#this is help

[theultimateandsillydragon]

guys, I know we are going through a brutal time right now so let's look at this pixelated photo of Boyd to make ourselves feel better

[suzie-guru]

Depression Anon submitted:

I know what you’re going through and I want to help.  I’ve lived with depression for 25 years, and I want to tell you some stuff I wish someone had told me when I was young and sick and suspected this was going to end me (but couldn’t muster up enough emotion to react to The End Of Me in any appropriate way). One, you’ll get through this.  Okay?  You’ll get through this through the power of INERTIA, I promise.  Depression sucks but you will still be here when the depression tide goes out.  I can’t guarantee you that anything will be awesome or easy or good when you get through it, but you WILL get through. Two, what you are feeling is normal.  Plenty of people with depression have times where it’s not that they want to die, because that’s far too active a way to describe what they want, but they feel like it would be nice to just not exist.  To just stop.  That’s a normal symptom of depression, right up there with the loss of interest and executive dysfunction.  It sucks, but since you can’t really blink out of existence, the thing to do is (as it often is) to go ‘ugh, shut up, depression,’ and do your best to go about your day. Three, if you’re up for some advice?  Save your 'fake it til you make it’ for work.  Suze, you are sick.  Sure, the organ that’s sick is your brain and it isn’t contagious, but you are SICK.  You’re going to be sick for a while, and it may take multiple tries to find a medication that helps, and each of those tries will take at least six weeks before you know if the new medication is having any effect at all. If you would not hold a person with whooping cough or the flu to the standards you are holding yourself, stop and relax your standards.  I’d also like to advise letting your family see that you’re sick.  You don’t owe your family the pretense of health and happiness that isn’t there, and it’s probably better if they see your rough edges.  (They might not like it, but they’re adults.  If they don’t like to see you behaving like a mentally ill person so you can start to recover from it, that’s their problem; your problem is that you have depression and it takes a lot of strength to fight it.  It will take MORE strength to fight it if you’re burning the candle at both ends to pretend fighting it is easy.) Finally, please put your reward system on hold.  You are sick.  You are sick with something that makes it hard to feel ANYthing, much less happiness.  If a thing makes you happy and you, at any given moment, have the energy to enjoy it, don’t put it off.  Read the thing, write the thing, eat the thing, do the thing, take the bubble bath, sing the song, try the makeup technique, play with the toy.  Every bit of happiness, of contentedness, of EMOTION that you can wring out of life right now is a boost to your brain chemistry that’s worth it RIGHT NOW, not after you get a better job or lose a bunch of weight or do the dishes. If it gives you joy, it’s worth it now.

I think out of all the messages sent to me regarding the spot I’m in, this one helped the most, and that’s not a knock to the other messages I received. It’s just...reading this one, it made me sit back, close my eyes, breathe, but more importantly, recognize. 

I absolutely and almost constantly forget/brush off the fact that I am sick. That my chemicals are not naturally balanced, that I truly do have something wrong with me. That my normal is not normal. I keep forgetting that...

So, thank you for reminding me of that. 

As for the reward system...God, it’s hard to let go of that, especially when it’s helped me so much in the past when needing motivation. And then there’s the fact that I usually can’t tell when I have the energy to enjoy said thing. Because I always think there will be a chance when I’ll have even more energy, when I can enjoy it as I truly am meant to. And, of course, is the product of the downside of the reward system, in that I keep putting things I want to do/give me happiness off. 

I am sorry that I took so long to respond to this submission, but I want you to know that it really and truly helped me gain perspective. Thank you for that. 

If it gives you joy, it’s worth it now. I’m gonna remember this and repeat it for as long as I need to.  

[rosasappho]

my vision:

oh my god.

[captainmoonshoes]

Hey, you've seemed a little down lately. I know that someone already did this for you, but I thought I'd contribute with my own list of things to make me happy when I need it.

First off, if you are able to, go make yourself something like this brownie in a mug. Another thing I really like is making my own loose leaf tea - I dry the mint leaves and mandarin peel and add a tiny bit of sugar and it's amazing.

Some of the things I do to feel better are actually rather childish. I often make pillow/blanket forts in the alcove under my desk or by draping blankets over my chair/bed/curtain rod.

Another thing that makes me feel so much better is colouring in. Crayons are the most satisfying to work with, but lately I've really become attached to gel pens as well. Print something out, whether you choose optical illusions, pretty floral outlines, or cartoon lineart from kids' books. Print a bunch out, and have them as a stash for when you need them.

On the computer, I really like to look up kids' movies whenever I need an emotional boost. Here is a masterpost of Disney and Studio Ghibli, and here is a more extensive post of different sites for movies and tv shows, as well as lists of masterposts for other genres (eg superheroes, horror, James Bond...)

There's also origami, and heaps of tutorials can be found on youtube or origami websites, but it can be really frustrating sometimes.

Here's a list of fun/entertaining websites which can help to make you feel better. It's also really good if you're bored online!

Free. University. Courses. All. Online. You can look at lots of really awesome stuff, and even just learn different techniques from some lectures, like how to take great photos or how to write poetry or whatever you want!

Another fun thing to do is create your own font. Here is the template to submit once you've filled it out so the site can generate your font, and here is a tutorial of sorts.

Another thing you could do is learn a new skill. Here's a really good masterpost to get you started, and there are literally millions of things you can learn online. Check out wikihow, because it actually has really good tutorials for some things as well. Maybe learn how to tie all the different knots for a necktie? Or learn how to write sequences of haikus, and perhaps even create a string of haikus in response to others (which is actually a huge competition every year in Japan)? Or maybe you could learn how to make all different types of coffee perfectly, or how to make your favourite cake.

Look up lists of books that were once banned (or maybe are still banned in some countries) and read the ones that catch your eye - banned books often contain the best stuff!

Hoping that you feel better, and that this helps at least a little bit!

Thanks Llama!