A Neighborhood Girl's Experience of Depression

Depression can easily feel like a drain your energy, motivation, and general outlook on life, so it’s important to seek treatment and join support groups early on in order to assist you with moving out of this state.  Regardless of whether you are experiencing a mild case of depression or a more serious problem, never give up, and remember that there is hope, because strategies for shifting out of this state do in-fact exist.  Moreover, once you have overcome your depression you can learn to help your loved ones if they suffer from the same problem through an accurate understanding of their experience.  

Correct Diagnosis

One girl that I know had suffered from depression for a long time until she managed to obtain the correct diagnosis, and her relatives believe that it began when her mother suddenly passed away due to suicide.  At the time, she was a very young girl, and her behavior was simply interpreted as childhood immaturity, so anybody who commented on her odd behaviors simply passed them off as something connected with her young age.  As a result of this lack of awareness of her true problem, her family allowed her to grow up without any interventions, and so her life continued on it’s melancholic trajectory.  She finished high school and passed all of her exams even though she was dreary, tired, and sometimes exhibited very strange behavior – All this until one day when something alerted everybody to the reality of her situation.

She was near home when a friend of hers thought that she had gone to the restroom in another building, but soon she recognized that she had been gone for an inordinately long period of time, and this got her worried.  Her friend went to check for her in the adjacent building, but she was nowhere to be found, and she alerted the people in the neighborhood about her sudden disappearance, but they still couldn’t find her.  

Wandering Alone

Meanwhile, the young depressed girl wandered around the area and eventually walked into a stranger’s apartment while the owner was in the restroom.  She found her way into one of their bedrooms and feel asleep due to her extreme fatigue, which shocked and alarmed the person who found a strange young girl asleep in their bed.  The neighbors who had been looking for her throughout the afternoon managed to find her in the woman’s apartment, and when she awoke she seemed tired and confused - She didn’t quite know where she was or why she was there, but everybody covered for her and indicated that she was a college student under a lot of stress, and so perhaps that was the reason for this strange intrusion.

She was quickly taken to a hospital and was diagnosed with a form of clinical depression when she was prescribed an effective medication treatment.  Aside from a few more episodes of unusual behavior, she began to feel much better, and she later managed to join a large organization that now helps others manage their depressive symptoms as well.  She has since come to recognize what she was experiencing at the time, and she describes her process as one in which she began feeling depressed when she was very young, but nobody seemed to notice or understand her experience.  However, she is now very grateful to know that her depression is under control and that she has been able to begin a more successful approach to life through working hard in her studies and at her company.  

Success

She has been a role-model to many other people and has explained how her personal journey through depression evolved into becoming successful in her studies and her career, and that although her mother committed suicide when she was a young girl, she believes that this could have been averted if she had an early intervention.  As a result, she now advises families to find help for their loved ones early-on in order to provide for proper medical treatment and professional counseling.  She acknowledges that there are many potential triggers for depression that must be addressed in their own unique ways, and that the death of a parent is only one.

She now exercises regularly, eats healthy foods, takes medication, and goes to therapy in order to work with her emotions.  Meanwhile, she focuses upon talking about her problems with others in a genuine and authentic way in order to prevent them from growing out-of-control, and she ensures that she is surrounded by positive people who support and encourage her with positive beliefs and affirmations about her value in the world.  This is how one young girl in my neighborhood learned to work with her undiagnosed depression and was able to find an effective solution to her personal challenges through therapy, medication, and a purposeful life.

-Anonymous Contributor