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

Mummyhazel Whats next?
  • replies: 1

Hi everyone, Im a mother of 2, a defence wife and was diagnosed with post-natal depression and anxiety. Ive recently hit a point where everything ive been doing over the last 8 months to aid my recovery feels like a waste of time. I relocated to Sydn... View more

Hi everyone, Im a mother of 2, a defence wife and was diagnosed with post-natal depression and anxiety. Ive recently hit a point where everything ive been doing over the last 8 months to aid my recovery feels like a waste of time. I relocated to Sydney 6 weeks after my 2nd child was born (away from friends and family) and feel like this was the point my illness became evident. I do practise cognitive therapy, and mindfulness most days I was seeing a counsellor regularly and I exercise as much as I can...this has been getting me by. But the last few months it feels like my world is falling apart. My husband got his notice he will be deploying to the middle east for 7 months and we decided to move me home to be closer to family and help considering im not always 100% emotionally and I have struggled with motherhood...the defence turned down our request for assistance with our relocation so we payed for it ourselves and I packed up the house by myself, this was most upsetting as we had saved for a romantic holiday (our first holiday as a couple EVER) but had to use our savings on the moving truck. then only a week before our move the defence force decided to deny us entry to a defence housing property....My truck was on its way and I had said my good byes, redirected our mail to the inlaws, pulled my eldest from day-care and transferred my course to the location I was supposed to be moving too (yes I managed to start studying aswell...I am a bit crazy!) So this leads me to my current situation...Homeless and bouncing between family members trying to find a home, our belongings dumped under a family members house, im commencing my studies next month, My husband is away working until Christmas break then after that away again for 7 months (don't even ask about a sex life!!!) Physically im loosing weight, my skin is aging, I cant even see the point in general Hygiene anymore...my reflection isn't what I would expect a 25 year old to look like! Emotionally I cry everyday, Im confused, I cant raise my voice to ask for help, Im filled with guilt.....I think about death and wonder into day long anxiety attacks shaking and feeling ill. I hate crowds, and I feel like everyone is staring directly at my flaws or the things I talk about will just be joked about when im not there. I ignore my children when they want my attention (apart from feeding and washing and caring for them as much as any human being would...the love and joy isn't behind it like it used to be)- I just don't want to listen or deal with their horrible behaviour (the move into a homeless disrupted situation has just killed any working routine I had). They are beautiful girls but the fact im alone all day with them and im ashamed to ask for help or a day off means I turn into mean mummy and I see myself acting selfish and ignorant..i hate myself for it but im tired of smiling and pretending im happy with this. To top it all of my parents have decided to separate so they are both recently diagnosed with depression and I haven't had the courage to tell them of my illness (why burden them with it when they cant even function emotionally themselves) I never had the best childhood with them either but that's a whole other story I haven't even personally decided to start dealing with. Ive come here basically to speak and let it all out! I don't know whats next....I just sat on the stairwell after tucking my girls in and thought...'I could just disappear now and they would be ok because my husbands family (the most amazing family in he world) are just next door to look after them. I think about vanishing all the time...not on holiday but just vanishing so everyone else can be happy! I feel like im living in secrecy, I talk to myself out loud all day long... I drive with he fear im about to crash...every stranger is an attacker or paedophile about to get me or my children... Im tired of checking windows 5 times before bed, crying in my pillow, visioning how happy my husband would be with someone else...yes...im rambling!! but this is my thought pattern...always scatterd and confused. I loose my phone 5 times a day, misplace my keys, forget important dates.... I don't know where my head is at anymore and im scared!!

