If You Had to Describe Your Depression to Someone, What Would You Say That It's Like?

For the record:

I have personally met seoulsearch multiple times. She has never given off "fighting away demons" vibes. She has more of a "continually worried that party guests will be either too hot or too cold, or need another drink, or we might need to set some more snacks out..." vibe.

Thanks for bringing up this very sensitive issue.

The woman below is really going through severe depression.

Perhaps we all can pray for her.

In some of her videos she mentions seeking God.

I don’t have depression, but it seems that your experience with the illness can provide her some comfort.

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, Who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God" (2 Corinthians 1:3-4).

In other words, we all have had experiences with others in the past, but this does not mean that we should immediately attribute what somebody else says to what others have said before them. Two different people can say similar things with two completely different mindsets or heartsets. My posts were fully motivated by my sincere desire to help others. Anyhow, I feel that I should walk away from this thread, with no hard feelings, so, in order to be true to myself, that is what I will do now. Like I said, I commend you for starting such a thread, and I sincerely hope that it somehow helps somebody to truly be delivered from depression. Have a blessed day.

I can tell you front firsthand experience as well as many others, Christian and non-Christian alike, a barrage of scriptures does not help at all.

Yes, of course I understand that different people will be coming from different angles. Anyone who has been here for some time will know that I say this in my posts quite often.

This is why I quoted Lynx in my post -- not yours -- because it's what he said in his own post that activated the thoughts I expressed in my own. The first person I thought of when I read his post was the woman at a church from my past who had told me to throw away my meds. I was specifically thinking about her and the people in that group at that church -- not you.

Anyways...

I do really appreciate your understanding of the purpose behind this thread -- and I'm sure that others can see the sincerity behind your posts as well.

Since you've always been a vocal advocate for helping those with depression, may I ask, do you notice any patterns to the onslaught of your depressive spells? Is there anything you can do to shorten or even avoid them?

The thing that's throwing me about this last one is that it seemed to creep up out of nowhere. It was a little like getting a really sneaky, bad winter cold -- one day, you wake up with a slightly scratchy throat -- but it doesn't seem so bad. The next day, your nose starts itching... The day after that, one side of your nose starts running, then eventually, the other... But it's taken like 5 days for all the symptoms to develop and suddenly you're knocked off your feet -- and it takes weeks, if not months, to finally recover.

I'm trying to remember any clues that set things in motion for a landslide, or if there was something I could have done to stop it in its tracks early on.

Do you -- or anyone else who has depression -- have episodes like this too?

I think mine isn't usually so gradual -- it's more of a sudden dump -- so the severity into which it developed caught me off guard.

I'd love to say I don't understand depression but mine has developed to a point of becoming a disability.

When it is the anxiety side of it, and trust me I have done everything in my power to give it to Jesus, it is an overwelming dread that things won't get better. Or that what ever happened has to be fixed yesterday.

The full on depression side is pure hopelessness. And that even though I believe in God, his will and things being done in his time, I just can't do much other than hide and do my best to make it through with out condemning myself to hell.

Your use of a barrage of scriptures is quite an exaggeration. This is a Christian forum, and it is normal for Christians to offer scriptural advice. Furthermore, I can tell you from personal experience that I have not only been helped by the alleged barrage of scriptures myself, but I personally know several others who have as well.

Anyhow, as I already said, I do not deny that there can be other causes for depression. My intent, as God himself fully knows, was to offer some potential insight into certain biblically-confirmed sources of depression. If my sincere desire to help others has troubled you, then that is on you, and not on me.

I stand firm in what I have previously posted here as possible forms of help for those who are depressed, and you can certainly have the last word if you want it.

This is almost humorous. I offer a series on Hope, and suddenly I am some sort of demon.

Actually I was kind of feeling the same way. Sorry dude.

When I use scripture to make a point, I try to keep it to one or two verses. If I need to reference a lot of verses, usually I just give the scripture number and let people look it up on their own, while I state what I am trying to get across to people in my own words, as those verses relate to the topic at hand.

Of course this is just a word of advice, not an order. You are free to blithely ignore it and go ahead posting long screeds of scripture if you want. But good luck getting your point across to people if you do.

