For those of you have or have had depression problems are there certain things that make your depression worse or start to come back? I started dealing with my depression and anxiety last summer and while I don't feel great, I certainly feel a lot better than I did. But for me there are some things that make the depressed feelings come back with a vengeance. Mostly hearing/reading things about people coming out to their families. It makes me think about how I'll probably never come out to my dad and how coming out to my mom didn't go well. I find myself crying a lot when I read/hear these things and I'll feel down and out for a few hours. So the depressinging feelings do go away, but they are really annoying, they put a damper on my day and I can't really function when I'm having them. I feel like I shouldn't have these triggers and that they're silly, but they're there and I can't get them to stop bugging me. Does any have any advice or been through something like this?
Usually it's anything failure-related, since I strive pretty damn hard to well... not fail. Other than that, drinking-related things, because my dad is an alcoholic and it definitely impacted my teenage years quite a bit. Though I don't know if that's so much as it makes me depressed as it just makes me shut down.
Not getting enough sleep, spending too much time on my own, not getting enough exercise, eating too much (but that's a different issue), watching too much tv, having to think about my future for any reason etc. Basically, if I take care of myself and don't think to much, I feel fine. If I don't, I cry so hard I laugh hysterically.
Being alone is my main one. Also, being stressed out by simple tasks that should be easy but I find draining and end up with me deciding I'm worthless and have no future. Oh, and being in the dark at night. It makes me think XD Don't feel stupid for having triggers. We all do by the sounds of it ^^
Triggers are almost universal for people who experience depression. And they can seem really irrational. There was a period of several months when seeing a red car would send me into a downward spiral.
Winter is always a depression trigger for me. The worst time of my life was the winter of 2008, and every year since then I haven't been happy during the winter. Which sucks cause I've really been enjoying my life recently, and I don't want to lose that. :/
I've also realized that what used to be my "cheer me up" playlist has become a trigger, I guess too many bad memories attached to those songs.
Anything stressful from a tiny argument can trigger depression for me so you are not alone. I just took my dog out for a walk, he was pulling me, that pissed me off/stressed me out a tiny bit, and now I'm back to feeling like complete crap for being gay. So not all triggers have to do with being gay. I just need a bit of disrespect or a hint of insult from anyone and I am immeadiately depressed. My parents both know, so there are a lot more things to worry about when it comes to being gay. I'm basically terrified of being identified as different, and really can't see myself ever coming out to the world, because it's only taught me that is going to be a bitch. So why put yourself through that misery. If you can't avoid triggers try to figure out ways to dismiss them when they come up. I play happy music, or think about being gay 100 years ago, it actually makes me feel better to know that I don't have it the worst, even though thats a horrible way to make yourself feel better.
my trigger is usually when i think about how iam living my life....in the closet and living a lie, cause i cant be me..my depression usually last a few days but my longest was like a week...when this happens i just lock my self in my room and dont talk to anyone and if do, its only if i have to...talked to my sister about it and she gave me this book to read its called "The ultimate Happiness Prescription: 7 keys to joy and enlightenment". im only on the first 2 keys. the ideas behind the keys are quite good. im not advertising the book or anything, but it helped me.
Questioning my sexuality makes me very depressed. Don't know why but it does, it lets me realize how alone I am and stuff.
I'm not a medical professional, so take my advice with a grain of salt: As for how to deal with depression triggers, I think the worst thing, in most cases, is to avoid them. If you're just repressing your feelings, they're going to come back, possibly stronger than they were before. If reading coming out stories, or listening to certain music brings you down, gradually do it until they no longer have that effect on you. For example, just think about reading coming out stories, and once you're as comfortable as you feel you're going to get with the topic, actually read them. It will be hard, and the depression probably will get worse for a while, but in the end, it should help alleviate the pain. Preferably, you can work with a therapist while you do this.
All the times I've had gone through depression had been concerned with love so far, and had come back when I see this person, with his partner or talking about how great they are, or when others do that on them and when I had left myself to dwell on such or future. As I can remember, it's the most silly problem I've ever had to deal with until now, so thinking of it drives me to feel like crap making things worse. What I do to prevent it, is always keeping away from things that I see or hear on him or avoiding falling in to vulnerable thinking. It most times help to keep away from falling into depression and also to clear if it's already there. Once I've had been playing an online game when I had depression like that to keep my mind occupied and away from those thoughts. Later as that game started to remind me of it, I had to keep away from it too, but after leaving it for some time, I found it was over. So what I think as best to do, is to find the original reasons or/and triggers for your depression and keep away from all those as much as you can, until a better solution is found. Particularly with you may be to avoid reading those coming out stories from others, if you're not in a strong mindset to avoid sad thoughts occurring like that. It's true, reading them may help you to come out from closet later, but what good does it do, if that reading makes your day worse and drives happiness away or push you towards depression. So I think what you could do is, just before you start to read, seriously determine that you aren't going to think on YOUR coming out when you read others' stories or later. Or else keep away from such things if you seem not fit, at the time, for that kind of determination or concentration. If you want to go on, you've got to keep checking on your thoughts, to not to go on thinking further with any negative thoughts that had been there before or to ignore them if they seem to occur while you are reading.
My depression seems to come back every 2 years. I don't know why that's the case, but it's been that way since I was 12. Being 20 now, that of course means that I'm going through a very rough patch at the moment, to the point where I've missed the last 3 weeks of classes. I also have several medical issues, and it seems to be that when those issues act up for a prolonged period of time and force me to be shut away from the world because I can't physically leave my apartment, the depression kicks in and makes it even harder to get up and do anything, even when the physical issues subside. My emotional difficulties are more related to an existentialist way of thinking (and I have been suicidal before, but am not currently), as opposed to any direct issue I have with my life. It has now gotten to the point that I really can't function most of the time because I am in so much pain physically, but can't/won't do anything about it because I'm so emotionally damaged.
