Depression

Depression affects people in Australia every day. Share your own story and learn about other member’s experiences with depression.

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Jeriava How do I talk to my doctor?
  • replies: 9

I’ve been struggling with my life for the past 7-8 years but I finally made an appointment with a doctor. I feel really scared though because I don’t ever go to the doctor for anything, and I havent seen this doctor for so many years that I’m really ... View more

I’ve been struggling with my life for the past 7-8 years but I finally made an appointment with a doctor. I feel really scared though because I don’t ever go to the doctor for anything, and I havent seen this doctor for so many years that I’m really scared that they’ll judge me or won’t believe anything I say. I’m really anti social so I feel like I won’t be able to say what I wanna say or I’ll say the wrong thing causing them to just dismiss me and move me along without helping. I’m just tired of feeling alone, depressed and just worthless but I’m really scared to talk to them.

Chris_B Are you looking to support someone else with depression? PLEASE READ before posting
  • replies: 0

This forum is for people seeking support for their own mental health issues. If you're posting on behalf of someone else with a mental health issue that you're concerned about, please have a look at this section of our forums: Supporting family and f... View more

This forum is for people seeking support for their own mental health issues. If you're posting on behalf of someone else with a mental health issue that you're concerned about, please have a look at this section of our forums: Supporting family and friends with a mental health condition It's full of threads from people who have family members and friends going through anxiety, depression or other related conditions. Have a read through the threads there, and feel free to take part in the discussions. Below are also some helpful beyondblue resources you might want to look through first as well: Supporting someone Have the conversation

AGrace SELF HELP TIPS FOR MANAGING DEPRESSION
  • replies: 132

Hi Everyone, Here are some ideas you might like to try for managing symptoms of depression. Of course everyone's different, so let us know what works for you, and please feel free to add to the list... Mindfulness – through breathing or engaging the ... View more

Hi Everyone, Here are some ideas you might like to try for managing symptoms of depression. Of course everyone's different, so let us know what works for you, and please feel free to add to the list... Mindfulness – through breathing or engaging the 5 senses Distress Tolerance – Accepting Emotions and Self Soothing Distraction – Put the thoughts/feelings aside and come back to them when you are ready to deal with them Positive Affirmations – Have some affirmations written down repeat them to yourself daily Sleep/Exercise/Diet – All 3 aspects of our lifestyle can impact the way we think/feel Increasing Pleasurable Activities – Engage in at least one pleasurable activity per day

All discussions

ABC01 This morning and happy.
  • replies: 10

Dear all,This morning I woke up and was having my breakfast and I thought “I kind of feel happy right now”. And my mind hated it and the reaction was to immediately started sliding back into feeling bad again. I wasn’t feeling euphoric or positive ha... View more

Dear all,This morning I woke up and was having my breakfast and I thought “I kind of feel happy right now”. And my mind hated it and the reaction was to immediately started sliding back into feeling bad again. I wasn’t feeling euphoric or positive happy,I felt just normal. For about 20 minutes. I have been through alot in the last couple of months and depression has taken me into dark places and the majority of my days are depressed and wanting to sleep or cry. Why did I do that to myself? I deserve to feel even just a bit normal. Am I now so used to feel this way,that feeling normal is uncomfortable to be in. Or is it guilt ,blame or regret of some sort. Can anyone help? ABC01

RJM Dealing with anxiety and depression
  • replies: 3

Hi new here, need some assistance with my situation. I have communicated with my family and close mate about my feelings of depression and anxiety I currently going through for around 3 months(anxiety I've had for ages). They constantly reassure me t... View more

Hi new here, need some assistance with my situation. I have communicated with my family and close mate about my feelings of depression and anxiety I currently going through for around 3 months(anxiety I've had for ages). They constantly reassure me that everything will be better and you constantly gotta fight, keep myself busy and love yourself. After getting a gf for the first time. I have been getting really insecure and negative thoughts of her leaving flood my head. She's perfect and It feels like I nothing to offer her. Comparing both of us has made me self aware of the many flaws I deal with. I'm super quiet and it's hard for me to get along with other people may be for the chronic anxiety. If we were together far in the future I can't get along with her mates and or family. My life is also uninteresting in comparison. After the depression hit i have recognise many physical symptoms the constantly gets me worried. Stomach-ache, shakey hands and body when at the gym. It feels like everything is drag because I'm always tired. Cognitive decline such as its hard to multitask or keep up with a conversation. Biggest one of all is memory. I can't recall many long term and short term memories. I'm not sure if depression amplified my bad recall and forgetfulness or if i had it before already. It makes irriated because if I learn a new skill it will just vanish and happy memories that I create will go too. I try to take more pics to remember the happy times or anything at this point. but it gets sad then I need to repetitively do it. I'm dyslexic too, having reading and comprehension problems. I feel super dumb and slow. Usually when someone is quiet they think a lot but my head is empty with negative thoughts of myself. I don't want to die but want a restart in life with better stats ahaha sounds weird reading that back. Is my situation curable? Brain is filled with doubt and jumping into medication has got me scared, what if it doesn't help.

