Mental Disorders

I live with anxiety which feeds into depression. I'm getting better at managing it but I know it's taken it's toll. Also a little OCD.

I had depression for a long period of my life. I dealt with. I wish I could write down an instruction manual on how, but lets face it. I don't have the same relationship with you that you have with yourself, and therefore I can't just tell you what you are supposed to do. I will say that in my case, I spent much of that time from 5th grade to my first year of college just blaming all my problems on the world around me. The things I can't change, especially. Over time, I just started to flip the spectrum around. "Its my fault things are kinda crappy around me, because I refuse to actually change the things that are in my reach." I spent a long time after that really getting to the root of a lot of my negative thought processes, really deconstructing why I had been conditioned to certain reactions, or ways of thinking. Weeding a lot of them out, realizing a lot of perceived weaknesses were actually strengths, and just being all around forgiving toward myself and the things that are beyond my power to change. I probably can't change life too dramatically, but when I do get depressed these days, I know just how much power I have within my parameters, and that makes the path back to my feet easier to find each time. A better way to sum it up though is "I swim with the current in order to get to a safe shore, and I walk back up to where I wanted to swim to when I was fighting the current." Psh, metaphors. Yay. But I mean, emotions really are like a river. And anyone who has done some white water rafting knows (If you have a good instructor who tells you this sort of thing) that when you fall off your raft and find yourself stuck in a whirlpool, you never should fight for control. Rather, you just sort of curl up, save your strength, and let the whirlpool spit you out. Granted, the first time that this happened to me, I completely forgot my instructor's advice and tried to fight to the surface, and nearly paid with my life. Only at the last minute did I realize "Oh yeah. I'm doing this wrong." (Though not that calmly XD ) As a result, I never actually developed any lingering traumatic scars. Because the second time out was so much more easy, much less painful, and much more fun. I'm surprised it took me so long to equate that to my depression, though to be fair, it's not like it should have been obvious. Honestly though, I don't think anyone should feel ashamed of having depression. Its not like societies (Particularly in the west) teach anyone how to deal with themselves. But I think if there is a good first step, it really is "Learn how to love yourself." As cheesy as it sounds, it really did help me face a lot of my harsher self realizations about the source of many of my problems, and overcome a lot of the excuses I barricaded around them. Edit: And damn it, I refuse to acknowledge ADHD as a real disorder. As someone who has a "severe" case of it, its benefited me in a lot of ways. All of which trivial, mind you, but still leant to important accomplishments for me on my personal journey.

http://a.nime.me/0067/6678/12768120_10208899221502559_4552920243453182047_o.jpg If you are feeling sad, please look at my dog.

Hi everyone, I was diagnosed with A.D.D when I was little. At the time I didn't think it was an issue so I didn't notice it. That and the medicine made me sick but now as an adult I can see it was the main cause for any depression and social anxiety I've had. I still struggle with depression from time to time but I try to be a cheerful person.

I have Social anxiety disorder (the acronym for that is SAD, how fitting) and Gender identity disorder. It's a pain to live with.

As a kid I had anger issues stemming from a sometimes rough childhood. Around when I entered adulthood I gained full control over my anger but slid into a depression that became very crushingly dark when I was in college. Today, I have managed to beat my own depression without medicating after about a decade of struggling with it. Right now the only mental disorders I might have are a completely manageable level of OCD and random bouts of insomnia I've carried with me ever since I was a kid. I'd say I'm very mentally healthy right now.