Life got better for me. AMA and I’ll do my best to respond.

Was it ever bothersome when someone someone misused the word depression and was like “I’m depressed” even when they were completely fine but wanted attention or just didn’t quite understand? I’ve heard from professionals that saying and misusing the word or other mental healths can kind of lose the idea and so the one who are actually suffering are not getting help. What your though on this

Kinda like the OP is doing?

If someone is suffereing from depression, they're kinda gonna know it, A LOT. That is, after all, how depression afflicts us. It isn't something that you look back decades later and say, ''Well in retrospect, I must have had it because hormones were a bustling.''

In fact, as we age, them hormones that made some really sucky childhoods seem to have some decent moments lessen, hence why chronic depression worsens with age. It ain't a phase we went through till we found a BFF.

Besides, the OP is afflicted with sociopathy and narcissism, his 'understanding' of emotion is via textbook, not via feelings. That's why it sounds mechanical and forced.

I have this Flipper blocked; however, now he’s here on a stream about depression regurgitating myths about depression, and someone ought to counter this.

—First off, note how he’s doing the very thing he accuses me of: trivializing another person’s experience of depression. He implies I never had it by trying to read between the lines of my comments; however, he has no basis for saying that. Please know that you’re *always* the expert in how you feel and in control of how you express how you feel. No one else gets to decide that for you: Not 15 years ago, not today, not 15 years from now. Your story is your own to tell.

—Having depression at one stage in your life doesn’t mean it’s bound to inevitably worsen. What a bleak viewpoint to espouse on a stream full of those with depression. Perhaps his own comments are informed my personal experience: I can’t say, though his use of the first-person plural pronoun suggests it. What I can say is I had depression and then life got better for me. To be clear: Yes, I felt like hell at the time, though I lacked the self-awareness to recognize what was really going on and give it a proper name. But looking back on it gives me additional wisdom. I am no longer consumed by negative thoughts from dusk to dawn and no longer feel the same physical symptoms that I described earlier.

—Forming a deep and meaningful friendship is an awesome expression of humanity. It shouldn’t be discounted in helping a person pull out of depression. It certainly helped in my case, particularly with the social anxiety aspect.

—“Sociopathy,” “narcissism”: dressing up his own personal dislike of me in clinical garb.

Oh, lookie, someone who has me blocked due to being unable to find an ANALgesic (see what I did there?) of suitable strength accidentally replied to a comment he couldn't even read with a darling of a tl;dr'er. Must've been a glitch.
Shucks, that certainly kmSUCKS!!!!!

Hope the one it was intended for read it, cuz I sure ain't,,,

I don’t think I really had an opinion on that at the time, because I wasn’t really aware that I had depression.

Sure I read about it in books and heard about it, but didn’t really think too deeply about what it would mean or feel like to actually have it.

But looking back on it, I definitely did have it. I was consumed by negative thoughts from the moment I woke up to the moment I went to bed. The sadness weighed on me to the point I could actually feel it physically in my chest, literally a heavy load I carried around all the time. Or even a lump in my throat.

I guess I either thought that this was the way I was supposed to feel, or was just too ashamed to talk about it.

I agree the word “depressed” can be overused for dramatic effect and that’s unfair to people who do have depression, since that trivializes their experience.

👍

One more thing: I think it’s fine if people with depression want to joke about it.

We’re all human and need humor to cope.

Good point

How'd you get over it

Gradually over a period of years. Overcame social anxiety by basically learning people skills through trial and error. Outgrew teenage hormones.

In the end, everything turned out ok, right? And you ended up in a better place, happy? How did you escape depression?

It took a many years for me to feel totally comfortable in my own skin, but I did pull out of it gradually. Middle school was probably rock-bottom, though I did feel it a bit all the way through mid-20s I’d say.

It was a combination of becoming adjusted to my post-hormonal body and the new intense feelings it produced; staying focused on my hobbies and grades (which helped get me into a good college); and making some good friendships in middle and high school.

A little bit of luck, hard work, and gaining in life experience.

How did you get depressed and what happened?

I was a pretty happy kid growing up until about 7th grade or so I’d say. No big traumatic family events or anything. So I think it was mostly puberty and the hormones.

In my experience, puberty made me feel all kinds of new emotions and also made me feel old emotions more intensely. It definitely makes you more socially anxious and self-conscious. In many ways it’s like becoming a whole new person. I think more should be done to raise awareness of that. I think interpersonal skills/relationship dynamics should be a class taught in every middle school.

I gradually adjusted over time and I actually met my best friend for life in 7th grade. We got into music together, he was a drummer and pressured me to buy a bass guitar. We got into songwriting and formed a little garage band with a rotating cast of some other guitarists and singers.

Depression did spur me to seek out new creative outlets and challenge myself in different ways (I also joined the cross-country/track team in middle school), so it wasn’t all bad.

That's awesome and I am blessed those things helped you through the tough times.