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BeyondBlue Hello! Read this if you're not sure how to get started
  • replies: 0

Welcome This section of the Beyond Blue Forums is for talking about our experiences with depression. There are lots of chats about how it makes us feel, what it’s like to live with depression and what has worked to help in these times. Thank you for ... View more

Welcome This section of the Beyond Blue Forums is for talking about our experiences with depression. There are lots of chats about how it makes us feel, what it’s like to live with depression and what has worked to help in these times. Thank you for coming this far, we know it can be really hard to take these steps if depression is in your life - we see you and think this is a great step. To get the most out of this space we have a few tips: Get involved. The Forums work best for you when you get active and post where you can. Now, we know that can be really hard, especially when you are experiencing depression. So, if you can post something supportive to someone else here, that would be an incredible start. Speak from the heart. This community wants to know how YOU feel and what has worked for YOU. We trust that you have something unique to say and we can’t wait to hear it. Check in. Lots of the discussions in this section of the Forums have been going for years and they are some of the richest conversations we have. Keep checking in to get new ideas and offer your support. We know it can be tough to start, but when you are ready we want to hear your thoughts. If you need some time to get to know the community, that's okay! Have a look around and see where you want to get involved. Thank you for being here! Beyond Blue

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.

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

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NicolaA Supporting my kids when I’m depressed
  • replies: 2

How can I support my kids - one with BPD, depression, ptsd, and body dysphoria and one with Social Anxiety - when I’m clinically depressed myself?

How can I support my kids - one with BPD, depression, ptsd, and body dysphoria and one with Social Anxiety - when I’m clinically depressed myself?

Wondrous How do you do it
  • replies: 5

I want to know HOW do you get better. I know what to do to get better. I know that I need to eat well and regularly, I know that I need to exercise and get out in the sun and fresh air. I know that I should journal or meditate or read or find a hobby... View more

I want to know HOW do you get better. I know what to do to get better. I know that I need to eat well and regularly, I know that I need to exercise and get out in the sun and fresh air. I know that I should journal or meditate or read or find a hobby. I know that I should get off my phone and social media. I know I should socialise. I know I should be mindful and positive. I know that I should clean and organise because living in a clean and organised house makes me feel calm. I know that I should shower and look after myself properly, I should take the time to dress nice and put myself together so I feel put together. I know all this. I know that I should take it slow and allow myself grace when it doesn't go as planned and I should not expect too much of myself all at once. I know this. Im not asking WHAT I need to do. Im asking HOW do I do it. HOW do I get out of bed and into the shower? HOW do I find the energy to make myself breakfast and then go for a walk? HOW do I put into practice the things I know I need to do? I am unable to keep living the way I am but I am also unable to do anything about it. I always just end up back in bed after doing the absolute bare minimum required of me.

Lonely91 How did I get here
  • replies: 2

I’m normally a bubbly, lively person with so much energy and enthusiasm but the last few years have sucked that out of me. On the outside, people think I’m ok but on the inside I’m falling apart. I’m always tired and constantly so sad. I’ve been knoc... View more

I’m normally a bubbly, lively person with so much energy and enthusiasm but the last few years have sucked that out of me. On the outside, people think I’m ok but on the inside I’m falling apart. I’m always tired and constantly so sad. I’ve been knocked back too many times. I have no job satisfaction. I have financial stress and live on my own. I am so lonely and I feel the loneliness every single night. I struggle to get quality sleep or even sleep at a reasonable time. My relationship with my parents is not great at all. My mother is a narcissist and has affected me in so many ways. I am not me and I haven’t been me in a very long time. I have had so many breakdowns and feel like such a burden. I feel like hiding or running away. I just want to disappear sometimes. I need to find a way to get through this because it is draining me.

user-beyondblue_forum Bipolar- hating my job and not being supported at work
  • replies: 9

Hi everyone, I just feel so trapped and depressed. I hate my job and I've applied for so many new ones but never get them. My job makes me highly irritable, flat and upset and takes the happiness and energy out of me and I hate it! I am on the disabi... View more

Hi everyone, I just feel so trapped and depressed. I hate my job and I've applied for so many new ones but never get them. My job makes me highly irritable, flat and upset and takes the happiness and energy out of me and I hate it! I am on the disability employment program (for mental illness) at work and surely I'm meant to be supported! I wish my manager would sit me down and ask how I am but instead she leaves me feeling judged and intimidated and worried that if I ask if I can do different tasks that I don't hate so much they won't renew my contract. They are not at all supporting me even though they know I'm on the disability employment program and this makes me angry and upset. I usually love doing art when I get home but work makes me so unmotivated, irritable, angry, upset and flat. I just feel there's no end!

