There are numerous articles on the symptoms and living in depression, but what is life like after depression? I’m aware of it being a lifelong illness, however I’m talking about when meds/therapy work.
What small things change? People who’ve had depression, what did you noticed changed?
When the meds are doing the trick, I can get out of bed and do stuff. I’m not necessarily happy or in a good mood, but I no longer feel like hiding under the furniture.
I do not know what life without depression would be like.
I have seen psychologists and psychiatrists since early '90s but no effect.
I take Efeexor.
My depression includes anxiety, and I still have really bad days (sometimes weeks) even on treatment. When it’s all working right, though, I feel like a person again. Phone calls, for instance… one of my big anxieties is talking on the phone, I don’t know why. Without meds it can literally take me hours to psych up the nerve to make a phone call, and I’ll rarely answer my phone when it rings. With meds I can make/receive calls without even thinking about it.
So that’s really the overall thing that changes… little things are just little. They aren’t insurmountable obstacles that leave me feeling worthless and suicidal. I can get up and do my work, go out grocery shopping, see friends, and feel like myself again instead of feeling like I’m trapped in my own brain, helpless.
All that being said, it’s still always there, nibbling at the edges of my life, reminding me that I’m really not okay and at any moment it can all crash down around me. I don’t know what it’s like to not have that constant reminder and fight. It’s exhausting.
I have dealt with depression for 40+ years (I was a very anxious/depressed kid – 48yo now).
I’m coming out of a very long, deep, dark depression. The major sign I have that I’m feeling better is that I’m not thinking about myself ALL OF THE FREAKIN’ TIME!! The ongoing narrative of “I feel so awful, this will never end, I’m tired of being depressed, and so on and on” dissipates.
The solipsism of depression is the worst thing for me.
Everyday things are easier to do. Rather than spending hours dreading a short trip to the store for milk I just go without really thinking about it.
There are a few glimmers of joy here and there. I’ll never be a “Yippee!! Life is beautiful” type of person, so the glimmers are a big deal for me.
I sometimes feel like I faced mortality young where a lot of people only face it when they are older. I am kind of at peace with my eventual death, and it will sound cornball but every day is kind of amazing to think I could have ended it before I ever even knew what life was or could be like.
I am thankful for nearly everything I have and treasure it, I’m not cursing how I deserve better and more because I’m happy as is.
I never know when I’m depressed. I can only tell after the depression has lifted.
I may not be happy-happy-joy-joy when I’m not depressed, but I’m not suicidal. Suicidal thoughts (or fantasies of running away) are the farthest thing from my mind.
I am not bored. There’s always something to do when I’m not depressed. When I’m depressed, everything is a chore. Nothing is fun.
I don’t have low energy when I’m depressed. Indeed, I’m almost always full of restless energy. The kind of energy that powers hours of aimless walking. I don’t feel like this when I’m “normal”.
I don’t hate people when I’m not depressed. I don’t necessarily like people, but at least I’m not daydreaming about everyone’s demise.
Finally, the most poignant difference between my depressed and non-depressed self is that the latter doesn’t mind talking. The former has to fight the urge to scream whenever called upon to open her mouth because she hates everything that comes out.
This sums it up nicely for me. Also, I’m much more interested in, and able to participate in, life outside of my depressed, shallow, inward-focused self. I’m at peace, make plans and follow through with them, and am not looking for someone else to “fix” my life nor blaming anyone from my past for screwing it up. I also have less body pain. I was astonished to discover that depression can cause physical pain as well as emotional and psychological pain.
I suffered from depression for about 20 years and for most of that time it was severe and debilitating, however I would say over the last approximately 3 years I have been pretty much free of it. Sure I get down sometimes as everyone does, but I am fairly proactive amount managing my emotions and the things that affect them.
For me meds appeared to help some of the time, but overall it is like a crutch (and not a fantastic one at that). Therapy helped more, particularly in becoming more aware of certain things, but there is a limit to what it can do. My own opinion is that if you’re depressed there is only thing that can truly help you and that is you, and unfortunately medication and therapy can distract you from this.
What is life like after depression? Well from my point of view a lot better, I have far more control over my life and I can do things I couldn’t do before.
Your sentiments could be put on a twee motivational poster, but this is very close to the mark:D
For me it’s like a feeling I haven’t felt since very early childhood. It’s like a general sense that everything is okay and whatever I’m doing is completely copacetic. I’m not happy with everything in my life, but none of it bothers me most of the time. I think about things that I’m not happy with at appropriate times and they don’t intrude into my mind when I’m trying to live my life.
From adolescence through my 20s, most of my happiest times were when I was actively doing something or especially when I was with people whose company I enjoyed. Essentially happiness came from being drawn out of my own head.
I still have those times - more than ever in fact - but now when I’m deep in my own head (i.e. most of the time) I feel calm and unworried and generally ‘light’. As a little boy I loved just sitting alone thinking for hours and that was something I really lost for a good long time.
LIFE IS GOOD!
I’m currently under treatment, on a new medication, and… I’m better off than I’ve been in twelve years. The blessed meds are actually doing their thing…
And that means I’m doing mine. I’m more productive, less unhappy, and doing more things for fun. I’m writing more (okay, not publishing, but writing!) It’s like seeing a beautiful landscape after driving through a long tunnel.
