What does depression feel like?

[xMakeSomeNoisex]

I think depression really varies depending on the person.

I have struggled with depression since I was 13 and it has never truly gone away. I go through periods where I feel somewhat normal again but those are far and few between. For me when I was a teenager my depression felt more like an emotional thing. I was constantly upset and frustrated. I spent hours just laying in bed crying and wanting to die, in those days I was extremely suicidal.
Nowadays My depression is more of an absence of feeling. I feel empty and lifeless most of the time. I go through different periods of depression, sometimes I am just sad all the time and have a lot of break downs and other times I feel like I am just walking through life not living just existing feeling like I am empty and lost.

There are times for every one when you feel somewhat normal again but the depression is still there, it is just slightly better than the day before was.

Honestly I don't really know how I feel. Some days are absolutely horrid and other days I make it through and occasionally I have a good day. It is really a series of ups and downs that seem never ending. I have been depressed for so long that I don't remember what it is like to feel happy or normal because now depression is my normal. The days I feel nothing are a hundred times better than the days when I feel sad and hopeless. I feel as if my whole life revolves around how bad my depression is each day. I lock myself away and have lost my friends because of how much I end up isolating myself. My family just doesn't understand and think I am being lazy but I lost interest in life and going out and living so long ago and I can't just make it come back. Each day just feels like I am struggling to keep my head above water and keep going.

I am sorry you are having to go through this but if you ever need to talk everyone here is willing to listen.

[Snow White.]

Everything is really, really dark.

For me, although sadness is a normal human emotion, depression is something you cannot understand until you experience it. Even when I am well I struggle to remember exactly how crushing depression can be. When I'm well, like now, its difficult to understand or remember how an emotion (well, illness) can be so challenging. But in the midst of it, its the darkest, loneliest, scariest place.

Specifically Mari, I've had episodes of depression (major) and dysthymia. They differ in severity and length, but I'd personally say these balance out so that each are equally difficult. One might be 'Milder' but becomes exhausting when it lasts much longer.

Depression, mild or severe, feels like fog to me, too. When I'm well, things seem so much clearer.

I know I diverged a bit, thank you for reading.

[Buttons.]

Personally I think depression feels different from person to person with a few common factors. To me it's almost like a physical weight on my shoulders. Everything seems so pointless, and I feel very slow and tired, every tiny thing is an effort. It's like I'm wading through mud. And there's just this horrible all encompassing misery that sits in my stomach and makes me feel sick. It feels like there's a pane of glass between me and other people, and me and life. And I somehow can't smash thorugh it. More importantly, when I'm really really depressed I don't even care enough to want to smash through.