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How would you describe depression?

398 Answers
Last Updated: 06/04/2023 at 5:09pm
How would you describe depression?
★ This question about Depression was starred by a moderator on 5/12/2016.
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Top Rated Answers
LightACandle
July 31st, 2015 5:30pm
I think it's when not many things or people can cheer you up. You feel like your life is so difficult to live through and you forget to envision a silver lining. You forget the things you do have and the people that do love you. I think it's mostly when you forget - that things will get better after a while.
Anonymous
July 31st, 2015 11:37am
Like a dark cloud that follows you. It swallows up everything you think is good and hangs over you like a stalking monster draining you every day making you feel heavy in the shoulders and empty inside.
Penelope210
July 11th, 2015 5:42am
Feeling low, feeling sad, wanting to sleep all of the time. Not interested in anything, just want to be by yourself.
Anonymous
February 1st, 2016 10:13am
Depression is like a shadow. It is the darkness in the light. It may not always be prominent, but it is there. Sometimes it isn't noticeable, but some days it's just too heavy to ignore. Depression is not a scale from 1 to 10. It is individual to every person who suffers from it. To some people, it is set off by catalysts, and to others it just exists without any rhyme or reason. Depression is wanting to go on a walk on a nice day but not having the mental energy to do so. Depression hurts... but you are never alone in it, no matter how much it feels that way.
Anonymous
February 1st, 2016 2:32pm
Well for me depression is prolonged sadness without any logical reason because of which you feel empty and hopeless.
GracefulWonder
February 3rd, 2016 12:10am
It's like when you're drowning... You keep reaching for the surface but no matter how much you try, you just can't seem to get yourself up so you can breathe. You feel helpless and hopeless. Very scared, lonely, and sometimes even angry.
healingAngel64
February 3rd, 2016 2:24pm
Anger without enthusiasm results in a state of mind called depression. Its mainly due to lack of expressing our view.
Anonymous
July 9th, 2015 12:13pm
It differs from person to person. For me, it was the empty feeling you feel inside even when you are surrounded by people, overthinking about each and every thing, feeling sick even when I was not.
Lindsaylu
July 4th, 2016 2:34pm
Depression is a mental illness, that makes one feel extreme sadness and other negative emotions. But if you're asking how it feels? Depression is...a dark cloud or a shadow that follows you around wherever you go whispering doubts and fears to you, it feels like drowning and being set on fire all at once, it feels like too much but also feels like emptiness, a black hole in you heart that swallows all your hopes. It feels like you're alone in this world, the last one standing, and you're lost, you're walking down an empty road looking for a home you're not sure exists. Depression can be described in many ways, it feels different from one person to the next but at the end of the day it is what it is, a mental illness. An illness that needs to be helped, understood and stopped, no one should ever have to feel the way you do when you are depressed.
moonchild29
February 9th, 2016 5:03pm
Like a dementor. It feels like you can never be happy again. Enough said.
SameDamnLife
February 12th, 2016 4:12am
Depression is like drowning in a dark, murky, polluted river, but everyone around you is fine and living a utopian life.
Tayy11
August 17th, 2020 1:00am
Depression is like standing by an open window, with all of the rain and hail blowing directly into your face, but not knowing how or being able to close the window. The window is stuck and you don't know how to fix it to make it better. Everything from the storm keeps hitting you and piling up at your feet, but you just can't figure out how to get yourself out of the situation. It feels hopeless and like there's no reason for you to try to close the window anymore because it just won't do anything to help.
HelpfulHayley20
July 15th, 2019 12:50am
Depression is much more than feeling sad. Depression is lack of drive, or hope, or happiness in multiple ways. Depression is when you are missing something you once had and you in one way or another feel the void from whatever is missing. I personally have experienced depression and can attest that the depressant seems to show up more and more in your life if you try to avoid it rather than deal with it. This is surely a situation where the saying, "easier said then done" applies. Depression is a constant battle that requires time and effort to get through. As unbearable as it may feel at times I am happy to be able to say that you can get through it. The battle that is depression does have an ending point.
Anonymous
March 7th, 2016 6:10am
A clever and hard-to-get-out-of trap caused by a loss of sense of purpose or meaning in life. A place where you feel numb and stuck, and where your brain tries to override you with negative thoughts and feelings.