(I’m still depressed…but less so! I’ll take it!)
I’m not depressed at the moment, but I have been depressed for longer strechtes of time, once while also having insomnia. I guess it’s easier to not take yourself so seriously, and not really giving a damn about silly little things. I manage to focus on the things that are important to me and make me and those around me happy. I sometimes feel down, but I know it will pass as long as I try to deal with my problems and keep being active.
The biggest change is having more energy. I’m also much more likely to look around and see something that I can change that will make my life better. When down, it would be a chore to do the dishes. When up, I’d respond to feeling a little cramped in the kitchen with the idea of getting rid of the old hutch and putting a set of shelves in its place. Or I’d respond to a higher utility bill (due to AC) with the idea that if I put a trellis of vines a few feet from the house, they’d shade that side.
I’m feeling depressed today, but it’s been a looong time since I have had the can’t get out of bed type of depression. I only had it when I was young - younger than 27. I was never diagnosed and never had any addiction problems, so it’s hard to say if I am really able to speak with any authority on the subject.
Mostly I didn’t have energy. I was tired but couldn’t get to sleep. I would do things like play chess for 12 hours straight, and play every day but never get any better. I would be awake for 20 hours and then sleep for the next 14. I longed for any connection with humanity. I went to New York and lived in a flop house for 75 bucks a week until I maxed out my credit card - I figured if I was gonna have a nervous breakdown, do it in style, amiright?
I am almost never depressed any more, the difference to me is that I have more energy to do things. I have trouble really remembering much else about what being depressed was like unfortunately.
My depression was coupled with a heaping helping of anxiety, to the point of not being able to breathe properly. Once it lifted I could take a deep breath again. And I also didn’t think about death constantly. Not that I was suicidal when I was depressed. I just couldn’t stop thinking about my own demise. Once the depression/anxiety went away, death was no longer at the forefront of every waking thought.
In short, once it lifted, I just felt a major sense of relief.
I have never been medicated, but I never pursued it for reasons that aren’t relevant to this thread. Speaking of my experience, it ebbs and flows. I can largely manage it by sticking to good routines, especially my workout regimen, and making sure I get enough time around people to keep me grounded. The latter is much more difficult as I’m a strong introvert and if I start to slip, it can quickly become a self-perpetuating cycle. But all of that said, I have done a lot of therapy and other work and I’ve built up a pretty solid support structure of people and systems that support me.
That said, sometimes things still just go to shit. For instance, almost a year ago, I had a series of bad things happen that had the compounding factors of breaking several parts of my support structure, notably the systems I had to force me to spend time around people. Things got pretty low at some points there, but If I hadn’t learned the things I’d learned in the past, they could have gotten worse and it could have lasted longer.
Even without that, there are some lesser times where it just sneaks up on me, but it really is all about managing those structures that support me. Each time it comes in hard like that, I learn new lessons about how I can even help manage the lesser ones, it never really goes away, but even still, some things that would have sent me spiraling before can be largely mitigated now and, honestly, I’m as generally content now as I’ve been in several years.
I’m not generally depressed. I had the normal teen stuff, then a major depressive episode during my 20s. The thing that I find most remarkable about it in hindsight was how hard it was to see and understand what was happening to me in real time. How was it possible that I was so depressed I was barely functional for a couple of months without my being able to see that I was so depressed I was barely functional for a couple of months?
After it lifted, I could see it. I don’t know why I’ve never had a recurrence, but I’m very glad about it. It’s brutal.
I only experienced traditional depression for about 6 months after my husband’s death. It was such a dark and dismal period of time that I scarcely remember anything about it other than it being terribly hard to do even the simplest daily activities. Even getting dressed or taking a shower was an Herculean effort. I largely came out of the period with time and some counseling.
However, I’ve suffered with anxiety since I was a teenager. I have generalized anxiety as well as panic attacks. I’ve had a variety of treatments for it over the years, some have helped, others haven’t, but nothing I’ve tried has done more than dial it down a notch.
Panic attacks are dreadful and there is nothing to do but ride them out. After they subside, there is a sense of peace, but there is also that little ball of dread that lives somewhere deep inside me that reminds that it will be back and that I should worry about that. That’s the generalized anxiety - that nagging little voice inside you that won’t let you relax. Ever.
For me, at least, the absence of depression or anxiety, means that I can get things done, I can concentrate on the moment and move forward without freezing into a state of fear that I’m doing the wrong thing or making the wrong decision. I can carry on normal conversations and remember them afterward. I can play with my dogs and really get into it. I can pick up my ignored friendships and make them work again. I can reconnect with family. In short, I can progress.
Depression is inertia of the worst kind. It’s what I would imagine living in a black hole would be like. You feel yourself slowing being pulled apart into the molecules of which you’re made and you don’t have the strength to even begin to resist the process.
My depression is less severe than some others here, but the meds make me more even-tempered, less nasty, more willing to do something new and different, and gnerally a less unpleasant human being. Or so I’ve been told by family and co-workers.