The 25 Paradoxes of Depression

1. You loathe the isolation of depression, but you avoid other people.

2. You want help, but you don’t always listen

3. The harder you fight it, the harder it gets

4. As soon as you think you’re well again, bang, it hits your harder than ever.

5. While other’s may see you as happy, successful from the outside, you see yourself as miserable, a loser and helpless

6. You believe there is a God, but you feel like an atheist.

7. You’ve been told a million times that exercise would help lift your mood, but chances are you don’t do it.

8. You’ve been told a million times that a better diet would lift your mood, but you don’t do it.

9. You intellectually might know the causes of your depression and what you could do to feel better, but it doesn’t improve your depression

10.  You suspect that your high-stress job may be a significant factor causing or exacerbating your depression, but you can’t seem to find a way to leave it.

11.  You do everything to beat your depression, therapy, medication, exercise, etc. and you still suffer from it.

12.  There is more media coverage about depression being an illness, but most people don’t believe it is.

13.   People with other types of diseases, cancer, heart disease, arthritis, elicit sympathy from others, but many people who suffer from depression do not.

14.  Many people who take antidepressants know that it helps, but still quick taking them.

15.  You feel like you have explained what it’s like to suffer from depression a hundred times to people, and they still don’t get it.

16.   You may have been a person who has gotten things done in the past prior to your depression, but can’t get things done now.

17.  You procrastinate a lot, even though you know it’s bad for you.

18.  You know you love your family and friends, but don’t feel anything.

19.  You have the means to get help and sense you need it, but don’t do anything to get it.

20.   You have many things to be grateful for in your life, but don’t feel grateful for it.

21.   Your depression suddenly lifts or returns through no effort of your own.

22.  When you’re in a depression, you can’t remember a time when you haven’t been in one.

23.   You’re a good person, but feel like a bad one.

24.   You treat others’ well and forgive them, but can’t seem to treat yourself well.

25.   You dismiss achievements in your life and feel that you didn’t deserve them, even though you feel others’ successes are well earned.

Copyright, 2014 by Daniel T. Lukasik

 

 

 

 

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