How I did it:     At first, I kept a lot of my emotions bottled up, which is about one of the worst things you can do. It took a huge break down for me to finally decide that I needed help. I began seeing a therapist and taking anti-depressants. I would recommend seeing a therapist for about a month before deciding to take anti-depressants because, if you're like me, you don't want your happiness to depend on a pill (and when you forget to take it, it sends you into an even deeper depression).
    I began talking to my friends more about the problems that I was going through and just knowing that they were there for me helped a lot.
    Whenever I was feeling more sad than usual, I would write about it. Most of it would be incomprehensible babbling, but it really did help to get it out.

Lessons & tips:

• Number one advice anyone can give you: Don't hold it in; talking about it is one of the first steps to getting it under control
• Spend a lot of time with friends and family, being along just gives you unwanted time to obsess over problems
• Write it out
• Create a list of things that make you happy and look at it whenever you are feeling down

My therapist told me to fake happiness and eventually it'll transform from fake to reality. Personally, this didn't help. Expressing it is what helped me the most.

Resources:

• therapist/someone to talk to
• Effexor

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Nov 05, 2008, 03:43PM PST | 0 comments | 5 cheers