Wow. Another Christian with an aversion to God's word, and on a Christian forum no less. Yes, I will completely, yet not blithely, ignore your advice because I can assure you that God does not feel the same way about my use of scripture that you do. I think it is time for me to start employing the use of the ignore feature more freely.

Wow. Another Christian with an aversion to God's word, and on a Christian forum no less. Yes, I will completely, yet not blithely, ignore your advice because I can assure you that God does not feel the same way about my use of scripture that you do. I think it is time for me to start employing the use of the ignore feature more freely.

I've experience "depression" but I don't know how to describe it any other way than explaining how I physically feel. When I have felt depression, I typically feel extremely lethargic and I want to self-isolate. The problem is that the more I do nothing and self-isolate, the longer I have experienced depression.

Now, I've learned to override my body's response to depression by making myself go against the grain and stay physically active and continue doing the duties that is required of me to function in society. Even if it's just going for a 20 mile bike ride or lifting weights, it helped me move past it. There is a correlation between people who are inactive and being unhealthy, and a correlation with unhealthy people with people who experience chronic depression.

One of the worst things is to give in and do nothing because you "don't feel like it". Of course, we aren't robots and we have feelings, but when we are intellectually aware, we can sort of override those feelings which only enables us to stay in deep depression. With my parents, they often told me they "don't have the luxury of being depressed"... I'm sure some people will be offended by this or think they are ignorant as to what depression really is if they describe it's a "luxury", but I also know what they mean when they said this growing up. For example, my mom has had multiple miscarriages (on two occasions she was pregnant with twins which is insanely rare). She mourned them and was worried she'd never be able to have children. She fell in a deep depression but knew she had duties to fulfill even if she is depressed. She attributes those duties to helping her get out of her depression. "The show [family] must go on."

Often times we think the impulse to do nothing is irresistible for depressed people. I'm not so sure though... I think more often people refuse to resist the impulse to do nothing. I pray anyone who is experiencing depression can overcome it.

My depression, when I feel this, is caused by several factors. I would say the primary cause stems from loneliness, or similarly, disconnect from others due to unresolved matters or failing to seeing eye-to-eye. I find that our bonds would be much closer otherwise, so therein is a sense of loss. Depression is a sense of emptiness in some form, and could even result from feeling disconnected/unheard from God. That, I would say is the primary cause for me. One thing that has helped, is realizing that our relationships with others as well as with God will not be perfect (while we should still aim for improvement but recognizing limitations). However, our hope is that they will be fully restored in heaven.

There can be other causes as well. My last depression period was caused by a death in the family, and the resulting feelings of emptiness from that. Additionally, I became fixated on some other issues which worsened my state.

I do think there is some truth to one being too busy to be depressed (or lonely). Things like work, exercise, activities/hobbies, sleep, friendships, pets, etc. can help with depression. At the same time, these things I believe only serve as band-aids.

I believe going to church (at least the church I went to) also triggered depression with the hymn songs and some of the sermons. The purpose of the hymns is to show how great God is and the kingdom/heaven to come, and how much we need God. However, while I find that the songs show hope they also remind us of our weaknesses and our struggles. The impact of the songs are such that they first have to bring us to a low point. Broadly speaking, also, we are routinely reminded of hell and the unsaved. For me, I find that these routine reminders add to the undercurrent of depression. Similarly, I find a lot of secular songs are also triggers even if the songs contain lyrics which I have not experienced.

Most everyone I know appears to have experienced depression (even if they have not explicitly said so). This is observed from their actions, including whether they have become more withdrawn.

He described it as a heavy, crushing fog and smoke that cluttered his mind and heart, and black as when God struck Egypt with the plague of darkness (the Bible says it was SO dark, that no one could go anywhere for 3 days because they couldn't see anyone or anything in front of them -- but God spared His people from this and gave them light during this time.)

He said that for 3 days, he felt like he couldn't think anything through and that his heart was being crushed with despair. After experiencing that, he felt that he now knew better how to pray for people going through it.

I will most definitely pray for her -- thank you for bringing this to attention.