ApproachingNormal How do people in the medical field cope??
  • replies: 9

Hi everyone. For the last few years I have worked in the field of anaesthesia and found it to be one of the most interesting and rewarding careers but over the last few months have been struggling with my depression and have been having more regular ... View more

Hi everyone. For the last few years I have worked in the field of anaesthesia and found it to be one of the most interesting and rewarding careers but over the last few months have been struggling with my depression and have been having more regular downs than ups. I had recently been involved in a paediatric resus with a bad outcome, it was just devastating. At the time I did not think it affected me as much as what it did to other staff who were visually upset and rightly so. But over the last few weeks the event has been playing over and over in my mind. There was nothing we could have done differently to change the outcome. Over the years I have seen some pretty horrific stuff, but no prior event has ever triggered this same response in me. Last week was one of the worst weeks for me mentally, it was affecting my work and people knew I wasn't my self. I knew I wasn't my self as well but I just went on, ignoring the fact that my depression was worsening, I suppose pretending it wasn't happening. People were asking what was wrong and I just couldn't tell them the truth. I went to my GP and told him what I was going through and he helped me out with some advice and meds. I have an appointment to see a counsellor in two weeks but don't really know how that's going to go as I struggle talking face to face with people about my mental health issues. I am wondering if there are any other people that may be in the same boat or have had similar experiences and what their coping mechanisms are when faced with similar situations? Cheers Arron.

amamas the lure of the Beast
  • replies: 7

Hey guys Two and a half weeks since I literally woke up. Or actually escaped the beasts hold. It's been amazing! So good in so many ways... what about the in-betweens though? Not the spaces if you think of life as a written story, I enjoy the pauses.... View more

Hey guys Two and a half weeks since I literally woke up. Or actually escaped the beasts hold. It's been amazing! So good in so many ways... what about the in-betweens though? Not the spaces if you think of life as a written story, I enjoy the pauses. It's all the rest that's the problem So I love the highlights, I enjoy the spaces but the rest of the book of life is pretty damn crap! Certainly makes the beasts embrace very alluring. I find it so bizarre that thats true. The beast - the hated depression demon that never leaves, who I have worked so hard to get away from I'm now drawn like a super powered magnet back to. I just want to let go, sink back and let him take over. Even writing this I think I sound crazy but the pull remains cheers amamas

Vester Portraits in Blue
  • replies: 1

Hi - A group of us who experience depression have started a research project into peoples' stories of depression. We're being assisted by the usual academics, psychiatrists etc..., but it a consumer lead effort. If nothing else check out our movie at... View more

Hi - A group of us who experience depression have started a research project into peoples' stories of depression. We're being assisted by the usual academics, psychiatrists etc..., but it a consumer lead effort. If nothing else check out our movie at http://www.portraitsinblue.com/ - look forward to your participation.

Stranger Always the rock
  • replies: 1

Ok, im not gonna lie, i live a pretty privlaged life... roof over my head, food on the table, Went to a private school all that jazz. Right now im going through some pretty strange stuff, and not dealing with it to well. but right now it seemd like a... View more

Ok, im not gonna lie, i live a pretty privlaged life... roof over my head, food on the table, Went to a private school all that jazz. Right now im going through some pretty strange stuff, and not dealing with it to well. but right now it seemd like all im doing is pumping other peoples egos, and making sure i catch them if/when they fall, im always their rock, always the one saying its going to be ok. But now im starting to slip and i dont know if anyone will catch me so to speak. I don't know how or who to talk to and im just lost right now. i know its not nuch in the grand scheme of things, but for me, its my personal hell.

Beetle Reflecting on my Depression and what it did to me
  • replies: 4

HI all Im still a new bee but i found this forum very very helpful and have posted some threats already and replied to some. I was diagnosed last week with severe depression,anxiety and stress. now the meds really kick in and they blow my mind. I wou... View more

