Depression is ruining my life (How to cope with depression)

In this brief guide, we will discuss feelings like “Depression is ruining my life”, and what depression looks like to someone who is suffering, as well as resources on how to cope with it.

Depression is ruining my life

If you have ever thought, “Depression is ruining my life”, you need to stop what you are doing with and take the matter seriously, and try to get things under control. Depression is a serious illness and taking it lightly can cause you great discomfort, and it can even lead to feelings of suicide.

Depression does not get better on its own, so if you feel like depression is ruining your life, you need to talk to a loved one, seek help, and see what you can do to stop it from ruining your life.

What depression feels like to a sufferer

To someone who is suffering from depression constantly, it may seem like they are not worth the help of their loved ones, or that they are not going to accomplish anything with their life.

They may also feel like they are horrible people and they may be plagued by feelings of guilt and shame for no reason at all.

They may also feel like depression is slowly killing them from the inside and also ruining their life because they are not able to function as they used to.

Depression makes people not feel like doing anything or going anywhere,  they are mostly left alone.

 They might also get stuck in the monotony of regular life because nothing gives them pleasure, and they are not able to break out of it, which only makes the depression worse.

They may go to work somehow, come home and then stay home.

They usually tend to lose interest in everything, and feel like they don’t have energy, sleep a lot, and become defensive.

They may feel like they want to talk to somebody about their problems but at the same time feel guilty about bothering someone or the fact that they have problems in the first place.

How can untreated depression ruin your life?

Untreated depression can lead to constant debilitating sadness all the time and the symptoms of depression like shame and guilt can even turn into delusions and the person may experience a psychotic break due to the prolonged stress on the mind.

In addition to the mental symptoms, untreated depression can also cause physical symptoms like weight loss or gain, not being able to sleep, random aches, and pains in the body, and tension headaches.

There is also evidence that clinical depression left untreated, can cause people to have a more difficult time making health care choices for other problems like stroke or heart disease.

It has also been seen that it makes it more difficult for them to follow their doctor’s instructions and to cope with the challenges of their other illness.

A study also found that patients who have untreated major depression are at a higher risk of death in the first few months after a heart attack.

How can depression ruin your life?

People with depression constantly feel that this has ruined their life. In addition to the health risks of untreated depression, it can also affect your work and other aspects of life, if you are constantly under that much stress.

Depression can cause Negative Automatic Thoughts, which are essentially just thoughts that are out of your control, and these thoughts are the ones that cause all the emotion we feel when we are depressed.

Negative Automatic thoughts are relentless and constant, the person is not able to control them.

If someone is constantly thinking horrible things about themselves and their future, it eventually starts to affect their behavior and how they approach things.

The person suffering from depression might be able to function initially, but the toll it takes on them is huge, and eventually, their productivity starts suffering so much that it doesn’t even matter if they are functioning or not because they are just miserable all the time.

Look at this quote from someone who suffered from severe depression that was ruining their life:

“It would take me close to 30 minutes to coax myself out of bed. The only reason I would even get up was that I had to walk my dog and go to my full-time job. I’d manage to drag myself into work, but I couldn’t concentrate. There’d be times when the thought of being in the office would be so suffocating that I’d go to my car just to breathe and calm myself down. Other times, I’d sneak into the bathroom and cry. I didn’t even know what I was crying about, but the tears wouldn’t stop. After ten minutes or so, I would clean myself up and return to my desk. I’d still get everything done to make my boss happy, but I’d lost all interest in the projects I was working on, even though I was working at my dream company.”

Depression can cause some pretty intense weeping spells, so imagine someone who is suffering from depression constantly continues to go to work and try to function somehow, they may still suffer from random moments of breakdown where they might just be crying relentlessly, and that sort of things might even lose them their job, eventually.

Depression can also impact people’s studies adversely, and someone suffering from depression may have trouble making it to class, causing their grades to fall and their results to suffer, which might only further their depression.

Treatments for depression

The way to not get to the point where you feel “depression is ruining my life!” is to seek treatment, whether it is therapy, medication, or anything else that a healthcare provider may get recommend.

Here are some of the best methods of treatment for Depression.

Antidepressants

Antidepressants can be scary if you have heard horror stories about side effects but in reality, antidepressants are very beneficial even if you are going to therapy as well.

Taking antidepressants has been seen to have a positive effect on the results of therapy as well, and if you do experience side effects your doctor can always change up your dosage till you feel better.

