How to know if you are going through depression?

Question

I am a 18 y/o girl I have had a lot a bad events to happen to me over the past 5 years. My parents got divorced and the only dad I knew disowned me. My best friend who is also my sister left me. My boyfriend and first love was killed. I used to be know for having a very exciting and fun personality I had a lot of friends. I was way into guys and I was always going somewhere or doing something. Now I havent been with a guy in over 2 years. I have always been told I am a very pretty person so I get a lot of attention from guys but I just ignore them. I dont go anywhere I dont try to socialize at all. Literaly for the past 3 years I have been at home. I only have two friends who I have had for a long time. I dont try to make new friends or talk to the ones I used to hang out with. I attempted suicide numerous times I cant even count them. Now I feel that I am at the end of my rope and I need some serious help what should I do? I tell my family how I feel but hey dont really take me seriou

Answer 1

You definitely sound depressed, you need to see a psychiatrist for medication and a therapist to talk out all of this mess you have been going through.
I am sorry so much piled up on you at once

Answer 2

If you have feelings of hopelessness; long periods of crying spells;and lonely. You keep to yourself. You tend to sleep for long hrs on end. You don't feel like eating. Poor nutrition can cause depression. Overweight or obesity. You lose interest in grooming or putting on make-up. You stay away from friends. You stay indoors most likely. You don't sleep good at night. You're hurting all over, emotionally. These are all signs and symptoms of depression.

Being at the peak of your life as a teenager. The mood swings and turmoils are all part and parcel at this stage due to chemical imbalance and raging hormones. But remember you're just going thru a normal phase. And you're not alone with this problem.

Teenage depression leading to suicides at times is not uncommon. You have to talk it out with your parents and friends. You should seek some professional help from a guidance counsellor in school or from a doctor.


I have a bipolar disorder.eversince I was a teenager. Three years agp, I was at the bleakest depths of my depression. Those were the darkest hours for me. I constantly cry non-stop. I was afraid to venture out of the house. I avoided company. I just pack on the extra weight from inactivity and compounded my depression.I had to be institutionalized for 3 months. Only then, I was properly diagnosed and I was confronted with this illness.

Answer 3

You have a lot of issues that you are ignoring and your body is trying to tell you it needs help. You should see a doctor. Perhaps you could use some anti-depressants for awhile to see if it helps you improve. But someone who has gone through as many changes as you have at such a young age, will be affected, unless you get some emotional support and medical help and advice. Especially, because you indicate you have attempted suicide. That's a big red alert flag! You need to go for help. Chemical imbalances cause people to do stupid things and your body wants you to get help. It's not normal to want to kill yourself and to be cutting off your social life. You're young and your life should be filled with joy and discovery and learning and growing every day. It is not a time to be wasted sitting around with an air of doom surrounding you. And it's not necessary. I speak from personal experience. It's like night and day after you get help and find the right meds to get you through the rough edges. You definitely need to have psychological counselling to get all of your past experiences into perspective. Because you're so young, you don't have enough wisdom about human experience to understand it all. Please get yourself medical help!

Answer 4

Depression
Persistent sad, anxious, or "empty" mood
Feelings of hopelessness, pessimism
Feelings of guilt, worthlessness, helplessness
Loss of interest or pleasure in hobbies and activities that were once enjoyed, including sex
Decreased energy, fatigue, being "slowed down"
Difficulty concentrating, remembering, making decisions
Insomnia, early-morning awakening, or oversleeping
Appetite and/or weight loss or overeating and weight gain
Thoughts of death or suicide; suicide attempts
Restlessness, irritability
Persistent physical symptoms that do not respond to treatment, such as headaches, digestive disorders, and chronic pain

Answer 5

Hi. The fact that you've tried to commit suicide numerous times is definitely a sign of depression. It's more than a sign, it's a cry for immediate help. Don't wait for your parents, friends, or anyone else. Help yourself right now by calling a suicide hotline or getting yourself to a doctor or emergency room. You need immediate help!!!!! Do it now!

Please don't wait. Your life is a precious gift, and you haven't lived enough yet to realize that. Don't waste it.