HI all Im still a new bee but i found this forum very very helpful and have posted some threats already and replied to some. I was diagnosed last week with severe depression,anxiety and stress. now the meds really kick in and they blow my mind. I would like to share my experience with them since ive never been on meds. I am on a strong brand new SNRI which is also used as a pain killer.I expereince sideeffects and they are unpleasant. But they finaly took away my suicidal thoughts, the constant worry, my constant stressing about things. I feel on them like i am in a warm fuzzy relaxing oasis. I am so glad that i finaly gave in to accept help. I dont know about you all, how you go with your meds, if they help you or not and give u side effects. I expected nothing and got what i wished for: relief from my busy brain.I feel like my mind opened and I can see the kindness and support and care other poeple offer me. I can see now 3D wheras i feel before I looked at everyhting in 2D.Its like someone took away a glaswall around me and allowed me to live. Even if this drug is toxic to your liver makes you dizzy and nauseated, i rather put up with that than havinmg to live in a fishbowel being disconected and isolated from everything.I feel the disease had taken away the real me, and killed of the kind sensible caring person i once was.Today I realised what a stress head i must have been. I stressed about everything. I worried that it may rain if the washing is on the line,i worried about using too many gigabites and blow out my telstra bill, i worried about not getting a job , not being able to sleep if i have a coffee at 16.00 or that i fail an assignemnt which I havent even written.I also made an elepahnt out of nothing. I could fly off the handle for little stupid things. I broke out in tears if the coffee tin was empty and became suicidal if i got a big bill. At the end I was really bad and was speeding.bad speeding. I feel I would have killed myself or others within the next 4 weeks if I would't have gotten those drugs.Before I agreed to them i went to councelling, i walked every day, ate healthy and tried to talk things through with friends. But all those measures seemed not to do anything. I wonder now if I am one of those people were therapy just doesnt work because the basics, the chemicals were never right in my brain. I dont want o use that an excuse, but as long as i can remember I was different, anxious, sad and preoccupied with the 'what if" question and OMG drama. How are you all going? have people have simiar expereinces.?

k_therase Hurting every one else around me.
  • replies: 3

Hi to all, 5 years ago I lost the most important person in my life my mum. 3 months later i lost my step dad to suicide. 3 months after that my uncle passed away too. In between these years too my best friends brother committed suicide, my boyfriends... View more

Hi to all, 5 years ago I lost the most important person in my life my mum. 3 months later i lost my step dad to suicide. 3 months after that my uncle passed away too. In between these years too my best friends brother committed suicide, my boyfriends mum committed suicide too and my gran passed away. Yes it all sounds like a huge thing, and they are. but 5 years down the track i feel like i should not be stressing over the past. Yet this year i dropped out of year 12, lost all my friends and feel like I'm loosing myself among it all. The only thing that is bothering me though is the other people who I'm hurting, while I get into my moods, my depressed stages i go into shut down mode. I don't care about my own well being, only everyone else around me, yet no one see's that. But why is this happening now?

Blue_Collar Will it ever get better?
  • replies: 5

Hello, I am new to these forums, sorry if this topic is not interesting. I just need to vent. I was diagnosed with depression over a decade ago. Back then I went to my family to hopefully talk to, they didn't agree with the diagnosis and convinced me... View more

