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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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EmiJ Looking for hope
  • replies: 2

I guess as my title suggest I am just looking for some hope if there is someone out there who has been through or is like me and it has turned out better for them.I am a walking embarrassment who absolutely hates and disgusted by myself.I did age car... View more

I guess as my title suggest I am just looking for some hope if there is someone out there who has been through or is like me and it has turned out better for them.I am a walking embarrassment who absolutely hates and disgusted by myself.I did age care work for over a year then I left the company because I felt I had humiliated myself and was completely inferior.I tried a couple of other companies but it was very short-lived because I think I was too comfortable with the first company.I applied again for the first company and got rejected unfortunately due to health reasons I was unreliable when I worked for and no I don’t think I was the quickest worker and maybe my personality does leave something to be desired.I have multiple other issues but at the moment I need to be able to hold down a job and unfortunately any other job I get it’s not what I want. I want to go back to that job but now I never can.it’s not just a job thing. It’s everything I’m getting older fatter and I have no self esteem left .everything outside of my bedroom in the house I share scares me and sometimes I’m even scared in there. I’m just so mad at myself and I just feel like I don’t even know what I feel like just like everyone’s laughing and judging me

Guest_07631912 Completely done
  • replies: 1

I’m just so completely defeated by life. I don’t feel I have any strength or drive left. I have been fighting my mental health for so long and have done nearly everything do improve it. I worked so hard to build a life and career. But when life keeps... View more

I’m just so completely defeated by life. I don’t feel I have any strength or drive left. I have been fighting my mental health for so long and have done nearly everything do improve it. I worked so hard to build a life and career. But when life keeps giving you numerous traumatic experiences, you never have a chance to recover from any of it. Now it’s made me so alone and unlovable. No one wants to be around me despite giving everyone my complete loyalty and love and anything I can give I do, I sacrifice my own health and happiness for others and it’s still never enough because “I have a negative outlook on the world” like 27 years of trauma won’t do that? And it’s my fault? But it doesn’t matter how much you recover people still view you as damaged goods and the only people that stick around are the people that know they can keep draining me of my resources because I would do anything to be a good person and do the right thing by others. Genuine human connection is what I need so badly but it’s the one thing I can never get. The only person in my entire life that I thought was seeing me as my whole self, and accepted me for who I am turned out to be just like everyone else and discarded me without a second thought. I am so insignificant to everyone. If I died tomorrow, only my dad would care. So I don’t see how I am meant to keep going everyday, feeling like I’m suffocating under the weight of complete rejection from the whole world. Nothing makes me happy anymore and my job and hobbies all seem pointless. Whats the point in anything when you have no friends, only people that use you and the guy you thought was your soulmate was nothing more than the wishful thinking that someone would be empathetic enough to hold the space for me to learn to trust people again. I can’t keep hoping things will change when every year something worse happens and I’m even more alone and broken than before. You can only pick yourself up so many times. I don’t know how people can just go on. I just don’t know what to do anymore.

Daisy_totoro Experiening a scam
  • replies: 2

My daughter became acquainted with a friend named Rose last October. Rose claimed she could help my daughter chase away the demons that I believed were haunting her. From that point on, Rose encouraged my daughter to leave home for six months without... View more

My daughter became acquainted with a friend named Rose last October. Rose claimed she could help my daughter chase away the demons that I believed were haunting her. From that point on, Rose encouraged my daughter to leave home for six months without any contact with us. Since my daughter is already an adult, we were unable to bring her back during this time. After six months, my daughter finally returned home but had lost weight and bore numerous scars on her face; her condition was truly concerning. Now, four months after returning home, Rose suddenly informed me and my husband that we needed to pay a bill related to her knee replacement surgery. The amount exceeds AUD 10,000 because Rose has been fabricating stories about how my daughter supposedly pushed her at night when she came back home. As a result, my daughter is now confused about what is true; she believes that if we pay the bills, it will alleviate her stress and refuses to listen to our concerns.