Guest_30323071 Unsure what to do,I pretty much have an ultimatum with my life
  • replies: 1

As stated in the title I have a ultimatum and that is too continue on to hide my pain/problem but have people who still care about me or get help with it and loose everyone who cares about me and be completely alone,this feeling is making me feel dep... View more

As stated in the title I have a ultimatum and that is too continue on to hide my pain/problem but have people who still care about me or get help with it and loose everyone who cares about me and be completely alone,this feeling is making me feel depressed and ill and having dark thoughts but I will never act on it,any help would be good thanks

ABC01 Routine, Direction & Purpose. Very Confused.
  • replies: 2

Dear All,I am having an extremely hard time these last few months. I lost someone in May and was diagnosed with anxiety, depression and trauma diagnoses. I have health professionals. I have been told by others that I appear lost and drifting through ... View more

Dear All,I am having an extremely hard time these last few months. I lost someone in May and was diagnosed with anxiety, depression and trauma diagnoses. I have health professionals. I have been told by others that I appear lost and drifting through these months. I am starting to agree now that has been pointed out to me. I have been trying to fill my days with a game that has objectives. But when I stop playing the game, everything floods back. If I go out to appointments, the same. All distractions eventually end, and all the feelings come back to me. I was at the shops today to go grocery shopping for a special reason I had forgotten about on my usual shopping day, and I looked around. My thoughts were, all these people woke up today and said they were coming to the shops for whatever reason. And they did. Then they are going to go home and do the next thing on their list/mind,and so on until the day finishes. Whether it is chores or relaxing to watch tv or youtube. And then they will do it again tomorrow. That is life. But it isn't questioned or reflected on every step. People just do it with ease. I have none of that. I generally wake up scared of a full day infront of me of nothing. Or if I manage to work something out, once I stop, I am going to go back to being scared. I go to bed being scared. My issues are being half addressed, as medication and stabilizing it is forefront at the moment. And my professionals are only once a fortnight to every three weeks. So my question is this....How do I find routine? How do I find direction? How do I find a purpose for myself? Are they in the right order? I want to be like everyone else I see. I want to have things to do without the distress attached to them. I want a life back. I had a life before I lost them. I need to have a life again. Routine means to me: A group of activities I engage in, generally done in the same way in a pattern. Routines can be daily or weekly/fortnightly.Direction means to me: A specific way things are done to achieve something or a goal. It is to get me somewhere.Purpose means to me: A reason for my life. A reason I am alive. Can anyone give me some insight into that. Whether the definitions are right. Have you been there before(lost) and managed to come back. Thankyou for listening and providing any advice.ABC01

indigo22 Following the breadcrumbs to improve mental health
  • replies: 43

Hi everyone, The last few months have been somewhat confusing as I have discovered more about my mental / physical health and how it has all been connected. I had not put the pieces together, I am not sure why, it seems so obvious now. I have dealt w... View more

Hi everyone, The last few months have been somewhat confusing as I have discovered more about my mental / physical health and how it has all been connected. I had not put the pieces together, I am not sure why, it seems so obvious now. I have dealt with Dysthymia since about 12 and Major Depression since about 14 but was not diagnosed until my 40s and had no idea that had been the problem all along. I knew I wasn't like everyone else but thought I was just born that way. Back then mental health was not a subject that was openly discussed and the signs mostly went unrecognised and untreated. I had about 10 years of talk therapy with a social worker that helped immensely. I have had a sensitive digestive system for a good portion of my life, not so much that I sought treatment, just things like indigestion with certain foods, bloating and the like. I suppose I thought everyone had those types of issues. I have also had nervous system reactions over the past 15 years, like involuntary shaking in certain situations, that I had put down to getting older and being less resilient having been through a lot of difficult challenges. I have been seeing a psychotherapist who also does somatic work (turns out you were right mmmekitty, I did need some more help). The first session of somatic work, in this case EFT (tapping), brought up a deep and long standing belief that I did not deserve to be helped. The emotions were buried so deep that I was not even aware of them. After that session things went haywire physically for a few days and took some weeks to start to settle. Being the type of person who needs to have an understanding of what is happening and why, I have been reading many books on the symptoms I have had. That is when I began to join the dots about how interconnected by mental and physical health actually were. It has required a lot of processing on my part, and an acknowledgement of what I have been consciously unaware of, but it has been necessary to finding a way forward. This will be an ongoing journey as new symptoms show up that need to be looked at. I know now that there is a lot of unreleased trauma in my body that is a contributing factor in not healing mentally or physically and I know now what needs to be done to improve. There is only so much that the medical profession can do, I believe the rest of the responsibility lies with us in digging deeper to find the causes and the answers. In many ways, that in itself becomes empowering. Take care all.indigo

