How would you describe depression?
398 Answers
Last Updated: 06/04/2023 at 5:09pm
★ This question about Depression was starred by a moderator on 5/12/2016.
Moderated by
Lisa Groesz, PhD
Psychologist
With evidenced based therapies, we find the root of the problem together to implement solutions. We all face crises, transitions, or disorders at some time.
Top Rated Answers
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Like a dementor. It feels like you can never be happy again. Enough said.
Depression is like drowning in a dark, murky, polluted river, but everyone around you is fine and living a utopian life.
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.
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.
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"
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!
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.
a dark scary place with nothing but my monsters and pain.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
depression is like living with a leach attached to you, sucking you life and happiness away each and every day
Related Questions: How would you describe depression?
What do you do when you have no passion or drive?My anxiety is getting worse and depression won't let me live my life, how do I overcome this?I feel sad a lot, unmotivated, and I often can't stop crying for many hours. But I sleep and eat decently and I also can smile or laugh sometimes. Am I depressed or just sad?How to get things done professionaly at work when I'm very depressed?How do I keep myself from getting to attached to people?I am struggling with codependency and depression. I cannot afford therapy. What can I do to get help?How do I help explain to a parent that what I feel is valid after they reacted badly?How can I open up to people more even if it scares me?How to deal with depression fallout?Why do I hate myself so much?