Depression takes no prisoners.
It doesn’t care how much money you make, or how blessed or privileged you are, or what you look like, or what you do for a living.
Depression doesn’t care about your work schedule, your commitments, or the millions of tasks you have to complete throughout your day. It doesn’t care – and it’ll suck your energy from you with unabashed glee.
The battle that you’ll have with depression will frequently leave you feeling exhausted and utterly useless. It’ll feel like you cannot possibly do anything. Nothing. The things that you would normally do without a second thought will suddenly feel as if you’re running a marathoning or treading water or spending ten hours at the gym. Getting out of bed will sometimes feel like a feat. Taking a shower might feel like an accomplishment. The ability to focus on work – whatever that work looks like, takes every ounce of your energy. Going through your day without crying or curling up in a ball in the corner might use all of the strength that you have left – and it sucks. There’s nothing poetic about that.
Depression doesn’t care about your relationships.
It doesn’t care that you’re having trouble telling people what’s going on within your heart and your head. It doesn’t care that you don’t have the words to put to your feelings. It doesn’t care that you’re struggling with how to take care of the ones who are around you because you cannot take care of yourself at the moment. It’ll whisper lies that the ones around you do not care about what you’re going through, too. It’ll tell you that they don’t understand, and they could never understand and that they don’t care about what you’re going through – it’ll keep whispering that lie until you can’t see the truth anymore, and you’ll hold onto the thought that you’re utterly alone.
Depression is awful – and when it hits, you will feel useless, exhausted, and utterly alone – but please don’t believe the lie that you have to stay in that space.
Please don’t believe the lie that keeps you standing in the dark.
Please don’t believe that you’re not worthy of the hands that want to help, the shoulders that invite you to lean on them, and the ones who see you and still love you, even when you’ve lost sight of that yourself.