Tiger28 Bipolar 2 struggle
  • replies: 2

Hi, this is the first time I am posting. I had been officially diagnosed with bipolar 2 disorder a month ago. I'm looking for people with similar diagnosis. I'm on mood stablising medication and anti depression tablets too. But i am stuck, not much m... View more

Hi, this is the first time I am posting. I had been officially diagnosed with bipolar 2 disorder a month ago. I'm looking for people with similar diagnosis. I'm on mood stablising medication and anti depression tablets too. But i am stuck, not much motivation to do my regular things. I feel so lost. I wanted to meet people who feel the same as me.

Earth Girl They only love me in a not wanting me to die kind of way
  • replies: 4

I have a life that seems as good as it could possibly be. I live in a nice street in an area where it's easy to get to places. I live with my parents, and our house is nice, and we also have a beautiful garden (my Mum was a horticulturist). We aren't... View more

I have a life that seems as good as it could possibly be. I live in a nice street in an area where it's easy to get to places. I live with my parents, and our house is nice, and we also have a beautiful garden (my Mum was a horticulturist). We aren't rich by any means, but in some ways, I could be considered quite privileged. My parents also seem like very happy, pleasant people as soon as they enter the front door to the garden or as soon as they park the car when we have arrived somewhere. (They often argue with each other for the whole drive to places, but as soon as they find somewhere they want to park, all of a sudden, they are all happy and act like nothing happened). Behind closed doors though, things aren't so perfect. My Dad literally does NOT want to talk to me... AT ALL. Practically all he says to me is "Good morning", "I'm going to work now, have a nice day", "Good night." It's like I'm a... goldfish? He doesn't need to talk to me much at all. Or even see me really. My Mum on the other hand talks A LOT, but she doesn't want to talk TO me either, instead, most of the time, she talks AT me. She has to tell me every tiny detail about every single insignificant thing that happens to her. If she opens an avocado and it turns out not to be a good one like she thought it was going to be, she blubbers on AT me about how she's disappointed. (That avocado shit happens to me all the time, but I don't tell anyone about it because it's BORING). I don't know how to explain how she tells me every tiny detail about everything that happens to her to get people to realize how crazy it is because when I write it down, it doesn't sound that bad, but she'll literally treat me as something she can tell everything to and not care about what I have to say at all. I could ask her "Are we going to.... on Sunday?" And she's like "I agree! How can you ride a horse with the bridal like that?" _ WTF? My Mum actually has really cool hobbies, but she doesn't want to talk to me about anything else! By the time she's finally stopped talking AT me, I could ask her a question, and she'd be like "Oh, I'm just going to use the computer now." Sometimes I have to walk away from her when she's talking at me, and she'll either keep talking because she thinks that everyone must be there when she wants them to be or she'll follow me around the house! They don't see me as a person with a personality; they see me as someone they want to keep alive. They love talking TO my older sister.

Guest_43072508 Stuck in a work rut
  • replies: 2

My whole life through school I was the overachiever. I pushed myself hard to get good grades and treated myself awfully to get there. I was a high achiever and in my mind pushing myself was a good thing. I went through uni studying a design course an... View more

My whole life through school I was the overachiever. I pushed myself hard to get good grades and treated myself awfully to get there. I was a high achiever and in my mind pushing myself was a good thing. I went through uni studying a design course and pushed myself hard again for three years. I completely locked myself away from friends and family and worked. Hard. And as a result I was a dux. For me, no matter how hard I pushed myself to the point of serious harm doing work and perfecting everything, I got a reward. I had some measurable form of successes. Now, I’ve been stuck in retail for 2 years since graduating. I understand my career is a hard one to get into but boy this has really diminished my self esteem. More than the low self esteem I already had. In my mind through schooling my self worth was connected with physical results. And still is today. I’m seeing someone to work through this. But I guess now that I’m not in my career choice I’m attacking myself because I feel like I’m obviously not good enough to be in an illustrative career. I feel like all this pushing and hard work has been for nothing now. I’m a failure and have wasted so much time moping around and yet I also cannot find the strength anymore to change anything. I feel stuck in retail, it’s the only thing I’m apparently good at and there is just a part of me who feels like I just have so much more to give in life. I can’t get a job because I don’t have experience but no one wants to give me experience so I’m stuck in this loop of never being good enough. And this has just gotten to me so much that I feel like a waste of space. it doesn’t help that at work my manager proof reads documents that she has asked me to write and then changes things to make it sound better. I get that she is allowed to proofread but she’s never told me that she will and it just makes me feel dumb and stupid. Like I’m obviously illiterate and dumb and that’s why she has to fix it. Customers tell her all the time how beautiful she is only for me to stand right next to her like cool thanks I guess I’m ugly too now. I feel so inferior to her. I feel like I’m wasting the talent that I know I don’t have and feel I am stuck in this job that is slowly sucking the life out of me but where will I go because I’m not talented enough to get a job in the career I actually studied for.

