It's been a while since I have been able to write. It's been a while since I was able to do anything, to be honest.
A horrible bout of depression hit in November and it completely knocked me for six. Life has felt quite shaky and uncertain since my marriage ended, and it turns out not having some stability makes everything harder.
Depression can cripple you. It makes the smallest tiny thing into a massive hurdle, and all these little things turn into an overwhelming wall of fear that just cannot be climbed over. That's what the last two months have felt like. I have spent a lot of time sitting on the couch literally not able to move, and bursting into uncontrollable bouts of tears all the time. All I wanted to do was sleep and I couldn't focus on anything.
So what to do? I tried firstly to wait it out and hoped it would pass. I was managing to get to work and somehow function (but not much else), so I thought I might be ok after a while. But it gradually became clear that wasn't working. So I tried some new medication which helped a little, but not much.
Oh, and of course this bout coincided with the festive season, which did not help matters. Feeling low when everyone around you is out partying is horrible. Having to keep making excuses for missing social occasions adds another layer of stress to feeling miserable.
I haven't felt this low in a few years, so I missed the early warning signs and unfortunately ended up down a big hole and unable to see a way out. I kept waiting for something to happen; something that would "fix me". I made wild plans in my head, to go away for a while, to do this, to do that...
Nothing worked, of course, because there is no magical cure for depression. It's the little things that help, and over time they accrue and make life manageable again. When you feel at rock bottom though, you don't have the patience to wait for the little things. You just keep waiting for the big change, and yet wake up every morning feeling the same way.
So I'm writing this as a little thing that I hope will help. I've been taking my medication everyday and I hope that will help too. I've reached out to people and admitted that I've not been coping so well and asked for help. I've taken a little bit of time off work to try and regroup and get my energy back. And I've been forcing myself to leave the house, to do little nice things. I know that all these things will help to get this illness back under control again and I will find a way back out. I'm writing this all down to remind myself of that.
There may not be a magical cure for depression, but it can be managed. I've done it before and I hope I will be able to do so again soon.