Immediate support
Immediate support

Depression

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

Start a discussion

FAQ

Find answers to some of the more frequently asked questions on the Forums.

View the FAQ

Forums guidelines

Our guidelines keep the Forums a safe place for people to share and learn information.

View the guidelines
Categories
Start a discussion

Pinned discussions

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

All discussions

Start a discussion

Georgia04 Struggling
  • replies: 3

Hi I am a new member looking for support because I am really struggling at the moment. I feel heavy all the time and I'm getting really tired of being tired. I can't find anything to make me happy and it always feels like I'm watching myself through ... View more

Hi I am a new member looking for support because I am really struggling at the moment. I feel heavy all the time and I'm getting really tired of being tired. I can't find anything to make me happy and it always feels like I'm watching myself through a movie screen. How are you coping with your depressive moods because I'm running out of ideas. Every single day is a complete battle with myself to be happy and fun around my peers and friends but I am getting so tired. I'm young and I just want to start living my life. I feel like I'm walking up a hill and every time I think I'm at the top, there's more to climb. Please share your experiences. Thanks for reading, Ruby

Joy1 Just started taking a new antidepressant and its making me feel worse.
  • replies: 3

Hi, I am new to this forum and new to depression. I was recently diagnosed with depression. It has been an extremely confusing journey for me, I didn't and still don't know if I am depressed or just a horrible person. To most I am bubbly and happy an... View more

Hi, I am new to this forum and new to depression. I was recently diagnosed with depression. It has been an extremely confusing journey for me, I didn't and still don't know if I am depressed or just a horrible person. To most I am bubbly and happy and I have no idea how I got to this point, I am booked in to see my GP about my care plan and seek counselling to get to the bottom of it. In the past I have tried with counsellors but flake out after a few sessions as I felt like it wasn't helping me, but I guess that's probably part of my problem. I noticed a change in my moods and tirdeness about 2 years ago and was diagnosed with Hashimoto's (slow thyroid) with no other usual symptoms other than being exhausted all the time. About 2-3 weeks ago I was referred to a psychiatrist and prescribed an antidepressant. Since starting the medication (yes I am aware of the side effects that may make you feel worse) I have spiralled completely. I have one good day to two really awful days. I mostly snap irrationally and rage at very small decisions or something my partner has asked, which I don't usually do to this extent and I can't calm myself down. I take it out on my partner and scream at him that I hate him and I don't care about him or the kids, which is a complete lie. He can't take it anymore and has taken me to hospital twice this week. He is sick of me and I know this is taking its toll on his wellbeing. What's worse is that I cannot explain to him or apologise afterwards and my 'sorrys' are falling on dead ears and are never good enough, I don't blame him though. He filmed me raging out and having a breakdown which set me off completely but he said its for his own safety and to show me later on how bad I really am. I haven't been physical but I have been breaking things. I can't see me getting better and I feel like I am about to lose everything. Has anyone experienced anything like this and how did you push through? Thank you.

fred2018 checking in
  • replies: 3

Hi guys, going through a pretty dodgy patch mental health wise, so very irritable at people, at problems, today it was at myself, I think really alot of it is my mood but I take some of the responsibility. But yeah hoping the next few months pick up ... View more

Hi guys, going through a pretty dodgy patch mental health wise, so very irritable at people, at problems, today it was at myself, I think really alot of it is my mood but I take some of the responsibility. But yeah hoping the next few months pick up because things havn't felt too pretty. I'm gonna try and keep things basic, go to bed at set times, live a more ordered life, I think the problem with my body is stress and from what I know cortisol with people with mood disorders, you have to keep it in check. I've been between work which isn't great for mental health as many people know but I've been trying to get something through a job agency that is manageable, that has been a bit tricky judging my own capabilities , anyways there are a few good opportunities so hopefully I can sort that soon. Anyways all the best to everyone

THP71 My story of Depression and Anger.
  • replies: 5

Hi All i am new around this forum and the topic of depression, however I would like to firstly thank everyone in the community for all the info available it has helped me understand and cope with my situation greatly. Secondly I would like to tell my... View more