Guest_1584 Will these be the right thing and help ? depression and poss' bipolar .
  • replies: 47

Hi all. l can't go into anymore than this but my daughter 19 1/2 has serious depression and anxiety and they suspect mild bipolar. The poor thing had an absolute yr from hell last yr and all friendships she's grown up with and new ones are blown to b... View more

Hi all. l can't go into anymore than this but my daughter 19 1/2 has serious depression and anxiety and they suspect mild bipolar. The poor thing had an absolute yr from hell last yr and all friendships she's grown up with and new ones are blown to bits - there's a lot more but she feels her reputation is completely blown - semi country area so you could imagine, add SM, She's been in a terrible way 3mths, mostly in bed , crying, completely down on herself. She's been to doctors and psych and when a bed comes they want to keep her in for awhile. Anyway , it's too hard to go further so please don't ask there's enough there. But there's a few things l'm wondering if they will help and are they a good idea, Firstly , she racked up 1500 in fines, all way over due so they're probly a lot more now. l've had to sort out my own before and l know what a gruel it is to get pay offs and it all sorted. She's put it off for mths, she can't do anything let alone face those people and all the paper work and calls. So l'm thinking of paying them out and she can just pay me off, done. But is that good idea , or should she try at least to fix them herself ? But l don't even know how she could cope with that right now, The next thing is , she wants to move away when she's well. Says she can't repair things here and doesn't even want to anyway with most of the so called friends. She certainly couldn't cope away right now but she's never been away or on her own and can't realize how hard and lonely too it will be, She has no one left and loneliness right now is just torturing her but at least she has us and her ex bf she's still friends with. But then l think , well a lot of us moved away late teens early 20s , l back packed round the country 12 mths at 19 totally alone. completely left where l grew up later too. Ex moved cities totally alone at 17 , started nursing . And as l was sayin the other day , not many actually go into adult with child hood friends anyway , most change into different directions. We don't know, can't stop her if she does later , but would it be a solution , would she get well enough again to cope ? Thanks for ant thoughts and advice , appreciated. rx

Flamingolady Do I have chronic fatigue?
  • replies: 6

Hello lovely’s! So I’ve suffered from depression and anxiety pretty much since I was a child. I’ve gone through some really difficult times but for the majority of my life it’s something that’s always just kind of there. I would say I am extremely hi... View more

Hello lovely’s! So I’ve suffered from depression and anxiety pretty much since I was a child. I’ve gone through some really difficult times but for the majority of my life it’s something that’s always just kind of there. I would say I am extremely high functioning - I have a physical job and no one would know that I’m struggling. Also known at work as being the girl who’s always happy - go figure lol. anywho, for over a year now I’ve felt exhausted. And I mean exhausted. It’s getting to the point now where I am low functioning on my days off (low functioning for me). Struggling to do basic chores and shower, having regular naps, headaches constantly and always feeling heavy. it’s getting to the point where I have had to have some days off work, but when I’m at work I’m a different person, I don’t stop and I work ridiculously hard and don’t feel like I’m incapable of doing things. However it writes me off for my days off, and I have no life outside of work. I’m about to see a psychiatrist after extensive talks with my doctors and not finding any other reasons through blood tests etc. she mentioned it could be chronic fatigue stemming from mental health issues. I feel like this makes sense. i can’t help but feel an overwhelming surge of guilt. I’ve been reading some forums and sounds like others with CFS are very low functioning and it makes me feel like I’m being a hypochondriac sometimes. I’m torn between giving in to the fact that there might be something wrong here and I should recognize that I’m having a hard time, and the other half of me knows it could be worse and you should be grateful. does anyone else have this guilt? What are your experiences with anxiety/depression and cfs? Can you have cfs but still be high functioning in a professional capacity? Has medication for anxiety/depression helped with cfs? give me some love friends because I’m spiraling a little!

Yehbom Feeling alone with self-diagnosed Cyclothymia
  • replies: 1

Like a lot of people on here, it's been a very long journey with my mental health. I've seen about 5 psychologists over the past 8 years (I'm currently 26) and am finding it hard to find a new one right now as the last person I was talking to had to ... View more