Hello, I am new to these forums, sorry if this topic is not interesting. I just need to vent. I was diagnosed with depression over a decade ago. Back then I went to my family to hopefully talk to, they didn't agree with the diagnosis and convinced me to go off the medication that my GP had put me on. For years afterwards I dealt with it alone, believing that I was just overreacting to a bad day when I felt completely useless and worthless. I was extremely lucky to find someone to support me when he can. I appreciate that he is willing to support me any way he can, but he doesn't understand fully the feelings of blackness I experience. There are aspects of our future that have become problems for me to deal with also. I see friends and family around me getting married and having children. While I am engaged, there are no plans for a wedding in the near future (even though we have been engaged for 5 years). I would also love to be a mother one day. I am nearing 30 years old, I know this becomes harder the older you get. My fiancée told me recently that he doesn't want to have children. This has hit me hard. We have been together for 11 years, I love him and don't want to lose him, so I have agreed to put it on the back-burner for now but I know I am running out of time. My mood swings and depression have been having negative effects on our relationship. He does his best to help me, but I can see that he can't take much more of my problems either. I tried a couple of years ago to go to my family again for support. One of my sisters responded with "Stop crying, you are being silly" and proceeded to change the subject. The others I tried talking to seemed completely oblivious to what I was saying. I understand that people don't know how to deal with this type of situation, but that left me with no-one else to talk to. I am not overly close with my friends, this is not something I would be willing to talk about with them. I went on medication again last year, I thought it was starting to help but people around me started to say that I was just a zombie. No real reaction to anything. It was also effecting my health in a very negative way. I struggle to lose weight at the best of times. While on the medication I put on 15kg. I went off the medication a few months ago and the weight is slowly starting to come off again. Even with this bit of good news, happiness doesn't come easy for me. Onto the job front. I lost my job due to "company changes" almost two years ago. No matter how hard I try and how many applications I put in, I can't find a new job. This doesn't help my self hatred. I have always had an excellent work ethic. When I am working, I can't stand leaving work undone, or sitting around doing nothing. Yet not one person is willing to even give me the smallest of jobs. I don't want a huge pay cheque and I am not looking to get promotions and the like. I just want to feel like I am contributing to our household again. I feel useless. I know that my life has no big issues, and I don't really have any reason to complain. I just feel like everyone around me would be better off if I just disappeared for good. Does depression ever go away? I hate feeling like this and I don't know how much longer I can keep fighting this. Sorry for rambling. Like I said, I needed to vent.

amamas Why are people so drawn to depressing things?
  • replies: 3

Hi all I find this entire phenomenon so bizarre! I've just started a blog http://angeljoylovehr.wordpress.com if anyone wants a squizz. I'm using it to try and write out my story very slowly. Kind of face it and get it out of my head at the same time... View more

Hi all I find this entire phenomenon so bizarre! I've just started a blog http://angeljoylovehr.wordpress.com if anyone wants a squizz. I'm using it to try and write out my story very slowly. Kind of face it and get it out of my head at the same time. I had a few normal (?) type posts then this morning I titled my post hell. People are checking it out and I'm thinking why? Seem to be thinking that a lot lately. I'm not sure what my bigger problem is wondering why people want to read a blog titled hell rather than normal type musings or the fact that it freaks me out that people are reading it. Anyone know if anyones ever done any studies on this phenomena? Like put two glossy magazines on the coffee table in a waiting room one with the cover page about a warm fuzzy story and the other with a massive disaster story. I'd be fascinated to know if the warm fuzzy one would even be looked at... cheers amamas

Notmyself Confused, Alone,Lonely - Why me
  • replies: 9

I don't know where it came from or why it chose me. I;m not a bad person, I do good things, I put everyone before my self, I try so hard to constantly get the love and approval from those around me, And look where its now left me. Broken, alone, hurt... View more

I don't know where it came from or why it chose me. I;m not a bad person, I do good things, I put everyone before my self, I try so hard to constantly get the love and approval from those around me, And look where its now left me. Broken, alone, hurt, lonely,sad, angry,confused,frustrated. DEPRESSED. I know now, its been there for a long time, however only when I saw it made the person I love want to walk away from me did I decide to ask for help. It has to have been the hardest thing I have ever done, walking into the Dr sitting down in tears and asking for help because I dont know whats going on any more. My head is a mess, the thoughts, the night mares, too many emotions for me to handle, I try to talk to friends and family , but everyones response is, oh you'll be ok. You just need to stop thinking about it. Yeah right easy to say, but how they have any idea what its like to have something consume every part of you. How do I turn off the feeling of constant pain,stress and sadness? Its not a light switch. I was put on anti depressants, but I feel they're doing nothing, as im going through a break up that has seemed to have just thrown me into a never ending spin of thoughts, and feelings i cant handle. The one person I want to help me cant be with me now, because of the person I have become. How do I combat all these feelings and thoughts to want to get better? How do I make the people around me understand that whats happening to me isn't just a bad day or a bad week. Its an illness, Im trying really hard but feel Im getting no where. I feel stupid and hopeless. I dont have anyone close enough to me who I can tell my feelings to, I have trouble putting them into words verbally. I came here for support and guidance,