New To The Depression Support Community! Introduce Yourself Here!

Hi I am Ariana. I have depression and anxiety. I have never been to therapy and never been on any medication. I have had depression since I was 11 years old. I am currently 13 and each year my life gets harder and harder. I started self harming when I was 12 and I have had tried to stop because I can't. I have coping mechanism to help me but sometimes they don't work. I joined 7 cups of tea to get help and find other coping mechanisms.

Hello. I'm a thirty-six year old woman. I found this site by searching for depression support. I went through a lot of links to get here. Wish I found it awhile ago. I've been dealing with depression since I was a teenager but didn't really know what was going on. Everybody thought I was mean and moody. I isolate myself which makes me more depressed but I just find it hard to deal with people. Nobody around me really understands how much I am affected by this. I go in and out of really bad depression but overall I am consistently depressed. Right now I feel like I'm sinking back into a bad episode coming on. My triggers are family pressure and change. I'm hoping by being on this site I may find some kind of help.

I'm a 24 year old female who is new to the depressive world.

Diagnosed as of today with post pregnancy depression after having my second child one month ago. It's difficult to look at such a sweet little girl and wonder how such a painful position in life can result from the process of having her.I also have a 3 year old which didn't come with any type of PPD, so this is an entire new experience for me.

There are days I wake up and can manage to laugh at my daughters jokes, and stare into my newborns eyes with those warm fuzzy feelings. I try so hard to make those moments last because I haven't had them much.

My world has turned into a stress consumed island with a deceptive forecast. I look around and I can't seem to rely on help from anyone connected to my life without an overwhelming sense of guilt. On most days I see my daughters eyes and wonder if she understands the horrific feelings hiding in our locked gaze.

I can't bear the though of my children thinking I'm a failure. I want them to love me, and right now I just can't seem to give them a reason to. I try my hardest every day to be the kind of parent that can maintain a house and provide a strong root for a household, but I'm unable to. Even at my best I still wind up sobbing in the shower at the end of the day in silence so that their father wont see me in that state. The last thing he needs is a mess of a girlfriend on top of the mess of a house I can't even keep straight.

I never thought negative emotions could have such dramatic results, but my mind has turned absent and hollow with confusion. Thinking just isn't there for me.I've turned auto pilot on because I'm afraid of hitting the point of doing nothing and what awaits in that stage.

I want to stop feeling like an alien or a freak for this. I want support and I want to get past these blocks before I miss out on creating actual moments by using this fake happy persona I can still put forward. I don't want to turn to antidepressants and stop nursing my babygirl. I want to smile at my children again, and I think I can accomplish that by being able to talk and admit these things to someone, even though its online.

So hello 7cupsoftea forum, I'm new here, and I really really need this.

Hi I'm 31 and have probably been depressed on and off since my teens due to social anxiety, bullying, loneliness, lack of job satisfaction and other reasons. It got especially bad 5 and a half years ago when I realised I couldn't stay in my crappy, low level job any longer. I ended up going to university in the hope of improving my prospects but that caused a lot of loneliness and isolation as well as anxiety over academic progress, and spates of depression, particularly in the 3rd year of my BA and the year I did my MA, as I was living away from home those years.
I've been back home since September 2013 and since then I have learned that the job market is still terrible and that academic qualifications are no longer a guarantee of career success. Since then I have been prey to bad spells of depression, anxiety and loneliness. I am especially worried about my career prospects as I can only get low level temporary work. I felt awful from last Saturday to last Thursday, and was convinced I would finally have to bite the bullet and go to the GP. I jsut couldn't work out when would be a good time to go with work to think about. I had a slight ray of hope on the Thursday and felt better for a little while but I have been struggling with motivation for various activities all weekend and today I just feel numb and hopeless as I have realised I don't actually have anything to look forward to besides some new books or DVDs.

Hello, I'm Alice.

I've been struggling with depression ever since I was a teenager, though I was only diagnosed 9 years ago, and have been in treatment ever since. I battled with panic disorder as well, but I've been much better now in this area, and I'll only get a few panic attacks a year or so, which is a relief.

My depression, though... that's a whole other story. I take antidepressants, go to therapy, don't drink or do drugs, yet it's always here with me, and this is a very tiring thing, as you all know. Right now it feels like it's making it impossible to live out my life and enjoy it, so I think I'm sabotaging myself in order to avoid being a normal person and actually be happy.

Anyways, this is what I feel now. I'm glad to be here, this seems like a very nice place.

Before I became a listener on this site, I was aware that there were a number of people who lived with the constant struggle of depression. Since being here my eyes have been opened and have realised that there are more people living with it than I could have imagined. As somebody who has been through it before I can understand how difficult it can be and what it's like to live with the constant daily struggles that people are faced with. If anyone on here ever needs to talk, whether you are a member, guest or a listener on this site, you are always more than welcome to message me. I'll be happy to arrange to a time to talk and be more than happy to listen. Always remember, you are strong, even if you don't feel it.

Morning everyone, I'm a 43 year old female who has just moved to a new town with my partner and I don't know anyone so I'm feeling very isolated. On the day I moved in my best and only real friend died from cancer and I'm heartbroken. I miss her so much.

My depression and anxiety is stopping me from leaving the house to meet new people. I was diagnosed with depression and anxiety10 years ago whilst stuck in a very violent marriage. My ex killed himself but sometimes I think it would have been better if he'd just killed me.

My name is Ty and I am here because I've been trying to get help for a long time with my depression, and the people in my life just don't understand how to do that. I was trying things to help get passed that and nothing was really working. "You can't go through depression alone and conquer it," said the mother figure that abandoned me over something stupid only a few months later.

Most of the time I am invisible. I am the person that doesn't ask for or require much. I don't talk back or get into fights about things. I have no strong opinions because most things don't involve me, and how can I make a decision about something I don't understand. It's not a bad thing I like being invisible really. I don't want the attention on me, and I never have. However this means that I am often ignored and forgotten until someone makes a list of acts of kindness they have received. Which if you know people you know doesn't happen often.

In an online community though, all of our posts are equal. You can't not exist where your words are in plain view. This is the theory I am testing, and that's why I am here.

I've been depressed probably since birth. The first suicidal thought I had that I can remember I was about 10. The first time I self harmed I was 12. Also on my list of complaints is Anxiety, agoraphobic, OCD, Eating Disorders, Self-harm, sexual assault victim, verbal abuse victim, chronic pain, and nursing student (which is a form of stress of it's own).

I'm negative, independent, and honest about what I feel when there is someone to listen to it, though most people don't want a storm cloud to rain on them.

hello my name is karen im22 and girl and this is my first time getting help for my depression

Hello. My name is Bethany, but you all can call me hotwings if you like. Either name is fine. I'm a 27-year-old writer who has suffered from clinical depression since I was a teenager. It got much worse in 2012 when I lost both of my grandparents who I grew up with. The year after that I lost my dog who I had had for 17 years. Soon after that I lost my job. A few months later I had a bad accident and then a month later another one that totaled my car. Life has been a downward spiral for me lately and I want things to change. But before I can get things to change outside of myself, I have to work towards changing things inside. That's why I'm here.