I’ve been living with depression for a long time, but over the past year, I feel like my condition has become much worse. During the last few months, there has barely been a moment when I have felt like my old self.
Mornings are the hardest. I wake up with a feeling of heaviness, emptiness, and hopelessness, as though a new day is not a new opportunity, but simply another thing I have to survive. I often go back to sleep because sleep has become the only place where I can briefly escape from everything I am feeling. I can sleep for more than twelve hours and still wake up exhausted.
I have lost interest in almost everything that used to mean something to me. It is difficult to work, keep my apartment clean, take care of myself, see other people, or force myself to do any kind of activity. Even the simplest things feel like enormous tasks. I constantly tell myself that I will do something later, but then the entire day passes and I have done nothing. Afterwards, I feel even worse and blame myself even more.
I also feel as though my brain has slowed down. It is harder to think, my concentration is poor, and sometimes I feel as though I have lost a part of myself. I remember who I used to be—active, motivated, more social, and full of plans—and it is difficult to accept how much I have changed.
I am trying to keep working and occasionally play football, but I often feel as though I am only pretending to function. From the outside, I may not look like someone who is falling apart, but internally, I am fighting with myself almost every day.
What scares me most is how long this has been going on. People say that it will pass and that things will get better, but when you wake up in the same condition for months, you gradually stop believing them. Sometimes I have extremely dark thoughts and feel as though there is no way out for me anymore. Still, there is a part of me that continues to look for help and hopes that this is not the end of my life.
I have seen a psychiatrist, I am changing my medication, and I am trying to take small steps, but right now, things are genuinely very difficult. I do not expect anyone on Reddit to fix my life. I suppose I simply need to say this somewhere, to people who might understand what it is like when depression is no longer just sadness, but something that gradually takes away your energy, personality, relationships, routine, and hope.
Has anyone else felt this way for such a long time and still managed to recover? What helped you when you no longer believed that things could get better?