Third Place 2015 Writing Competition Winner

Congratulations to @positivewhisper24:)

As a listener on 7 Cups of Tea, I often talk to people who are experiencing something similar to what I went through. At those times I'm bursting to say, ?I've been there.? I don't talk about my personal experiences in chats, but sometimes there are things I wish I could say. So I've taken them and summed them up into five basic pieces of advice that I wish I could tell myself when I was younger, experiencing the worst of depression and anxiety.

One, It's never too early to ask for help. I started to feel depressed when I was twelve. Being sad was my default position, while happiness was rare and difficult to hold onto. For years I told myself it was going to go away, that I would outgrow it. I waited. Eventually I was twenty and I realized it hadn't gone away.

Two, Not all therapists are good, and they might not be right for you. Therapy can be really helpful, but it can also feel like a waste of time. I saw a therapist who was cold as stone and just waited for me to talk. I saw another one who never really understood me. I saw several more who spent ages asking me to tell them my life story, judging me, asking redundant questions. And still, I kept looking for the right one. Now I have an amazing therapist who really gets me, and knows how to help.

Three, Medication can help. Depression and Anxiety are biological conditions that are caused by an imbalance of chemicals in your brain. Just like when someone is diabetic and they take insulin, it makes sense to take Prozac for depression and anxiety. Before I started taking meds, I had nighttime anxiety. Every night, just as I was starting to fall asleep, horrible images would pop into my head and I couldn't think of anything else. They terrified me. I was afraid of the dark, paranoid of completely irrational things (like monsters chasing me around my house). With the meds, this type of anxiety has completely gone.

Four, Medication can make things worse. For a year, I was taking the wrong medication. It did not help my anxiety at all, and only made me more depressed than I was before. I had side effects that made me unable to function. It made me tired all the time, to the point where I could sleep for 18 hours. I gained 15 kilograms (about 35 pounds) in three months. As if depression and anxiety weren't enough, none of my clothes fit anymore. I had to buy new jeans twice. And that's not cheap!

Five, People want to help, but don't always know how. Luckily, there is a simple solution for this one: just tell them. My mom is a psychologist, and for a really long time she had no idea what to do when I called her in a depressive episode. Finally, one day I cried over the phone and said, ?Mom! When I call you when I'm depressed, I don't want you to lecture me or tell me it's in my head. I just want you to tell me that everything will be okay.? And since then she's been amazing.

With that in mind, the most important thing to remember is that there is always hope. Even when life is unkind to you and it seems like no one understands, there is still hope. There is something or someone that can help. Remember, it can get better.