For those suffering from depression: What does it feel like?

Question

Just curious to see if the definition of "depression" is universal. I have a relative that goes into a catatonic state, but some people who have depression just cry. Sometimes I cry, is that depression?

For those of you who have been diagnosed with depression, please tell me...What does it feel like to YOU?

I'm not looking to get diagnosed. I am not depressed. My point was that there are more and more people diagnosed with it, that I wonder if they think they're depressed because they have a normal reaction to stress, such a s crying. Everyone cries, but I never knew how bad people felt with depression until I read these answers. Thanks for sharing, and I hope everyone who is suffering gets help.

Answer 1

It's not like the blues or melancholy. I was shocked, when someone told me what was wrong, you don't get sad and slowly slide down to this point. You're just THERE, in the black nothingness, numb from head to toe, so tired you can't get up, only refief is sleep thats all you want to do, not be awake. Life is worthless and useless. When you are awake overwhelming sadness, crying over nothing or anything, its uncontrolable. I don't know how, but i found myself there, i did not know for how long, days, a week or so. All i knew was i did not want my little boys to remember mom like this, i did not want them to see or copy my behavior, but i could not help myself, so i reached for a phone and called a help line. After talking to me and telling me what was wrong and happening they sent help from a woman's organization, to this day i know what a lot of the causes were, but i'm still amazed, that i did not feel my self getting there and when i arrived, i did not know i was there. It does not have to do with crying sometimes, no human being, doesn't do that. In a lot of cases it is permenant. In mine it was situational, i had to learn i was not superwoman, that i needed help now and then, that it was ok to lean on someone occasionaly, that i was not a strong as, i guess i had talked myself into believing all those years. It took 3 or 4 yrs. but i did beat it.

Answer 2

Holly
You are very fortunate; not having a head has been found to be a major cause of depression ;)
I can describe what it felt like to me, Hon. It's waking up in the morning and pulling the pillow over your head because you can't face another day. Transversely, you welcome bedtime because you know you can escape through sleep and unconsciousness. (And you'll find every excuse in the book to sleep during the day, too.)
It's having absolutely no interest in ANYthing. Nothing brings you joy. You may try to escape by reading a book, but concentration is so difficult that you are unable to. For me, it was forcing myself to eat a few bites of dinner every night (breakfast and lunch were out of the question) just to keep myself from literally starving; during this time I looked like a walking skeleton.
I knew I couldn't postpone getting help for my depression any longer when I started to believe that suicide was the answer, rationalizing that my family would "understand" and that they'd be better off without me. But help I did get, and now, 15 years later, I'm still around for the world to have to deal with! :)
Girl---your HEAD just rolled by!!!

Edit: Erica, you must be a very advanced scientist, since you're actually refuting scientific findings. I hope to Christ that no one you care about ever experiences major depression---they'll get no help nor encouragement from YOU.

Answer 3

Over the last five years I had begun to have increasingly withdraw into a downward spiral of depression..

But now with the method I can fully focus my energy and thoughts into a decisive line on how to make my life better constantly. And it works like magic! I'm beginning to attract people to me once again and things have just been looking up since then.

Helping you eliminate depression?

Answer 4

catatonic state is severe depression, but crying sometimes is good and doesn't mean you have depression, Depression is more than that, It's a feeling of feeling low, or there's not much about life or yourself that feels interesting. for a lot of us there is a lot of physical pain involved as well, you don't have a lot of energy or interest for anything. We don't see getting through the rest of life as fun, we see it as a chore to till we don't have to do it anymore.
Manic depressive is entirely different. and would take too long an explanation

Answer 5

For me, I just didn't give a **** about anything. Nothing mattered or was important enough. I conned myself into being "sick" all the time, in that I thought I was sick so often I could make myself sick by thinking about it hard enough. There are many reasons/life events that got me to that state, but medication and therapy helped as well as a change in mental attitude. My life motto for about the last 5 years has been "Pick your battles". If EVERYTHING has to be a battle you will worry and stress yourself into an early grave. If what you could do about something will make a change or allow you to speak your mind about a wrong done to you then go for it, but if it doesn't matter when you look at the big picture, its not a battle worth fighting. Sometimes its hard to choose to not fight about it, but it saves alot of problems for everyone invovled and it certainly allows you to live a calmer life.

Answer 6

I used to think I was depressed until I found out first hand what it really felt like. I've only experienced it once in my life. When I was depressed, I stopped enjoying life. I used to live for football games, that was no fun anymore. I was like a zombie living in a world of live people. It was hard to even smile (sad uh!). I've read that depression is anger turned inside? Maybe it is in a round about way. I prayed for two months for God to please lift this cloud from above me, and suddenly one morning I woke up after a night of dreaming, and had my joy once again.
Being bummed out, and down about life and the hurdles we try to overcome is not depression. True depression takes all the joy out of life. I hope you never have it. I haven't had it for 20 years now, but I'll never forget how it felt. Praise God!

Answer 7

An apathetic and shiftless state of mind and body that smothers the feelings to a near death. Listless thoughts laying on the floor uncomfortably sitting in front of you waiting for you to do something. Dread at waking up and a dreadful fear of falling asleep. No colour. No musical sounds anymore. Uncomfortable feelings at being touched. Everything tastes bland even sweet chocolate. You hear only the whispers of devout evil.
The sun doesn't shine, it burns. The moon is too bright. You believe you are at the bottom of a dry well that is damp with moss, and fungi but no water to quench your thirst. Centipedes and spiders are your only company. Family and friends are a bother, they intrude on you and an edge sets in. Depression is a fear you can't rid yourself of and it hurts.

Answer 8

Depression is different from crying , in my perspective.

Everyone cries in their lifetime, so does that mean that everyone has gone through depression?

Maybe.

Depression usually means that your're in a long-term sadness
that affects your thinking. Depression for me feels like the world is going to end. In one minute. You don't know what's going to happen next, and it seems like nobody's going to help you. That you're going to die...and you don't know what's going to help you through it. When Depression usually takes place, the cause for it is usually a death of a loved one, or for me (I have stress-o-phobia...xD) it's failing a test and not getting approved by others. Depression also happens around bullies, because it seems like your
're threatened and that nothing can help you.

Truth is, there is ALWAYS help, and Depression generally isn't real. It's just what your're going through and imagining.

Hope I helped.

Answer 9

Crying in itself is not depression. Depression is being in a bad/cloudy mood for more than 2 weeks at a time and also being uninterested in things that should or would normally interest you. You're doctor is your best bet in diagnosing depression.

Answer 10

everybody cries once in a while. when i am depressed (i am bipolar) i feel like nothings worth living for, adn every new day is just a new oppurtunity to make mistakes... when im depressed i usually think about suicide at least once during the time period because i figure nothing will get any better, but it can get better and always does. but now im happy :D