EmiJ How to stop being a walking embarrassment to myself
  • replies: 1

I am a 33 year-old female who has rarely ever managed to hold down a job since I was 25. I even went back to study and did really well at my studies but when it came to putting it into practice in a position I have never managed to be the same as I w... View more

I am a 33 year-old female who has rarely ever managed to hold down a job since I was 25. I even went back to study and did really well at my studies but when it came to putting it into practice in a position I have never managed to be the same as I was as a student.yes I had a less desirable childhood to the point where sometimes I wasn’t even bathed properly and it was obvious in school etc. I could go on but it would take too long just one minor example however both of my siblings have turned out quite well and hold down full-time position.it’s always either my health my anxiety or sometimes I just can’t even be bothered putting in the effort any more. That’s how many positions I have gone through in the last eight years.when I do try, I can never keep up or be the personality they need etc.I live in share accommodation that causes my OCD great stress there is nothing I can do about this.I have achieved nothing in the last eight years except gain weight

alisa_ how to get help for unknown childhood trauma?
  • replies: 1

i've had the feeling that i was sexually abused as a child for about 4 years now. I have a couple of visions/fragmented memories that i feel like may be from the moment that something happened to me but i don't know if they are or not or if anything ... View more

i've had the feeling that i was sexually abused as a child for about 4 years now. I have a couple of visions/fragmented memories that i feel like may be from the moment that something happened to me but i don't know if they are or not or if anything even happened to me at all. over the years i've done research and a lot of my symptoms seem to correlate with victims of childhood sexual abuse. for reference, i've been diagnosed with depression (and anorexia in the past, i still struggle with my eating disorder, but less so and i'm at a healthier weight now), i have some issues with substance abuse, and i've been suspected of having ocd by my past psychologist that i stopped seeing. i've also attempted many times. these thoughts have been destroying my mind for years now and i'm starting to get desperate to know the truth. i just need closure.

Guest_62481691 Suicidal Thoughts
  • replies: 2

I've been experiencing severe suicidal thoughts ever since a few months ago. My life the past 6 months has been nothing but bed rotting and playing some video games, i dont go to school anymore, I quit my job 2 months ago. My life has been downhill e... View more

I've been experiencing severe suicidal thoughts ever since a few months ago. My life the past 6 months has been nothing but bed rotting and playing some video games, i dont go to school anymore, I quit my job 2 months ago. My life has been downhill ever since the start of 2025, my online "friends" make alot of fat jokes towards me no matter what I say (I'm not that fat. Ive been losing alot of weight but it's been harder with everybody criticising my every move) I told them about my SA and they took it and started joking about it because I'm a male being sa'd by a woman, this happened when I was around 10. Life has sucked ever since I was 5 if anything, my childhood was "not like others" - school counsellor. My parents broke up when I was young and I was very in-between during it, bouncing around house to house. Always getting yelled at/hit. I flinch every time my dad tries to joke around with me. You know how much that hurts?. Sorry if im talking or writing too much. I really needed to say something to someone, even if it's a post in a group.

windywillow Feeling blue and sad
  • replies: 1

Hey,I just needed to get off my chest how sad and blue i've been feeling. I've been dealing with depression for a long time and social anxiety. Life has been feeling very aimless and purposeless chronically. Financial stress is waning, working doesn'... View more

Hey,I just needed to get off my chest how sad and blue i've been feeling. I've been dealing with depression for a long time and social anxiety. Life has been feeling very aimless and purposeless chronically. Financial stress is waning, working doesn't feel particularly inspiring, I feel like a failure when it comes to romantic relationships, I have no family.. I guess i'm feeling very isolated and lonely. I didn't do so well on an assessment I was working on.. but that's okay I guess. Grateful for a lot of other things going on but that emptiness sucks sometimes Here for some words of support... Things feel so lacklustre