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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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Guest_485 The Feeling of Worthlessness
  • replies: 3

How do you keep going, when it feels like everything is failing. How do you keep getting out of bed every single morning, when there is no point to it. I have read a thousand times that happiness and fulfillment are choices, and yet I have not chosen... View more

How do you keep going, when it feels like everything is failing. How do you keep getting out of bed every single morning, when there is no point to it. I have read a thousand times that happiness and fulfillment are choices, and yet I have not chosen this life. It seems to have chosen me. I work myself into the ground, days filled with busyness, rude customers and other people's problems, just so I can spend as little time as possible at home with my own mind. When I crave sleep, I can't get it. But when I do get it, it is so broken and plagued that I don't want it. I have an incredibly talented and supportive professional team behind me, and I recognize how lucky I am in that. But I am honestly at a stage where I feel so darkly alone, and I don’t think things can get better. I don’t know what to do anymore.

MissBenthos Dysthymia less severe?
  • replies: 12

Has anyone else with dysthymia ever thought that the description of it being a less severe depression doesn’t seem correct? I keep thinking it must be comparable to holding up a light weight. No problem right? But the longer you hold it up the more i... View more

Has anyone else with dysthymia ever thought that the description of it being a less severe depression doesn’t seem correct? I keep thinking it must be comparable to holding up a light weight. No problem right? But the longer you hold it up the more it feels heavier and the more your body aches. After holding it for as long as you have without being able to put it down for a rest, it eventually becomes unbearable. What do you think?

Elizabeth CP Lost motivation and direction
  • replies: 8

I feel guilty because I am wasting time and not doing anything useful. I feel like I have no purpose. I feel guilty because I have no excuse for complaining Other people have much worse situations. I normally am very goal orientated and feel bad if I... View more

I feel guilty because I am wasting time and not doing anything useful. I feel like I have no purpose. I feel guilty because I have no excuse for complaining Other people have much worse situations. I normally am very goal orientated and feel bad if I am not achieving things. I am marking time waiting for summer to finish. I hate the heat. I am scared in case fires start and I don't like going out in case I get sunburnt. I had a good job which I left in October. I had been struggling because my husband kept getting sick. He spent 6 weeks in hospital Sept-Oct '14 just after I started work and came home so weak he could barely walk from one room to the next. (we previously enjoyed bushwalking) He then had lots of doctors appointments and tests to plan for further surgery to prevent him having the same problem. I was very stressed and always worried about him. I couldn't afford to take off much time for carers leave because I hadn't worked long enough. My plan was to arrange a holiday and see how I felt after having a break. Unfortunately one holiday was cancelled because of the initial illness, the second holiday (which was timed to coincide with a public holiday and flexing my hours to limit the days off) I came home exhausted as my husband became sick the night we left and I got very little sleep as I had to look after him in the night. After his surgery in July we booked a 2 week holiday for September. The surgery failed and was repeated 5 times. After the last failure we decided not to contact the hospital or doctor as we couldn't cope with another failed attempt. We will just manage as best as we can. 2 weeks before the holiday I broke my ankle so the holiday was cancelled. At that point I decided to resign rather than see how I felt after a break.

Gravity New Year
  • replies: 5

Hi, My thoughts are all over the place at the moment due to how flat and depressed I feel about the new year, well it's really the whole Festive period in general, which also contains my birthday smack bang in the middle, so needless to say it's a pr... View more

Hi, My thoughts are all over the place at the moment due to how flat and depressed I feel about the new year, well it's really the whole Festive period in general, which also contains my birthday smack bang in the middle, so needless to say it's a pretty stressful and depressive time. So New Year's Eve came and went, I'd been feeling particularly down all day, withdrawn and just generally feeling worthless. No one had asked me to go out or do anything with them and I'm not overly fond of my own company because I'm not the biggest fan of myself and I'm generally by myself the majority of the time. long story short, I spent the evening watching tv, midnight came and went, about 10 minutes after midnight, I felt an incredible sadness hit me like a bus, as if the disappointments, frustrations and depression from the past 12 months had finally caught up with me. I'm worried that I'm now going to carry this feeling into 2016 and this year will turn out as badly as last year did for me mentally. I've been taken off my AD's mid last year as they weren't really working, I was still attending psychologist appointments, which were helping. Any advice anyone can offer up on how to beat this thinking would be greatly appreciated

Guest_2350 Confused feelings
  • replies: 13

Hello All, I am currently doing CBT and starting psycho therapy next month and one of the returning thoughts that keeps bothering me to a great deal, is my ability to maintain friendships and relationships. I actually used to be very good in keeping ... View more

Hello All, I am currently doing CBT and starting psycho therapy next month and one of the returning thoughts that keeps bothering me to a great deal, is my ability to maintain friendships and relationships. I actually used to be very good in keeping up friendships & acquaintances and I used to blog, send post cards, letters and emails, call and see the ones that were close enough. My relationships (friends, family, acquaintances) are literally scattered all over the world, mainly Europe and Africa and now also in Australia. I have moved many times. For the last few years I found it more and more difficult to keep in touch with people and I started to doubt the intend of people and their actual feelings for me. Where I used to be very giving and forgiving, I am now very reserved and suspicious and bitter. I have again and again thinned out my contact list, created and deleted blogs & facebook & other social media accounts again and again and I am just wondering if I am the only one who gets so confused, who does not want to be in touch, who just does not know. And I am also wondering why this bothers me so much and I think I am so stupid, as it is as if a rich person worries about what to do with all the money. I feel so ungrateful and just stupid. I'm just wondering if this is part of depression and PTSD and if it will eventually get better and I will eventually feel something again that does not confuse me. Thanks, Yggy x

