Depression can be sneaky!

Depression can sneak up on you.  Life can be floating along, everything going well.  You are living life, doing things with family and friends, and doing your normal routine.

Then one day you just feel blah, but you do not know why so you just shove it off.  Nothing has really happened to cause you to feel that way so you just assume you are tired and it will go away tomorrow.  Then it is a week later and you realize you still feel the same way.  Maybe you have scheduled activities you do not want to do, but you go ahead and do them anyway.  The depression feelings are not as prevalent in your mind, but you keep moving and doing life and keep moving and doing life.  This is a good thing. 

Now it is a couple weeks later and you realize you have not been able to shake these feelings because now you start isolating yourself.  You do not want to participate in anything.  Your house is your friend.  You maybe even take a day off work. 

At this point, you have become aware of your triggers.  What do you do?  You have to keep doing what you should do i.e. go to those activities, call friends to encourage you and let them know what is going on so they can check on you and pray for you.  Journaling is great because as you write sometimes things come out in your writing which your brain did not think about.  Rest.  It is okay to take a day off, but not three days.

If you figure out what is going on, take steps to correct it.  If you are on medication, it could be they need to be adjusted.  If you are dealing with many stressful issues, maybe distancing yourself from those if you can.  If you are a spiritual person, as I am, go to church whether you feel like it or not, look for scriptures which will strengthen you, and pray.

Although in the midst of this time, I get frustrated because I think I should not be getting depressed anymore since I am working so hard to fight against it.  However, the reality is, we all have these times.  If you are clinically depressed which means you have been diagnosed with depression, unfortunately, it may never totally go away, but it is definitely manageable.  Just hang on.  Grab hold of the above things or something that has worked for you in the past!