I am depressed as f***.

You are not alone. Many people suffer silently; you are brave to share your life. When time wasted is time enjoyed, then it is not wasted. Your time here is yours to do what brings you happiness and health. If you ever need to talk, vent, whatever, feel free to reach out to me.

then if you believe you are the graffiti picket fence type, please do so. art is a feel good time. art will consume you. i suggest trying your idea. if you have a yard, put up this fence you spoke of. if you do not have a yard paint the fence covered in graffiti on your walls.

also, i suggest swimming, walking, lifting weights. if you can run/jog, please do so. and do it until you can't take it anymore, until exhausted.

i am no dr. but i would also like to suggest no caffeine and only healthy foods and drink. no booze, no caffeine and things like this. and go outside as much as you can.

can you write poetry? poetry has saved my life and continues to do so. if i did not write creatively i would be up a creek in deep trouble. why you may ask? because i get shit out of me. it builds up and i can't take it anymore. i feel useless if i do not write daily.

i have been pretty depressed before. i have never cut myself but i have abused drugs and alcohol. i have never felt so great in all my life as i have when i gave up hard drugs and alcohol. i believe the alcohol made me more depressed deep down than i was happy. i became a drunkard as a young teenager. this totally ruined my life for many years. again, art saved me.

art has saved my life more times than i can count.

please try and paint, write, draw, do anything creative. it will help you. i hope it saves you. this is how women are to me as well. they save me. i write poetry, women appear. i couldn't ask for a better life than to have great women by my side.

send me a pm if you ever want to shoot the breeze.

Love the Lao-tzu quote. I found the Tao very helpful when I have been feeling blue.

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To the OP, just do what you LOVE, and say a giant fuck you to all who disagree to it. For me its as simple as dirving my car windows down, music blasting... or playing the drums when I can. The more you start doing the things you love, the more the things you dont necessarily like start becoming better to deal with. I came to conclusion that you're not living live if you're not happy. The whole point of life is to be happy, no matter what.

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Find what makes you real. Something you love and Dive in brother!
Please pm me if you need it.

PJaddicted wrote:

What heals my soul every time through this journey called life is to get out into....NATURE. No matter what is going on in my life, being in the great outdoors helps to center me and gives my brain room to figure out what I need to do next with my problems. Put your face in the sun, breath fresh clean air, listen to the quiet sounds of the natural world and move your body....repeat this prescription as often as you possibly can. Head out at night and look up at the stars realize you are not alone. Each time you connect with our natural world you will come back with some answers and peace of mind as well.

very nice suggestions. our natural world is best, nothing better.

That sucks. I'm sorry you're dealing with depression. It one of the worst diseases you can have, just because people can't understand how you're feeling. Unless they've been there, that is. I went through a couple years of depression and anxiety triggered by a traumatic event. I also had a very bad time with medications. They made me feel so much worse, and at one point I ended up in the ER because of my reaction to One particular med. Terrible. The meds were ways worse than the affliction for me (they can helps lots of people though). Anyway, that's when I finally caved and tried therapy.

J really felt that therapy wouldn't help me because I'm very self-aware, and so didn't figure a therapist could enlighten me about myself anymore than I could already do for myself. Well... I was right about that, lol. However, what therapy did do for me was provide me with a person who was completely objective about my situation, as opposed to everyone else around me, and also who really did understand what was wrong with me, why I couldn't just suck it up, and he validated my feelings rather than secretly thinking I should be able to handle things better. Validation of how you're feeling is more powerful than I thought it could be. Also, just the actual act of going to therapy helped, because it made me feel proactive - way more so that just going to the doc and trying a pill. So if you haven't tried it, I really recommend it, even if you have big doubts, because the reasons therapy helped were surprising to me when I finally did it as a last resort.

Also, Pearl Jam helped, dead honest. Maybe try immersing yourself even further into music or something else you already enjoy, like a sport or art or whatever. I ended up really reaching full recovery from my PTSD when I woke up one morning and realized that I found real joy in collecting bootlegs and vinyl (largely PJ, but other stuff too), along with photography . Suddenly i had a new independent sense of passion in my life for first time in 2 years, and i ran with it. I let myself get really into it, whereas before i think my illness had been convincing me to tread lightly with everything. I think I'm saying don't be afraid to become obsessed with something that brings you a sense of joy. Just make sure the obsession is healthy and happy. saying that you should become obsessed with something may sound weird, but honestly, it could pull you out of the dark place when nothing else worked, and then you'll find that you are further able to spread your interests out, that the passion that comes from your healthy obsession leaks to other parts of your life.

The best thing for you is to continue talking about it. You have a very supportive group of people here who are all very good listeners.

Being different is wonderful....once you get your depression treated, I hope you can be proud of who you are....fly that freak flag with pride....I do!

I suffered from untreated depression for the first 30 years of my life. Often times, it seemed impossible to get myself together for social events, etc. My depression had negative effects on my education, my professional life, and my love life. Often times, I'd be out with a girl, and I'd slip into a depressed state....I'd come-off as uninterested and boring....same thing would happen when I was hanging around with friends.

I still get depressed from time to time, but medication usually keeps it under control.

Please, get help, and don't stop until you find something sensible that works....I assure you that it is a great investment!

Things can change....don't give up....there is a whole world out there for you to enjoy!

be your self..express your self....whatever or wherever its going...just must be you...