Most people who use antidepressants don’t regret it, just take a look at these reviews:

“I’m on 80mg of Prozac and it has been a lifesaver for me. I went off at one time but my depression and anxiety came back with a vengeance. I just started taking it again last week at the 80mg dose and I already am starting to feel like myself. The only side effect I don’t like is the heartburn so you have to drink a big glass of water when you take it, otherwise, you feel like your esophagus is on fire. I’ve had no other negative side effects. It also helped me quit smoking and my craving for sweets. I’m sticking to this med forever..”

“I was started on this medication at a very low dose in college. I suffer from depression & anxiety; after a few weeks, the depression started to slowly go away-minimal side effects mainly less energy. I have been on and off it/trying other options since then & nothing has helped as much. Zoloft & Paxil did not have an impact. I stopped taking it after feeling better for a long time but my depression came back and was much worse, now finally getting it under control. I personally don’t like taking any medicine but this one has helped me great deal-the side effects (especially being really tired) at least for me went away after the first month. I hope if you are reading this, with medicine or not you are well and taking the best care of yourself possible.”

Cognitive Behaviour Therapy

Cognitive Behavior therapy or CBT was created by Aaron Beck specifically to deal with depression.

The main features of cognitive behavior therapy are that it focuses on the Negative Automatic thoughts that are so common in Depression.

Most people who have these thoughts are not able to remove the emotion from them because it is so instantaneous, but this therapy teaches people to remove these malformed notions about self and the world from their mind, and in doing so their attitudes improve as well.

According to CBT, people also form bad ideas of themselves, which it calls Schemas, which give rise to beliefs and thoughts, which is another thing that CBT eventually tries to change.

The benefits of CBT are that it’s a relatively short term therapy and it can involve various ways in which you can get over your depression, your therapist may ask you what works for you and work with you in order to get you all better.

Guided meditation

Guided meditation is usually a treatment option that is used in conjunction with other methods of therapy, as a way to release some of the pent up sadness and added emotion that may be adding to the other symptoms that the person is experiencing.

It also helps the other things that the person is doing to get better, like therapy or medication, to work better, due to the relaxation it induces.

In addition, guided meditation affects sleep in a positive way, which also takes care of a major symptom of depression, insomnia, or inadequate sleep.

Interpersonal Therapy

Interpersonal therapy (IPT) is another great therapy that was created for patients suffering from depression.

It involves focusing on making the social connections of the patient, along with the way they relate to external objects, events, and people, better, and by doing so it makes them able to overcome their problems on their own.

IPT is a very short duration therapy, and it may be very good for people who have a more mild to moderate level of depression and have limited resources.

Psychoanalysis

While it is practiced lesser and lesser these days, psychoanalysis is still a great therapy for depression, and if you are at a level of depression where you feel like “Depression is ruining my life”, psychoanalysis may work well for you.

Modern psychoanalysis works less on the principles of Freud and is more an eclectic mix of theories that came after Freud but were similar in the way they approached mental illness.

Psychoanalysis involves diving into childhood traumas or deep-seated feelings of inferiority or other negative beliefs that the person has that may be contributing to their depression.

It gets to the crux of the matter and removes the symptoms along with the disorder.

Psychoanalysis is a longer therapy than any others and may take up to a year of weekly sessions, maybe more, depending on the therapist and person.

What to do if you feel that depression is ruining your life?

If you feel that depression is ruining your life, try to follow these tips:

·   Talk to your partner, parents, or close friends, getting social support is the first thing when you are not feeling well.

·   Try to seek treatment of some kind, any intervention is better than suffering in silence.

·   Try to become engaged in activities that you may have enjoyed before, no matter how hard it might be.

·   If your work is suffering particularly badly, try to take a break for some time, or talk to your bosses if you think they might be compassionate about the situation.

·   If you are a student and your academics are suffering, talk to the guidance counselor or a teacher you feel close to, they are well equipped to deal with problems like these and will guide you on what you can do.

Conclusion

In this brief guide, we discussed feelings like “Depression is ruining my life”, and what depression looks like to someone who is suffering, as well as resources on how to cope with it. Please feel free to send us any questions or comments.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs): Depression is ruining my life

Citations:

https://www.healthline.com/health/mental-health/what-major-depression-is-really-like

https://www.mentalhelp.net/blogs/a-strange-question-about-recovery-from-depression-why-get-well/

https://www.goodrx.com/blog/best-medicine-for-depression-reviews-popular-antidepressants/