My Personal Experience with Depression and Anxiety

I had quite the experience with depression and anxiety and it has had a major effect on my life. Depression is constantly feeling down or blue so much that it interferes with your everyday life. Anxiety is a normal part of life and helps us to accomplish things but it can become obsessive in some people's lives. These are both very debilitating especially when a person has both depression and anxiety.

My depression and anxiety started when I was about thirteen or fourteen when I lived with my mother. My mother was very authoritative and things needed to go her way. She chose to yell and swear at us and call us nasty names when she was angry. I must say my mother did take care of us though. My sister, my mom, and I would always get into fights because of this. The way I chose to escape from these fights was to isolate myself in my room and stay away from everyone. I lost interest in things that I once loved, became hopeless, thought that I was being punished for something I did in a past life, had fatigue, and was constantly irritable. Then I became depressed and became very pensive and music became my savior.

The major reason why I became depressed was because I came to terms with the fact that I am gay. I could not tell my mother or anyone in the family because I feared rejection from the ones that I loved so much. Most of my mother's side of the family is very religious and I knew things would be different between us once they found out. Now that I am out most of them accept me for the most part. Luckily for me, in high school, I met my best friend. She was also depressed and we both relied on each other for support. My best friend was the first person to know that I was gay. I am so thankful that I became friends with someone as good as her. When I got my first job as a C.N.A. at a nursing home I became even more stressed. I found it increasingly hard to manage school and work.

I would say that one of the most important ways to combat depression and anxiety is to find out what is making you depressed and anxious and change it. Once high school was done, I moved in with my father which solved my depression/anxiety with my mother. I came out to my family which was one of the hardest things that I will ever have to do. Another very important way to combat depression and anxiety is to find someone who will listen to you and help you out just like I found my best friend. Pulling yourself out of depression is a very hard thing to do and it just makes it easier if someone is there to help you. Another way is to get yourself out there and do things that you would not normally do, force yourself to do them. Doing this will open your world up and you will see life differently. Also, remember, that there are other people out there going through the same thing you are. Honestly if I could I would not go back and change the fact that I had and still have depression and anxiety, because it made me who I am today.