Dear Depressed and Discouraged

Dear Depressed and Discouraged,

Depression has a way of wanting to make you stay in bed or on your couch all day, contemplating and feeling sad about what you don’t have, what your life seems to have missing. It tells you that you need to think and obsess on the thoughts that come into your head. It has a way of making you feel mind numbingly bored yet unmotivated to actually tackle the things you need to tackle such as laundry, cleaning, dishes, grocery shopping, paying bills, even showering and eatting. Depression tells you that you are stuck, you are meaningless, if you try to make changes, you will just fail,  and nothing will open up. It reminds you of the doors that you thought should open but just closed instead. And it makes the closing of those doors seem personal and life ending. If you have had five job interviews and none of them worked out, none of them will, you start to think. Or, you think, what is the use of cleaning when I know I will fail at keeping it up and the house will be a pig sty again. 

Depression, discouragement, and anxiety can at times feel like a daily battle between yourself and the thoughts in your own head. It is exhausting and makes you doubt if trying is worth it.

However, if you are able to look back at times when the depression was not there or was in the background instead of the forefront, if you can remember the successes you have had in spite of having to fight depression, anxiety, discouragement, you are able to see that things have not always been how they are now and that they will not always be. You see that you have accomplished things, done meaningful stuff, and sometimes doors have opened when you least expected them to. 

So today, Depressed and Discouraged, I encourage you to remember the victories and take at least one action step today. It may be grocery shopping, going to work, cleaning a room, or it may simply be getting out of bed and eating a meal or taking a shower. Any step, even a baby steps matters. It shows that in spite of your thoughts and feelings you are still choosing to not let them have the final say. 

If you are at the point where you feel like even getting out of bed is impossible, choosing to stay, to not act on today’s thoughts, to acknowledge that how you feel today is not necessarily how you will feel tomorrow is enough. You are enough.

Depression and discouragement are liars, but the truth out screams these powerful lies. The truth is there is hope when you feel hopeless, and that today’s feelings do not predict what tomorrow holds.  What you do and who you are matters. You are loved and you are worth the fight.