Suffering from depression often leaves you feeling helpless, hopeless, and worthless. It feels like the lowest of lows; a place without escape. But all hope is not lost, it never is. There is a silver lining to every cloud, no matter how dark and heavy that cloud may seem. As serious an issue depression is and as much as you need help getting through it, as I fight through mine, I can\u2019t help but notice a few upsides to suffering from depression.<\/p>\n
At least it did in my case. When you\u2019re depressed you desperately want someone to understand what you\u2019re going through. I felt like that too. But in feeling like that, I developed an empathy to the problems of others. I am willing to listen to people, and I am careful not to hurt someone intentionally.<\/p>\n
In fighting my own battles, I have learned everyone goes through their own problems in life, and that you need to learn respect and understand that to the best of your abilities. Through my depression, I have gained the ability to connect with people on a different level. In this way, you could say that my depression made me a better person.<\/p>\n
When a person is fighting depression, they have their good days and their bad. On the bad days, everything seems bleak and you want nothing more than for it all to stop. So you learn not to take the rare happy moments for granted.<\/p>\n
I meet friends, I get work done, I spend time with family. I laugh, smile and enjoy myself because I don\u2019t know when the next bout of sadness might strike. This also means I am more productive and efficient at using my \u201cgood\u201d time wisely. My depression, therefore, teaches me to better appreciate and use the good times.<\/p>\n
With depression, the smallest of things \u2013 maybe a simple comment on your weight, or a social media post of friends enjoying themselves, or even a passing sad thought- may set you off in a spiral of negative emotions.<\/p>\n
A person smiling at you, or a \u2018how are you\u2019 text from an old friend, or even a funny cat video, all of these things may have the ability to cheer you up on a bad day. These may not seem like a big deal to someone who isn\u2019t suffering from depression, but it is. And again you don\u2019t take any of these moments of happiness for granted.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s often said that depressed people in the creative field do well. They are able to emote better and connect with audiences better. That can be said for me as well. Through my depression, I discovered my passion for writing. Writing to me is a form of therapy, so my work comes across more open and honest. By writing about my experiences, I hope to connect with and help people who are similar to me.<\/p>\n
That’s another undeniable bright side to depression.<\/p>\n
In my journey of self-love and self-compassion, I learned how to better handle my emotions, to rationalize my own thoughts, and to stop catastrophizing events in my life. More often than not people see depression and recovery from it as taboo, but all it is a phase of self-learning in your life. There is a light at the end of the tunnel, and you come out of it as a much stronger person, and I definitely see that as an upside.<\/p>\n
Suffering from depression often leaves you feeling helpless, hopeless, and worthless. It feels like the lowest of lows; a place without escape. But all hope is not lost, it never is. There is a silver lining to every cloud, no matter how dark and heavy that cloud may seem. As serious an issue depression is…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24716,"featured_media":134523,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1808],"tags":[9819,8174,8133,15337],"thb-sponsors":[],"class_list":["post-134522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","tag-depression","tag-health","tag-mental-health","tag-mental-illness"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n