Depression

I’m gonna be honest. When I heard about people having depression, I used to think, “They can just be happy; it doesn’t seem that bad. They need to just leave whatever is making them not happy.” I now know that it’s not easy; it’s actually a lot to go through. You can’t just tell yourself, “You’ll be fine.” You can’t just talk about what you’re going through and it will stop. You try to keep pushing through, and you try your best to remove yourself from whatever is putting you in depression. However, that may only help so much. For me, I had to remove it from my life and find the opposite of what gave me depression. To stop my depression, I had to change everything I was used to. I had to give up seeing my best friend daily because it was necessary for me to change schools. I had to give up my opportunity to compete at state track (I’d been training for this opportunity ever since I failed to qualify last season) because I’m ineligible for varsity level sports since I transferred schools. It was hard, but I knew that I had to end what was causing me to be depressed because my life depended on me making that change.  

Thankfully, I can truly say I did! I’m honestly happy at my new school and LOVE it! Talking about what was giving you depression doesn’t make it go away, but it does help knowing that people care about you. It’s still hard to talk about it all, especially when you hear that people downplay everything you went through, but it’s easier when you know that there are those that support you. 

So, if you know someone that may be going through depression, I encourage you to tell them how much they mean to you and that you love them. NEVER judge someone who is or has gone through depression because you probably don’t know how much they’ve gone through. Even if they have talked to you about what they are going through and you think it doesn’t sound that bad, it doesn’t mean it’s not. Please, please, please don’t tell them that it can’t be that bad and they’re just making a big deal out of it. I have had people tell me, “You’re making a big deal out of nothing” and “I’m just now hearing about it, so it wasn’t that bad.” Unfortunately, I had even more than just that said to me and to my siblings and parents, but that’s what I heard the most. It was hard to fight my depression and draw attention to it. It was hard to fight a system stacked against me to help make that changes necessary to overcome depression and hard to leave the few things that did give me joy. And it is hard to know people think you’re just overreacting, but like I said, it has been easier because of the few that were always willing to listen and support. So, if you’re going through depression, don’t give up and do keeping fighting. And if you ever need someone to talk to or just to know you’re not alone,  I’m always here to listen and let you know that you have someone that cares!

– Josephine