I have a history of depression in my family, and it did not skip a generation with me.  My father battled depression for a large part of his life.  He is better now, but I know that the same old demons try to pop their heads up from time to time. 

My experience with depression is a dark cloud that surrounds me, and takes me out, whenever I worry about anything.  I have gotten so low, I have wondered if the world would be better off without me.  Depression is usually accompanied by an intense feeling of helplessness.  I have felt the lowest lows of depression, and if you feel this way, I would like to fill you in on some tips that have helped me.

First of all, I would like to tell you that I am not a trained professional.  If you are feeling suicidal, please tell someone.  You may need psychological treatment.  I am offering some advice that has helped me when nothing else could.  I must also re-iterate that I have never attempted suicide, nor have I come close to attempting suicide.  If you are so depressed that you have, you should seek professional advice.

I have, however, felt like lying in bed all day.  I have felt like my life was pointless, and I was useless.  I have felt so bad, I was afraid I would never feel better.  I started having internal dialogues with myself.  I know it sounds crazy, but I have argued with myself. 

Here's how it works.  As soon as you start feeling depressed... even if you wake up depressed, don't give in to it.  If you feel so tired, you can't get up, ask yourself how much sleep you have had.  If it is six hours,  or more, you should be ready to face the day.  If you feel tired after eight hours, or so, you should kick your own butt out of bed.  I actually do this.  Force yourself to get up and take a shower.  Step out your door, and feel the sunshine.  Tell yourself that there is life going on all around you, and you are a part of it.  My mind will, automatically, try to argue with me, so I just imagine what God, or my mom, might say to me.  If I am running behind on a deadline, or didn't finish something that I had set out to do, I just speak calmly to myself... not out loud, of course... and put it all in proper perspective. 

When I am depressed, everything seems so huge.  When I am depressed, every obstacle seems too much to handle.  I try to step outside of myself and talk to myself objectively.  I find that the "what's the worst that could happen" question works the best.  Ask yourself if you could live through the worst case scenario.  If the answer is "yes", and I know it is, then you have won the battle.  Everyone falls short of their own expectations. 

The most important thing to remember is that you are not alone.  You are not the only person on this earth who has ever felt like a failure.  You are not the first, and you won't be the last, person who has felt hopeless.  With depression, I have found that the negative outweighs the positive.  But that is all in your head... all in my head.  I have to remind myself that for every negative feeling, there is a positive feeling in there, somewhere.  Find that positive voice!