Get help. Not for your parents, siblings, or anyone else. Do it for you.

Answer 6

You are very depressed, that is clear from your statement.

Sorry the parents are not willing to see how bad it is, my family was the same way and even after I nearly died from a suicide attempt, they lied and told everyone I was on vacation.

You are eighteen though, same age I was but didn't know my rights when I begged my parent to get me help; though I had asked for years before that, but by eighteen I was begging to see a therapist.

You can seek out therapy on your own, without your parents permission and obtain it. You can even tell them and this is the law, that if they have medical insurance on you that covers mental health care, they must allow you to use it to bill for covered services.

If you are not covered in any manner for mental health, then sadly that does leave county mental health center as your only option.

I can tell you how to make that work for you. One, never admit until you are with a therapist you trust, especially at a county facility, that you are suicidal. Just say you have thought of it, but at the time you are trying to find options through therapy so that won't be something you end up feeling you have to chose. It's word play, but necessary. WHY? Becuase at a county mental health center if you are uninsured and sucidal, they want to get paid through the state and they can do that by commiting you. Even when you have voluntarily sough help. It's not suppose to happen, but I've seen therapist lie and say the person was refusing treatment, when they had actually sought it, so the courts committed them to the county mental health center. Once committed you are under their control and I mean, their control.

Don't be afraid to tell them if you want to see a man or woman. They'll tell you that you have to take who they give you, but in the United States, the law says that you have a right to chose among any therapist at the county facility who has an opening for a new patient. You really need to tell them that you need to talk with someone who won't drug you, but will help you work through all the death's you've had to deal with int he past few years and the problems with a father just up and leaving. BE SPECIFIC, show you are in control, or they'll take over. This is from a person who sought treatment through a county center for 9 years, wanted help, but I didn't realize what it took to get quality care at a county unit until I'd quit and was writing a book.

Go prepared to your initial appointment. They have to see you for free if you can't afford to pay. They'll say your parents have to pay so you need to tell them who they are, but you don't have to tell them your parents names, so don't write that on intake if you don't want them to know, afriad your parents will try to keep you from therapy. You at 18 can seek treatment and your parents can't access your therapist or your records without your written permission, so read through everything before signing it. They may attempt to get you to sign a paper stating that they can let your parents know you are seeing someone at the center. I hope you can tell your parents, but I know that's not always what one feels they can do.

Going in person without an appointment and telling them you are severly depressed, can't afford any private care and need help is the quickest way to get seen. They have to help you at a county mental health center.

Be prepared with what you want from them. This is you life, not theirs. Have a list of the things you feel have caused your depression. As you have listed here. Then tell them that you do not want to just be drugged, that you want a therapist who will actively help you work through these issues and find peace and SKILLS to help you deal with these issues. Now if after a while you need medication, that's up to you. But county units and American's in general would rather take a drug then change things in their life, learn skills to cop with life's pain better. There are real skills you can learn to lift the depression.

I have tons of life experience and I've interviewed many with depression for my book I'm writing. I've taken many college psychology classes and since I was 12 and first knew that I had problems I set out to read every book on mental health at the county library, then moved on to the college text books.

How we breath causes chemicals to be released into our brain and throughout out body. We can breath in such a way that we trigger the release of endorphines that help us feel better or we can have supressed breathing which means we will not be oxygenated well and stress hormones are released which then add to depression. Learning to actively breath in a way that is able to help cause endorphines to be released has proven to help depression, anxiety and panic problems. You stand or you can sit, standing helps some people focus at first. This is something you want to do at least three times a day for thee to five minutes. You breath in slowly and yet deeply through your nose, breathing in through the nose assures you breath slowly and makes sure you don't hyperventilate. You breath in deeply, at first you may become light headed, if this begins to happen, sit in a chair with a hard back so you sit upright, but sit so you don't fall down. Then after you've breathed in slowly and deeply, you let it out slowly through your mouth. Do this for five times, see how you feel. If you are light headed, do five cycles three to four times a day or anytime you realize you are feeling more down or tired. If you don't get light headed, then to ten cycles each time you do this. This also will help bring your metebolic rate back up and it's probably slowed down due to your on going depression and stress.