Like a lot of people on here, it's been a very long journey with my mental health. I've seen about 5 psychologists over the past 8 years (I'm currently 26) and am finding it hard to find a new one right now as the last person I was talking to had to stop seeing me because they didn't feel like they could give me the support I needed. I didn't take that to heart but I am very frustrated at the moment because I feel like I've had to start again with new psychologists so many times and I get overwhelmed with telling them what I even need now which I'm quite unsure of most of the time, (thank you depression/anxiety, you're good at making me feel so unsure/uncertain/a ball of nothing and you seem to get better at it every year x) I've had a particularly interesting past few years and found that my symptoms of depression and anxiety have worsened. Mid-November last year I admitted myself to the psych ward because I was getting to the point where I wasn't feeling that safe alone. I would say that around this time I was going through a bit of a manic phase, not as much as someone would with bipolar, but enough to get into arguments with very close friends and family on a weekly basis. Going in was probably one of the best things I've ever done for my mental health and I learned a lot of great DBT skills that have helped me so much when it comes to feeling triggered and got diagnosed (finally) with Borderline Personality Disorder and got put onto medication. This was all starting to add up and I felt like I had a good grip on what I had and how some of my relationships felt unstable, only thing is, as soon as I got out towards Christmas, I felt like my mood went in the complete opposite direction. Instead of feeling manic/argumentative/super talkative, I felt a slow onset of depression coming in, one that I couldn't even explain to you. My thought process/movements slowed down, my self-confidence decreased dramatically, I could barely even keep a general conversation going even with my closest friends/family/partner. I then linked this with how I was feeling over the Summer of 2020 - unexplainable depression hitting me which is why I'm currently self-diagnosing myself with Cyclothymia because Borderline Personality Disorder makes sense, but it doesn't make enough sense. So I'm hitting up anyone who is also in the same boat. What helps you? I don't know what helps me - it's a struggle most days and I find it so difficult to explain to anyone what I'm truly feeling.

bob01 My problems
  • replies: 5

its been about (almost) a week since my last post. In this time i have found myself flat and uninterested in what is happening around me. Over this time I have come to realise that I don't have much of a need or want for any personal relationship and... View more

its been about (almost) a week since my last post. In this time i have found myself flat and uninterested in what is happening around me. Over this time I have come to realise that I don't have much of a need or want for any personal relationship and that I lead a boring life. Im unsure about talking to people because of this and also because I dont enjoy/ dont know how to, verbally express how I feel. suggestions would be appreciated thanks

Rogan23 Advice
  • replies: 2

Approximately one year ago I got up to go to work and started crying for no reason. It really scared me and I just wasn't myself. Since I have had the same feeling just not back to that level. I did see a doc, and after a few appointments did do a ro... View more

Approximately one year ago I got up to go to work and started crying for no reason. It really scared me and I just wasn't myself. Since I have had the same feeling just not back to that level. I did see a doc, and after a few appointments did do a round of some low level antidepressants. As covid hit I missed appointments, but thought I was doing all right. Lately come weekends they go one of two ways. I either plan massive jobs for me to do and before I know its Monday morning ready for work and I'm already fatigued. Or I literally move from bed to couch and mope around deep in my thoughts about why things aren't the way I want. I have never been able to determine a trigger when this all began and it drives me nuts. I havent talked to anyone about these issues as I always prefer any conversation or attention to be no where near me.

Lightning707 Empty
  • replies: 5

I can’t really recall a time where I’ve been actually happy, I’ve had depression for years and I’ve managed by putting on a happy act for everyone but it’s getting harder and harder to maintain. I can’t really enjoy anything, I don’t really feel anyt... View more

I can’t really recall a time where I’ve been actually happy, I’ve had depression for years and I’ve managed by putting on a happy act for everyone but it’s getting harder and harder to maintain. I can’t really enjoy anything, I don’t really feel anything except for emptiness and sadness in my chest. Every time I feel like I make a bit of progress something happens to knock me back down again. A few years ago I had an accident where I ended up damaging my knee and getting this thing called complex regional pain, if that wasn’t enough I then found out I have inter-cranial pressure that is damaging my optic nerves and hypersomnia which makes me fall asleep all the time. Every moment I’m awake hurts and the medicine I have to take makes me feel nauseous. I’m really limited in what I can do, I don’t even want to move most days, it’s hard to get my family to understand that and they keep pressuring me and guilting me that I don’t do enough. It’s not that I’m lazy it’s that I can’t do it, the reminder of my limitations only makes me more exhausted and depressed. I think because I’ve been fakeing it for years they can’t take me seriously when I try to tell them I’m not ok. I’m really beginning to resent my body and myself because of my inability to do things. I have been to psychologists, but in person old habits die hard and I can’t help but minimise my issues and put on a brave face, it’s a wall that I can’t seem to overcome and no matter how many sessions I go to I don’t feel any change, I still feel empty inside and the lack of progress is just disheartening. I don’t know what I hope for in bringing this up here I just kind of wanted to tell someone how I feel.

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