Thisgirl92 Feeling lost
  • replies: 2

Hello, This year has been nothing short of a life change.. both good and bad. I seem to be losing more and more of my friends, not able to trust family members and a bit at war with myself. I just need to chat to someone who isn’t judgemental and hel... View more

Hello, This year has been nothing short of a life change.. both good and bad. I seem to be losing more and more of my friends, not able to trust family members and a bit at war with myself. I just need to chat to someone who isn’t judgemental and help me find ways to push through

MJD Anxiety, depression and suicidal thoughts
  • replies: 5

Come here to talk about anything, even self harm. Everything is confidential. Even if you say something about self harm...

Come here to talk about anything, even self harm. Everything is confidential. Even if you say something about self harm...

ReverseInertia Feeling lost, hopeless and not sure how to change
  • replies: 1

I'm 34m, I live alone and haven't really got any friends to speak of. I've never been 'popular' but I did have friends growing up and never really had any issues talking to anyone and making new friends. Unfortunately even back then, my lovelife was ... View more

I'm 34m, I live alone and haven't really got any friends to speak of. I've never been 'popular' but I did have friends growing up and never really had any issues talking to anyone and making new friends. Unfortunately even back then, my lovelife was non-existent. I've never been in a relationship, had anyone show any interest and several times in my youth that I did try to ask someone out, I wasn't just rejected but I laughed at and/publicly humiliated. Eventually, that lead me to re-evaluate a lot of things in my life and cut-off ties with my previous friends (a number of long stories but basically I realised I was just being used and laughed at, they were directly responsible for the humiliation mentioned above for example, I'd just grown to accept it because I wanted friends). Since then though, I've found it increasingly difficult to even start conversations with people. I don't feel anxiety about it as such, it's just like I don't even know what to do or say anymore, my mind goes completely blank after "Hi, how are you?" It's made me feel more and more lonely over the years and really hit hard just recently; I went to a social event that I'd been looking forward to and ended up spending the entire night basically walking backwards and forwards through the room and occasionally getting another drink as I struggled (and failed) to even find an opening to talk to anyone. Similarly I just started a new course, almost no one knows each other and I thought it would be a good opportunity, after several days though, friend groups are forming together and I'm once again on my own already.. I don't blame anyone else and know it's something I need to do but at this point, I don't even know what to do. I admittedly pulled myself out of an unhealthy situation due to my hopes of a more personal, romantic connection and instead I've just ended up further away than I was before - while the constant rejections used to hurt, now I don't even know how to get as far as asking. I've tried dating apps on-and-off over the years too but, I'm not exactly a model and haven't had any luck. I'm sorry if this all ends up a bit long and messy, and I know that many might think romantic relationships and/or friendships aren't that important, but after feeling like there's an an emptiness inside for so long, one that seems to disappear in the brief moments of friendly conversation with people, those things are all I can really think about.

Guest_29167713 Like a bomb
  • replies: 2

Hi I’ve had depression for many yrs and find that certain areas will trigger it . Which why I’ve moved a number of times but since this rental crisis. I had a server breakdown and hit my head on a wall which I had no control over and couldn’t stop . ... View more

Hi I’ve had depression for many yrs and find that certain areas will trigger it . Which why I’ve moved a number of times but since this rental crisis. I had a server breakdown and hit my head on a wall which I had no control over and couldn’t stop . Between being overwhelmed and worried about being homeless to my young child refusing to go to school due to ongoing bullying she had . To then moving in with my son and his fiancé . Since then we have dealt with a lot that’s triggered my depression and my anxiety to extreme due to emotional abuse /mental . No matter what I do it’s not enough it seems or good enough. We need our own place but I cannot get help as I have no car and isolated . My son fiance has been rude towards us and for two days pulling my grandson away from me mostly . She did it tonight again when my son got home from work and he said nothing . I don’t have anyone to vent all and get support from and I’m so angry at the same time . Not just about how I’m or we are treated but due to my youngest diagnosis and lack of support for her and she had health issues. I cannot fix one thing or fill my cup up . My son puts pressure on me despite conversation and explaining how things are etc . We need help

Guest_36180740 I’m not okay
  • replies: 3

I’m not okay, I don’t know what to do, I feel like everyone hates me and I don’t know how to tell my parents, I’m only young so I don’t know why I feel this way and I’m an overthinker with vulnerable parents because my mother has asthma and smokes so... View more

I’m not okay, I don’t know what to do, I feel like everyone hates me and I don’t know how to tell my parents, I’m only young so I don’t know why I feel this way and I’m an overthinker with vulnerable parents because my mother has asthma and smokes so it’s hard and my father has diabetes and eye problems, I’m scared and don’t know how to handle this. I also get bullied for autism.