Elsie77 Sad
  • replies: 3

Woke up feeling very sad today

Woke up feeling very sad today

KTOCD Feeling like nothing is ever going to get better. Had enough
  • replies: 12

Hey, im having a really hard time. I feel like I make some progress and then we just go back to the beginning again. Things shouldn't be this hard. Hating how things are at the moment. Finding it so hard to be positive about anything. Sorry but neede... View more

Hey, im having a really hard time. I feel like I make some progress and then we just go back to the beginning again. Things shouldn't be this hard. Hating how things are at the moment. Finding it so hard to be positive about anything. Sorry but needed to offload. Need some space to rethink how I move forward. Feel like I'm running into a brick wall over and over again. KT

Perfectly Scattered Perfectionism + lack of control = Depression
  • replies: 10

Hi everyone, I am new here. This year has been beyond awful for my family. My 8yr old son developed severe OCD (likely linked to Autism- doing assessments now). Me being so driven believed I could 'fix' everything for him by immersing myself in all t... View more

Hi everyone, I am new here. This year has been beyond awful for my family. My 8yr old son developed severe OCD (likely linked to Autism- doing assessments now). Me being so driven believed I could 'fix' everything for him by immersing myself in all the info on OCD and taking him to his Psychologist- following all the rules to successfully beat OCD. I put everything I had into helping him only to feel like a complete failure when we had to resort to medication even though I am fully aware of the role serotonin takes in mental illness- I am not against medication- I was just upset that I did not achieve my goal unaided. I realise medication was necessary in my sons case- he had began to believe everyone and everything were poisonous, life in general was torture for him. Question to everyone... Does anyone else put such high and un-achievable expectations on yourself that when they are not reached you fall into a depression? I have noticed a pattern of this throughout my life, has anyone found a way to stop it happening? At the time I never feel like what I am expecting from myself was out of reach- it is only once my depression lifts that I truely realise how misguided I was.

Coastgal86 ">3 steps forward 2 steps back
  • replies: 3

Hello,I'm a 29 year old mother of 2 and have been diagnosed with depression and anxiety, I've been on an antidepressant now for a few months and have been doing yoga and reading a lot of self help books.but I go through stages where I feel great for ... View more

Hello,I'm a 29 year old mother of 2 and have been diagnosed with depression and anxiety, I've been on an antidepressant now for a few months and have been doing yoga and reading a lot of self help books.but I go through stages where I feel great for a few weeks then its like I hit a wall and am back to square one all over again! It can take me a few weeks to pick myself up again and it's just driving me insane going through the constant up and down.i don't have a very supportive husband or huge support system so I do feel alone a lot. Has anyone else experienced the ups and down whilst on meds and trying the other things? I was seeing a physiologist but stopped after feeling embarrassed that 2 mothers from school were working in the reception area i hope someone can relate xo

El_Guapo I am scared to death of falling apart again.
  • replies: 4

Hello everyone, I feel like I am starting to feel waves of depression, anxiety and all the other horrible things that come along with breaking down. I am 55 years of age and 22 years ago I went through Clinical Depression and it took me almost 18 mon... View more

Hello everyone, I feel like I am starting to feel waves of depression, anxiety and all the other horrible things that come along with breaking down. I am 55 years of age and 22 years ago I went through Clinical Depression and it took me almost 18 months to recover. I had no help no support and what I went through only god knows. I lost my wife, house, children and my mind in the process. Eventually I recovered and unexpectedly and a new partner came into my life, she was full of love, compassion, care and thanks to her my miserable life found love and hope again. We have been together for 20 years and now she is going through a full breakdown. Between us our relationship has been one of love, friendship and love being with each other. Some 20 months ago she had a minor midlife crisis and moved to her mums, she was riddled with guilt thinking how much it was hurting me, but somehow the fact, that I knew that her issues were to do with her own and not me gave me the strength to stay strong, at peace and be there for her, always loving supportive and reassuring. She moved in with her mum for six months and unfortunately though she is not aware of it her family and their expectations of her have been a major contribution to her persona of being a peoples pleaser and thinking of others before her self. After being with her mum for six months, we found a new beautiful apartment and move in together again. While I was at work she decided to study from home but being alone during the day and not having dealt with her issues and demons slowly broke her down until she was miserable and full of self hate, health issues,sadness,depression and slowly there was nothing left of her. As much as I tried to encourage her I was unable to help her. She left 8 weeks ago and has moved in back with her mum as she can not be left alone, she was unable to stay with me because she could not be surrounded by her life. Thankfully she has good medical support and counselling. We talk to each other ever few days and as always I am loving, supportive and never put any pressure on her in any way. However for the past week my mind has gone into thoughts of fear and suddenly I am also in a very bad way. I am not eating, full of tears, fear of the unknown, riddled with anxiety and finding it hard to cope, indeed I am sinking fast. I can not let her know what is happening to me as it would devastate her. My fear is, that somehow our love with die and she will not come back. Dear God help me.

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