Hi All i am new around this forum and the topic of depression, however I would like to firstly thank everyone in the community for all the info available it has helped me understand and cope with my situation greatly. Secondly I would like to tell my story.i have recently been to my GP (a big deal for me) because I felt very stressed and angry All the time. It has been affecting all aspects of my life. I have had several major issues happen in my personal and work life that have caused me to feel this way.i spoke to my doctor briefly about my issues and feelings, he has diagnosed me with depression and started me on anti-depressants. Before I went to the Doctor I did not think I had depression however now after being more informed and researching depression I do think I have some type of depression. I feel more angry and hopeless in my situation than sad though. I do have a lot of the symptoms of depression but am more angry than sad. I have not been happy for a long time. I felt better the first week after going and talking to the doctor about it and starting the Anti- depressants. I have not been sleeping properly for a long time now and have been smoking pot to help me relax take my mind of things and sleepThis was all OK or so I thought until I had a smoke last Sunday night after tea and went positive on a drug test at work 12 hrs later. I have been stood down for a week now waiting a decision to see if I keep my job. I will say that I have never been to work stoned, don't smoke before or at work. Anyway this has had a big impact on my mental well being.i have been a long term user of pot and now I do wonder if this has caused some of my problems, anyway I have now stopped.i am going back to my GP this week and will discuss the smoking pot, also a follow up on the anti-depressant, which I don't think are working yet. He has advised seeing a physiologist which I think I will now as I feel I need to talk to someone about my situation and feelings. I think this will help.This has all been a big deal for me I have never had much to do with depression or mental illness. Like I said this site has helped me a heap as I feel a bit alone with this. I told work I started taking Anti-depressants but feel that they don't understand my situation at all and now testing positive for pot has just made it all worse. Anyway I just wanted to tell my story, vent a little and say thanks to everyone for understanding and helping in this community. i do feel better now I have talked about and addressed my issues. Still feel I have a long way to go but do feel I can and will get better. What I have learned is that there are all sorts or depression and guess I just need to work through this with the help of others. I think I may have some anger issues as well. Would appreciate any feed back from others as reading about people's situations and reading people's comments has made me understand and feel a lot better.

IPlay Why depressed people sleep so much / mood journals
  • replies: 6

Because you can't be sad when you're asleep. I've been keeping a mood journal where I rate my mood out of 10 each day for both morning and night. I realise I've cheated the system when I get up at 10 or 11am. On mood journals themselves I have found ... View more

Because you can't be sad when you're asleep. I've been keeping a mood journal where I rate my mood out of 10 each day for both morning and night. I realise I've cheated the system when I get up at 10 or 11am. On mood journals themselves I have found it to be a good indicator over time to help understand your individual patterns. It is good for personal use but would be cautious if presenting it to a professional or another person as the scales are completely subjective. I've been trying to find a comparison of 0-10 daily mood charts of a person with and a person without depression but since a mood rating is so subjective it's hard to draw comparisons. What I mean by subjective is that a 5 for me means - a non-mood, blank face feeling, absents of happy or sad feelings/thoughts, no intrusive thoughts, and sometimes it means I just slept through most of the morning. Whereas, and I speculate, someone without depression might place a 5 as meaning - content, flat, okay. A better example might be that someone with depressions reasons for rating between 0-5 includes suicidal thoughts or even attempts whereas a non-depressed person it does not. My average for this month is 6. Max 8. Min 0. - My 8's would be very good you would think, which they are... compared to my usual mood. - Brief moments of a smile, singing in he kitchen, dancing with my dog. But an 8 I have realised is still just a glimpse of my old self before depression. The 0 was that one night I got drunk and had heavy intrusive thoughts and crying almost to the point of action. What's your experience with mood journals if you keep one, or your thoughts on it even if you don't? What's your thoughts on sleep?

