remain indifferent to my history. I joined a menโ€™s group and it became my โ€œcontainer of safetyโ€. I was healed and was able to fight two diseases; first depression and the second were the illogical male instincts that kept me from admitting.ย 

3. Never give up

My story of depression started when my son was diagnosed with obstructive apnea, which meant he would run out of breadth many times every night. His condition kept me up late and then I had my daughter too whom I had to look after. To make things worse, my husband was bi polar, he would like a thing today and the next day he would disgust the same thing. He eventually committed suicide, unable to handle his own condition. Depression was but the most likely thing to strike a woman taking this all. I was strong and one good thing about me is that I never shy from asking for help. This time too I went out seeking help from doctors and therapists. All the time I kept writing a diary and recorded all my feelings and also I started a new exercise of motivating myself through writing. Repeatedly I used to write in my dairy โ€œthere are no quick fixes and I am not saying itโ€™s easy but there is light even when you canโ€™t see the light it is thereโ€. These lines hang in bold letters on the walls of each room in my house even to this day and help me restore my strength every time I am low.ย 

4. Life doesnโ€™t have to be this hard

I am Lisaย and I have a strange tendency of catastrophising the worst that can happen to things and also in a constant habit of taking up other peopleโ€™s emotional crises. These two faithful companions of mine held my hand and lead me to the dark street of depression. I became a workaholic and completely stopped socializing and when I tried I failed miserably. At night I would virtually keep walking to bring an end to my nightmares. Finally my sister, who witnessed my condition, took me to a sleep specialist who initially put me on anti depressant drugs. Fortunately he was not only a doctor, but he was healer too and one day he said โ€œLife doesnโ€™t have to be this hardโ€. These lines struck a strange cord inside me and all I know is that from that moment onwards I was a new person.ย 

5. My mother became my strength

After suffering a miscarriage, finding that my husband had been unfaithful for years and watching my parents drifting away in old age, made me depressed. My family tradition of getting up and walking on no matter what seemed to be a distant reality for me. I just felt blue and always thought a black shadow was hanging over me. I started avoiding everyone and one day the ice broke; I locked myself in my nephewโ€™s room, broke things, growled and cried and begged for help. It was my mother who calmed me down, took me for counseling and medical checkups. I was put on medication, but it was love that I needed more than medicines. My mother understood this and she started taking me for walks every evening, chatting about things, joking and laughing. It was her strength that inspired me and one evening I declared that โ€œI think it is a re beginning and Iโ€™m on a new journeyโ€.ย 

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