I want to thank Vineet for sharing his story. The My Depression Series is a platform where you can tell real stories, a place of openness, support and awareness. Depression and suicide affect so many young individuals. Let’s come forward and help each other fight depression.

“Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of the overcoming of it.” ~Helen Keller

Depression can happen to anyone, there is no particular cause for it. A person leading an absolutely normal life to a person who has gone through some life-changing events can fall prey to depression.

Let us not look at depression as a disease but simply as a bad phase of life which we need to overcome. To understand depression from a lay-man point of view, a problem as small as a stone would seem like a mountain.

There are 3 stages of depression initial, transitional and intense. In this article, we will talk about the initial stage and how we can overcome it.

It all starts with having a bad mood or feeling low. One might think its normal right? Denial is the major culprit for severe depression cases. Feeling low or worrying about a certain event might be common in this competitive and busy world. But if this continues for a prolonged period of time, it certainly has something to do with depression. It can be accompanied by an intense feeling of guilt or remorse for a particular event in the past.

Depression: How It Begins and How to Overcome It?

How it all began for me?

I will share my personal experience with depression. I went on to reach the intense stage. But the good news is, I am out of it now and pretty happy with my life. So don’t give up just yet. Denial at every stage intensifies the problem.

Towards the end of high school, I suddenly stopped being happy. Trivial issues troubled me and continuously pondering the same thought made things worse. Slowly, I became a loner. I preferred staying alone and find solutions to all the issues that worried me. That was the biggest mistake I made. I then developed scrupulous OCD, that’s when things went out of control. I couldn’t focus on my education and nothing in life excited me. That’s when my mom stepped in and I poured my heart to her.

Just talking to her made me feel better. We then approached our family doctor who specialized in Homeopathy. I started working out and practiced meditation every day. Within a matter of few weeks, I started to feel more confident and saw great improvement.

A few steps I should have taken in the initial stage itself:

• Meditation: Initial it’s very difficult to meditate but with consistent practice, it will show great results.
• Physical workout: Working out reduces your stress level drastically. Also, it makes you sleep better at night. Both contributing to help suppress depression
• Following a well-balanced diet: Normally people find this very insignificant but having the proper food at the appropriate time helps balance our hormones contributing to internal wellbeing.
• Socializing: Surrounding yourself with positive people diverts your mind, reminding you how it feels to be what you really are.
• Focus: Focus on what is currently important to you. If you are working, focus on how you can improvise on your skills and try to work towards achieving your targets. If you are a student, focus on getting your basics strong, you won’t have time for it later

Few things that helped me fight depression

A few things to keep in mind while suffering from depression:

• You are just a tiny part of the whole universe and cannot control what is happening around the world. So chill out!
• For questions that we humans cannot get any answer, there’s no point in pondering about it
• Time gives solution for most questions, so you don’t have to get the answers right away.
• Don’t involve yourself in deep discussions about life, love and anything intense.
• Avoid talking about your problems with anybody other than your parents or a best friend. In times of need only they will stand by you.

No matter what stage of depression you are in, remember it is not the end of the world. It is only you that can help yourself, and with the right approach to you recover to live a happy life again.

Sylvia Plath famously said “I have the choice of being constantly active and happy or introspectively passive and sad. Or I can go mad by ricocheting in between.” So choose what you want to be and make sure you enjoy all of it.

Like this story? Or have something to share? Something that can help people suffering from depression and anxiety. write to us at rsethia@gmail.com