WiltedRose Don't know what to do but I know I need help
  • replies: 4

I’ve always been confident, outspoken and happy. But my personality has changed so much over the last few years, for the worse. I’m so defensive, everything seems like a personal attack and all I do is argue with friends, family and work colleagues. ... View more

I’ve always been confident, outspoken and happy. But my personality has changed so much over the last few years, for the worse. I’m so defensive, everything seems like a personal attack and all I do is argue with friends, family and work colleagues. I hate every word that comes out of my mouth, and don’t know why I am like this when I keep telling myself to change. I hate looking in the mirror at myself, I wish I was looking at my 18 year old self again, not the 31 year old failure that I am. I want to stop feeling so deeply, I’m over-emotional and over-sensitive. I have a wonderful husband who I’ve always got along with, but he keeps disagreeing with everything I say, it’s like it’s a new habit for him. So I’m constantly trying to explain my point of view to him which turns into an argument. I never mean for things to turn into arguments, and if I just keep my mouth shut things would be fine. He was never like this, he was the happiest person, always laughing and joking and I feel like I'm destroying him and bringing him down. I’m starting to get the feeling he hates me, and I don’t blame him because I hate myself too. He didn’t sign up for this, we’ve been together for 11 years and I was amazing for the first 5 years, then I started changing. Nothing happened, I just slowly started becoming this awful thing that I am today. I want to stop being me because then I can stop hating myself every day.

mmmmmmm Could my antidepressants be too good?
  • replies: 4

I've been on antidepressants for about a year, and they've hugely improved my life in many ways. One way is they saved me from pointless and stressful routines. Before I started taking antidepressants, there were certain things I used to force myself... View more

I've been on antidepressants for about a year, and they've hugely improved my life in many ways. One way is they saved me from pointless and stressful routines. Before I started taking antidepressants, there were certain things I used to force myself to do every day. Some because they were good for me, some because they were sometimes fun. But it was very difficult and stressful, and often not fun. And finding the time to do it was often the hardest part, it often left me with not much free time, and I often had to sacrifice more important things. Sorry for being so vague, I'm a very closed person. Then I started taking antidepressants, and they slowly began to relax me. I started to realise how stupid and pointless some of those things were, and slowly began toning them down. And it made my life so much more fun. But now I think they've gone too far. They've made me bizarrely lazy. I've pretty much completely abandoned all my hobbies. I spend pretty much all day just laying in bed, doing boring and pointless things on my laptop. I've also abandoned some things that aren't fun, but are essential. For example, I don't brush my teeth much these days. It's funny how this is often a symptom of depression, yet for me it's the complete opposite. This probably sounds like a conscious decision, and I suppose it technically is, but it really feels like it isn't. I really want to do more, but there's just something stopping me. I've tried to convince myself to just force myself, but it's a lot easier said than done. I suppose it's kinda like the way an addict tries to force themself to quit whatever they're addicted to, but simply doesn't have the capacity. So I guess you could sort of say I'm addicted to doing absolutely nothing. I'll never stop taking antidepressants without my doctor telling me to, because I know that would be very stupid, but it's becoming tempting. Right now, I actually think my life before I started taking them was much better than it is now. My depression was mild, and I sometimes had fun. Now I have hardly any fun, I'm incredibly bored almost every second of every day. What I'd like is a middle ground between my life now and my life before antidepressants, but that seems impossible. I used to have that, but like I said, the antidepressants pushed it too far. Does anyone have any advice?

Danni554 Bullied and feel disgusting
  • replies: 9

I've been bullied at work for a while now, it was really bad last year and its mostly from two people, and I have been struggling really badly from it all while in isolation. I'm dreading going back just because of one of them in particular to the po... View more

I've been bullied at work for a while now, it was really bad last year and its mostly from two people, and I have been struggling really badly from it all while in isolation. I'm dreading going back just because of one of them in particular to the point I have a mild anxiety attack multiple times a day and feel like vomiting, but i love my job so much I don't want to lose it. One of the guys I work with we got along really well when I started, he trained me for 3-4 months, we did not talk much after, later we got seated next to each other and he made some sexual comments which I didn't instigate, he walked up behind me and said it. He is married and now has a 1 year old daughter. He's been caring if i've cried at work or left sick, this is very rare though. Most of the time he hits things around his desk that are near me, he gets very angry at me but doesn't verbally say much, he does things he knows will upset me, he snobs me, he went to lunch with his wife and baby daughter then came back and tried to get my attention. He cuts me out of conversations and looks disgusted if i talk at work, he blanks me physically out of any conversations he can when everyone at work goes to the pub on Fridays and he makes me uncomfortable to go socialise with everyone. I tried for a long time to calm him down but it hasn't worked, like I bought him $100 worth of baby gifts. He's the favourite at work so the last thing i want to do is complain against him, especially when he talks about how happy him and his wife are with their daughter and how excited they are about her growing up. This whole thing has made me feel disgusting, i bought some new clothes for my birthday and i hated myself when i tried them on and didn't want him thinking I bought it for him or I've tried to lose weight for him. He has said before that he felt like a friend of mine was trying to learn English just to talk to him, when my friend was just trying to make friends with everyone and he couldn't and eventually left to work somewhere else. I've caught him not doing his job properly more times than i can count and he's lied to people and he's gaslighted me when i tried to ask him to stop being rude to me. I don't care for reporting him or anything I just want to feel good about myself again and gain some confidence back. It upsets me I'm jealous of him, my partner doesn't love me like his does and he gets the best stuff at work, everyone loves him and he's very talented and privileged.