radiantPassion58
April 11th, 2016 4:23pm
I would describe depression with a quote from Fool's Garden's 'Lemon Tree': "I'm sitting here I miss the power I'd like to go out taking a shower But there's a heavy cloud inside my head I feel so tired Put myself into bed While nothing ever happens"
TrustTheDoctor
July 2nd, 2015 1:55pm
Depression..not the romanticized version..It is the darkest kind of dark, the kind that intoxicates your brain and turns your best friends to enemies, your family to people you simply push away so they don’t have to hurt just because you do. It is the raw feeling of emptiness, the kind that gnaws at your very insides and leaves you nothing more than a walking skeleton, incapacitated and incapable of feeling anything but sorrow and sadness for nobody but yourself. Depression is the deepest hole you could ever think of, the only one you could ever think of because you dug it yourself. It is being not only unable, but unwilling to pull yourself up, having the darkness swallow you whole. Depression is not rain. It is being unable to see the sun, even after the rain has passed.sadness is not the same as depression sadness is a temporary feeling depression lives on inside of you like a mental cancer that feeds on your happiness. depression is not a trend, it’s not fun or cool to have. It kills your mind and all motivation until it’s all you think you have. then it eats at you so that you feel like you’re nothing in just barely a being in not alive not dead but somewhere in the middle.depression is feeling numb and empty inside.It’s drowning in your thoughts.it’s not being able to cry but dying inside.it’s always there.even when the sun comes out it still follows you like your shadow.it’s when you feel like running away but you’re stuck.nothing matters anymore.life..death..heartbreak..happiness..none of these has any meaning at all..you feel there’s no meaning in life or death or in anything.it’s a struggle.only you can win your depression but you don’t know how or even if that is possible.but you gotta keep going.suicide is not the solution.speak out!there are others feeling the same thing..you might not find the solution but neither are you going to find it if you die..it’s a battle with yourself and you have to win.SPEAK OUT!
heavenlyTime56
April 16th, 2016 8:53am
Having a flat battery
Anonymous
May 11th, 2019 1:59am
I'll repeat what I once read.. It feels like walking surrounded by mud so you move slowly and it's hard to do it. Depression makes hard to do even small shores. Also, remember that you still can be happy although it may be harder. Think of yourself as a treasure buried... It's still a treasure despite all the dirt and dust. You just have to keep looking for the treasure. I am glad you decided to reach out, to talk about how are you feeling. That's a big step. We are here for you. I encourage you to contact a listener and tell him or her also if something happened and tell him or her more about it.
BakaFacedChick
May 2nd, 2016 5:42pm
a dark scary place with nothing but my monsters and pain.
delicateWindow53
December 11th, 2017 11:29am
Depression and sadness mean two different things. Sadness is a normal emotion and if something bad was to happen then you may feel sad, but that sadness will lift after a few days. However, depression is a persistent sadness - it can last for weeks, months or even years.
Anonymous
May 24th, 2016 2:51am
My description of depression is a feeling of sadness and sorrow for a long period of time that the person doesn't cheer up.
Anonymous
August 29th, 2016 4:29pm
Everyone experiences depression differently, but in general answers, it feels horrible. For me, I didn't want to get out of bed. I slept a lot, I didn't eat much. It's just a really sucky feeling and I hate it.
Anonymous
April 11th, 2017 1:52am
I would describe it as a suffocating feeling. It comes over you whenever it feels like it, and it doesn't go away for quite some time, if at all. Your heart almost hurts, and you don't want to move or do anything, really. It drains all your happiness and motivation, leaving you empty.
AnnRecherche
April 10th, 2017 3:30am
Depression is hard. In my experiences, when I'm feeling depressed I always forget about the future and dwell on the past or the current. You always have to remember that there is a future, and things will get better. When I'm depressed, nothing is enjoyable. Everything seems useless and boring and I can't be bothered to do anything, because I'm in a mindset that "nothing really matters." When you start to feel that way, you've got to change your mindset. That takes willpower, but it can be done. Having a positive mindset is a very important thing to have, especially when you suffer from depression.
Avaray
December 26th, 2016 7:58am
A lonely isolated place, but I also don't want to be with people? A place that seems to take the energy out of every cell in my body, even getting out of bed and getting dressed is an effort. A tiredness that sleep doesn't cure. A place that makes me feel different to everyone around me, like I exist on one side of a thick glass window and everyone else on the other side. I don't belong anywhere. Feeling I'm hiding a sinful secret, so I pretend to be "ok" " just tired" etc. Feeling like no one would actually get how it affects me anyhow, and that would be worse than keeping it to myself. Exhausted. It can stabalise and then it's suddenly there, makes you feel like a failure.
patientMountain
December 11th, 2016 3:27am
Depression is cruel. People say to head for the light at the end of the tunnel, but when you're depressed there is no light. Everything is pitch black. You are lost and alone, even if you know other people are there next to you you can't see them. You second guess what you thought you knew. People might keep telling you "just head for the light, can't you see it?" but you can't see any light anywhere. Thats what depression feels like.
FrozenCloud
October 25th, 2016 10:40pm
It`s very difficult to describe depression to someone who has never been there, because it`s not sadness. You feel exhausted, devastated, lonely, crushed, trapped. . .all at once.
h3idi
September 27th, 2016 3:39am
heavy, painful, dark, lonely, stuck in a whole, crying, fear, sadness, pressure, lack of motivation,
Anonymous
July 18th, 2016 4:01pm
Hurting. Feelings explosion. Guilt. Sadness. Anger. Irritation. Blaming. Hate. Love. Obsession. Dying. Disconnection. Pain. Drowning while being able to see everyone around you breathe.
happinessisjustaroundthecorner
July 5th, 2016 5:42pm
depression is like living with a leach attached to you, sucking you life and happiness away each and every day