Depression, had it for years

My ex friend, we had good times, but he is a walking shit show that sucked the life out of me !

I'm living with depression also, low grade enough that I still can function to a certain extent because I have to, but bad enough that it is impacting on my ability to keep my head above water financially. I've had to work less because I can't take the bullshit of it all anymore. But then that makes my life worse because I'm worse off monetarily. Yet I'm not a bad enough "case" to qualify for disability, so I'm between a rock and a hard place. It sucks.

I don't date anymore either -- jesus who needs the stress! Dating and even relationships are overrated. You just trade one set of problems for another set of different problems.

For friends, like you, I have one good friend I can confide in, the rest are more shallow acquaintanceships. I have hobbies, interests etc that I still take an interest in, but other lifelong interests that have gone from me completely. I used to be an avid music fan and a musician myself, and now I don't even listen to music anymore except to stick a very old album on my iPod while I shower. And that's it. Listening to music now is actually painful to me, it's part of what's going on with my depressive state, I know.

I do agree with you that most people are assholes. The best we can do is try not to trust anyone -- one asshole actually ruined my life for me, from which I'm still recovering.

Same here. Always in a dark place. Oh well, I just go on. I'm not living though. I'm just existing.

Dude, that is the same way I now look at life.

I was always flamboyant; however, I went through a recent financial hardship and I went through a period where I was entirely withdrawn. One thing I learned was to make sure to keep the depression in check and be at least 10% more happier because if something should happen, you really would not want to get into depression purgatory.

Positive things though 1.) Hey, at least you live in a state where you can surf (unless you meant on the internet) 2.) Working and helping people is what we were meant to do

With going through my financial hardship, I also had awakened t realize the necessities. Now that I disconnected cable, I have more time to do what I need to do. When I was working full time, I never had much time to watch it anyway and everything went to DVR. They say, when you work (and it is essential for paying bills), everything comes secondary and most of the time, you never really get to enjoy the luxuries you pay for. You might as well save up that money and sustain yourself if any hardship arises.

Being in a relationship is also a HUGE liability unless your significant other or gf works because the economy is horrible now days. To this day, I have no idea how guys do it with the gal being a stay-at-home. I would feel horrible if I was dependent upon to provide everything through my job, including insurance and financials. Once that job is lost, everything is gone! That gal and child are gone too! (Well, not really, single moms have proven to survive now days; however, it would make me feel horrible!)

I think we need a depression rehab thread on here. I like bouncing off my problems and seeing how to offer positive transitions to others. This could actually prove to be beneficial on here.

I still don't know if I officially have depression/anxiety, but I believe I do have minor cases of it. I don't like talking to people, so therapy kinda flopped.

Last summer, I got into a really bad funk. I think it started with finals, and I may have had a minor existential crisis due to the Philosophy paper, especially since I accidentally procrastinated on it and couldn't find a good subject to relate to. Somehow I pulled off an A, but I was still down on the dumps most of the summer. Crying a lot, unable to concentrate or sleep much.
Walking in nature helped. That was one thing that would make me feel better. Music sometimes. I don't have many friends, but I have tried to reach out more over the past year.

I also have IBS, so whenever I get stressed, my stomach freaks out on me. Cramps, nausea, the whole shebang. So that's no good.


I hope everyone can find coping mechanisms that work for them and find happiness even in little things. Depression is a terrible thing.

I'm in a similar position. Haven't had a real friend in years ( or at least a close friend). I have a few acquaintances, but that's about it.

My life mainly consists of work, then go home/sleep repeat again the next day.

I also have no gf as well, but that's not really a big deal. Most women aren't worth bothering with anyways.

Hang in there. You're not alone.

Yeah, me too.
I'm not going to go into specific details about my life, but they don't matter I guess because I've had depression for 40 years regardless of my situation.
I guess you'd call it high functioning depression. I do my work. I clean my house. I pay my bills. I run on my little hamster wheel like a good little hamster. I don't lay in bed and cry every day because I have responsibilities, and I know that as bad as it is now, it could be much worse if I flaked on those responsibilities. I do the things that used to give me pleasure, in the vain hope that they might give me pleasure again, but even those things just feel like a different hamster wheel. Going through the motions.
Not interested in any relationships at the moment because I have enough work already, I have enough responsibilities and shit to take care of. I can't take care of another person on top of everything.