Jakon93 New here, looking to talk/get help
  • replies: 11

Hi, I'm Jakon So, since last December I started seeing a psychologist. I've had about 6 sessions now and I think they're going pretty well. Basically, I'm at the point where I've think I have identified what my issue/s are and I'm trying to address t... View more

Hi, I'm Jakon So, since last December I started seeing a psychologist. I've had about 6 sessions now and I think they're going pretty well. Basically, I'm at the point where I've think I have identified what my issue/s are and I'm trying to address them, but that doesn't seem to be going very well. What my issue/s are is, probably, very common: I feel like I am inferior, worthless and incapable of attaining the future I want (largely due to childhood, choices growijg up, etc. That i'll be working on identifying with my psychologist next). I am suceeding in my uni studies (HD's, woo) but have been constantly feeling behind due to an inability to motivate, manage time effectively, care, and so on. Also, I've rexognized that a lot of my issue/s is (very) lilely to do with fear: fear of confrontation, fear of rejection, fear of faolure and so on. I'm also starting to more constructively assess when this fear arises - fear tends to wear many hats, it seems. Overall, objectively (so to speak) things are on track and I can plot out the next 3 months or so and say 'this is pretty good'. But I feel hopeless. I feel it, just there, under the surface, sometimes closer, sometimes deeper down, like it's always going to be there waiting to bubble up until I breakdown and cry, again. Like today. I know, again, that I have a good framework for addressinf my triggers, thoughts, etc. That put me in this place and that I just have to build on them over time and, quite literally, get out more and engage more with people, and help others in particular, to feel a sense of worth and progress. But thinking and doing that are different things. My GP, psychologist and myself have discussed me possibly going on SSRI's for depression/anxiety, but I'm unsure whether they'll be effective. Will they fix the pervasive sense of hopelessness my high lack of self confidence and self belief, as well as the internal critic?

BEP19 Being happy is tough
  • replies: 7

Hi all, Last week i hit rock bottom. It was the lowest i have ever felt in my life. It was due to a mixture of things piling up in my life and i finally crumbled under the pile. After a complete meltdown and the helpful words of many beautiful people... View more

Hi all, Last week i hit rock bottom. It was the lowest i have ever felt in my life. It was due to a mixture of things piling up in my life and i finally crumbled under the pile. After a complete meltdown and the helpful words of many beautiful people on beyond blue i started to see a light in the dark fog that clouded my life. This past week that light has been shining brighter as i am trying so hard to remain positive about myself and others. However tonight people who are family friends decided to throw some drama my way. I have tried to remain positive and to keep my thoughts happy but in this situation it has proven difficult to do so. These people are the type of people who thrive on drama and love playing the victim card. I just wish they would leave me out of it. They have no idea that i have depression because quiet frankly they haven't asked nor do I think they care. I just wish people could just be nice to others. I wish people could just understand that everyone is going through something in their lives and just because a person doesnt tell you what is happening in their lives doesnt mean they aren't going through a hard time. I wish I was a person who is not fazed by anyone's actions or words. It just feels like it's a constant struggle to keep myself in a happy state and it really shouldn't be this way. Sorry for rambling on but i feel as if this is my only avenue of expressing how i feel without being judged. Thank you for taking the time to read this.