Depression

Understanding Your Feelings

Depression feels unique to each individual and each of us may describe it using our own words and personal situations and events that are meaningful to us.

The phrases used below are some of the most common ways people describe what it feels like to feel Depressed, but you may feel it differently. And that's ok. This list is here to help you do 4 things:

- Help you identify your feelings

- Let you know other people have felt the same way

- Reaasure you that all these feelings are normal

- Convey to you that our counselors know how to help you feel better by teaching you the skills learned from Neuroscience with compassion and kindness

What it feels like to be depressed

Feeling a deep, deep sense of sadness or emptiness, a nothingness, numbness, a hollowness, like you just want to give up, quit trying, or existing.

Feeling lethargic, not having any energy to do anything, feeling tired all the time, worn out, wanting to sleep all day, or not being able to sleep at night.

Not wanting to be around your friends or anybody, not wanting to do anything, trying to imagine the most fun activity in the world to try and psyche yourself up and feeling that wouldnt even make you feel better.

It can feel like walking through or existing in some sort of alternate reality or uncomfortable dream like state where everyone else/the rest of the world seems happy and going about their day, oblivious to you and to your pain, like you don't exist and don't matter, which makes you feel worse.

Feeling like nobody would undertand how you feel. Feeling painfully alone, isolated, like nobody really cares, like no one really knows you, or cares about you, or wants to get to know you, feeling worthless, meaningless, unworthy, unloveable.

Feeling powerless, feeling unable to do anything to make a change that you want or need in your life, feeling lost to know what to do to fix what may feel like an impossibe situation, that is causing you immense pain.

You may feel like talking to a Counselor will not help when you're feeling depressed

You may feel like talking to someone won't help, or like there is nothing anyone could say that would help. It might feel like nothing can change how you feel, and nothing can make a difference.

You may feel like your problems are too big, too complicated, too difficult to explain, or too painful to talk about, and you just don't have the energy anyway.

You may feel like there is no way anyone could relate to you. You may feel unless that person has "walked in your shoes" lived your life, seen and experienced what you have and most importantly felt what you've felt, then there is no way they could possibly understand you or help you.

When you are already sad and experiencing a lot of self doubt, or feeling like a failure, it is common to think you should be able to figure out your problems on your own.

Many people might feel and question themselves by asking- "Why can't I figure this out on my own, other people seem to, or what's wrong with me, why can't I? This is a trick of the brain and is not true and can make you feel worse.

When you are at a low point in your life, you may have an increased desire not to share or talk about your failures, or your flaws. You may resist letting yourself feel more vulnerable, by exposing situations that may feel embarrasing.

This feeling of wanting to protect yourself may increase your desire to feel like your problems are your own business and nobody elses. When you are feeling unworthy you may feel more afraid, embarrassed or ashamed to share or talk about your feelings or thoughts with anybody else.

You may feel fearful of the other person's reaction or thoughts about you. You may start to think what if they think I'm crazy, weird, or even insane. Then you may feel afraid of what what they could do once they know these things about you.

This is also normal and a self protective mode of thinking that we all do when we are feeling down. Try not to succumb to these thoughts, they may keep you isolated and prevent you from seeking help that will be beneficial.

Remember no one is free from failures and disappointments in life. We have all had low points and we can all benefit from having a supportive person to talk to who will listen and help us process our feelings.

The Good News

All of these thoughts and feelings are absolutely normal and can happen to all of us when we aren't living the kind of life our brain needs and we want to be living.

We need to provide our brains with certain essential ingredients it needs - having our basic survival needs met, moments for social interaction and love, opportunities for us to reach our intellectual potential, outlets for novel fun, occasions when we can experience our independence and autonomy, low stress situations, satisfying problem solving opportunities, possibilities for meaningful contributions, being an integral part of something larger than us, and participating in regular physical exercise and eating good nutritious food to optimize our overall health. Without these combined ingredients, our brain starts to slow down the production of the chemicals that normally keep us feeling content and happy- dopamine, serotonin and oxytocin!

Depression is a condition that is absolutely reversible! By adding these ingredients back into our life, our brains can return back to their dopamine producing states and we can start to feel better, happy, fulfilled!