**Warning** This is a) a really really really long post (sorry!) possibly the longest I've written, if you stick with it, thank you, but also b) it might have some triggers for people with depression/anxiety/self harm. Just wanted to flag that up now
It's hard to explain depression to people who don't have it. I don't
really talk about it much, even to those closest to me. It's like something
that's just locked up inside my head and it's hard to put into actual
meaningful words, because doing that means thinking about it all and that's
kind of painful. And also, humiliating.
I've
alluded to my depression and anxiety a fair few times on this blog and toyed
with doing " a day in the life" type post. But when I'm having a bad
day, the last thing I want to do it write about it. But when sad sad things
like Robin Williams' suicide happen, I realise that I have a voice - and a
mouth piece in this blog - and the more that people with depression are able to
open up about it, the less lonely those who don't talk about it feel and the
easier it is for those to understand who don't have it. (wow that was a long
sentence...)
For a
long time I didn't realise I had depression or the way I felt was different
from everyone else. I mean yes I'd been to the GP a few times over the years
but I just couldn't face talking about some of the things I thought about. The
way I hated myself so much it was just built into my psyche, I couldn't imagine
not feeling that way. How I didn't so much want to die or commit suicide so much
as just simply not exist. Because it was just too hard.