Get SUN LIGHT! Our mind receives a trigger to be active, to be alert when we get at least 30 minutes of outdoor light first thing in the morning. Try not to sit in darkened rooms during the day because you feel down. This one is one I have to work at, because I like the night and I like the dark. I just force myself to do it, knowing from experience it does help.

When you start to do negative self talk. Such as you are lazy, you are dumb, you are better off dead, anything negative. You tell yourself STOP. This stops the negative cycle. You tell yourself. I know that I feel dumb (or whateve ryou are saying), but I am an intelligent person who is just having a really hard time. Everytime negative self talk begins, actively tell yourself in your mind to stop. I had to actually say out loud when I was alone, at first, STOP I'm not going to say those things to myself, I know this is hte depression and my life experiences making me feel this way and I'll never feel differently if I continue to talk to myself this way.

Journaling can be a great release. Just take ten minutes every day or longer, but at least ten minutes to write everything down that is bothering you, upseting you, etc. Then you take a minimum of five minutes to also seek to find positive things to write about. It's hard when you are depressed to write anything positive, but this actively helps you look at what you have in life and not just what you have lost, what is causing you to be depressed. People will say, just love yourself, you know you have good quality, the world is great. But for many that isn't how it feels and faking it doesn't work. For me, I didn't like me and I still have no idea what self love is. So I'd write positives like these. The scriptures tell me that Heavenly Father loves all his children, so that includes me even if I don't feel that He could love me, it's not up to me to tell him he doesn't love me, when the scriptures state he does. I'm good with children. I'm caring about how others feel. I work to never harm others. Things like that. I'd also look at the world and write things like. The ski was clear today. The mountains are so green and I love the mountains.

Venting through writing is healing, but you need to counter the venting by making sure that you attempt to find positive things to see in the world--IT WILL TAKE EFFORT. If someone smiles at you, write that done, don't analyze it, just write, today so and so smiled at me.

Minimal exercise to increase endorphines are a must. Even if it's walking around the block twice in the morning, it will help your body to learn again how to produce for itself the chemicals that the brain needs to focus, to feel happiness.

Do for others, find something that at least once a week you can do for someone else. Go to the shelter and help serve a meal. If you love animals, so to an animal shelter and ask what you can do to help them out.

Do everything you can to help yourself. Find support groups for those grieving, they are good at helping people deal with death. You can usually find one through a community hospital or asking a funeral home if they know of any support groups for those grieving the lose of someone they love.

You can get better, feel better then you do now, I know it seems like you've felt this way for so long it will never improve. It can, truly. Take it from someone who was suicidal since around age 11 and actively self destructive and suicidal since I was about 13. I died twice from my suicide attempts and let me tell you. IT IS NOT THE ANSWER and because you are sane enough to stae how you feel, that means you are responsible. I can tell you this, pepople who tell you that if you commit suicide all will be well, God loves us and we'll just return to Him. He does love us, we will enter into the Spirit World which is where Spirit's go until judgement day. but you will be held accountable adn you won't end up some place happy, not help, but you won't be where you want to be. I CAN TESTIFY to this and know it as a fact. So please, please do not commit suicide, thinking it will solve your problems, it will only lead to misery.

Give yourself time to heal, to actively seek out ways to deal with the things that you've gone from and find healing and peace. It may take a year or more of actively working on it, but you will feel better if you work at it. Don't use drugs or alcohal, they will only make things worse and add more problems to how you feel, which in the end means more to over come later when you finally realize drug and alcohal don't fix a thing.

Reach out for help soon, it's hard on your own at your age, but you can do this and you can get help. If you get a therapist you don't like, just tell them you want to see someone else.

If you can afford thorugh your parents private therapy, get with a psychologist, not a psychiatrist. Psychiatrists are more about drugs, a psychologist is more about therapy and behavioral approaches to change and feeling better.

NEVER GIVE UP! I'll be praying you get help soon and feel better shortly.

Remember many others have gone through this, are going through pain like you are, you are not alone.