h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

This is when you realise that there's no real point in your being alive. You consider suicide as solutions to trivial problems. You wonder who would care if you did die, and after adding up all your really good friends and seeing there's not that many of them after all, you decide that no one would mind that much.
Mood swings tend to make you fall out with your parents over pointless matters, and these arguments don't help the depression much

Needless to say I got over mine

Yeah, mine was/is prettty much the same. The sheer ball-breaking indifference of the world is what grinds me down. The constant tides of rude people in the street, in cafes, at school ... these people seem to have grown up with no manners or restraint whatsoever. I have tried being polite and reasoning with them, but lately I've just thought "what's the use?" and waded in with a clenched fist any time someone gives me grief.

I've been depressed many times, mostly because I think too much. I see the world around me, teens, adults, children, and I see what they are doing to themselves and others. Ignorance really is bliss. I can remember my pre-depression days when I didn't really know what was going on. But as much as depresssion can suck, it can be usefull, and helpfull. It helps me to think clearly, to think about deeper, more important things. It helps me be.

Are you a teenager?? I can well remember the depression from those years. I was fat, ugly, spotty, nobody loved me (and I was at an all girls boarding school, which didn't help much). I hated sport. Then I started to see what was going on in the world (and during the 80s we were bombarded with The Bomb (dis-)information too): famine, war, unemployment, general anger and unhappiness. And now I'm in my 30s (I used to get depressed about that too) and I still get depressed about the same things, only the proportions are different. But... there is light at the end of the tunnel. And if we can change one little (ever so tiny) thing then that is good. And most of us go on to have kids, so suicide isn't an option (imagine how depressed that could make them) and we fight on every day to make the world better. But don't stop thinking, and don't stop trying to work out solutions. Recognise depression for what it is (and try to recognise the signs in others) and let's all get talking. You never know. I have good days and I have bad days, and if I'm honest, bad days are far oughtweighed by the good ones. It is a fact of life, and teenagers need to learn about this as much as anything else. They have a lot to learn, and we are their teachers - but even teachers don't know everything.

I have had my bad days, I am terrible at sports, and I am fat because of a medical condition, but because I have not been able to go and play sports all the time, I have taken refuge in books. Not to say that's all I ever do, but reading about the problems of others and how they have overcome them makes me feel less alone. My dogs have been a constant comfort also. Whatever situation you are in, someone has almost definitely been there too and has pulled through. But the most important thing is reminding myself that if I killed myself, many very precious people would die. They may not exist yet, but they will never exist if I don't continue to do so. My name is going to be passed to very many people. I would not only kill myself, but kill my sons and daughters, their sons and daughters, and so on. Imagine how Eve and Adam must have felt.

I haven't been depressed that much. But when I have, it's usually about a) sports, or b) music. And once it was about school and how I didn't know anything. I hate our school's P.E. system. Last year the genders were separated, and it was much better that way. Now that we have to have co-ed P.E., it's a lot harder 'cause the guys will taunt you about how weak or how slow you are, and I hate it. Music is because everyone expects me to do well in it and when I don't, they all round up on me and say, "Why didn't you play that well??" Like, when my dad once made me play for his friends when I really didn't want to, and I played and made a major mistake in the middle where by accident I turned around and said, "Sorry," and HE was depressed after that, and I was too, even though I hadn't wanted to play anyway. Never mind. I'm just rambling.

You make depression, and escaping it sound so easy, when in actual fact it is not.
It is wonderful and lovely that you managed to overcome you depression and get back to where you want to be.
But with the way you talk about it, you just woke up this morning and decided:
"well i'm not going to be sad anymore"
and don't we all wish that was the case.

Well, like I said, I'm not very depressed. Neither is Ashman, at least from what I can tell when I see him. I guess for other people it must be hard, although I'm not sure what it's like because I've never been like that.

the most depressing thing about being a teenager was high school. within high school, it was gym class. volleyball was the worst. it was so embarassing. tonight i was at a party and they were playing volleyball. everyone wanted me to play, and i didnt want to. it was the nicest feeling to realize that now that i'm not in highschool anymore, i never ever have to play volleyball ever again if i dont want to. and i dont.

I found depresssion a neccessary part of development and therefore a very important part of being a teenager. Depression is a time where we can look at things critically which can help in many ways.

Getting over a bout of depression is the tricky part. Whenever I start to feel overwhelmed I firstly don't get even more upset at that feeling, but welcome it as a developmental stage. Sometimes I will allocate a certain area to be a messy area in my room where I just pile up everything that I can get away with not putting away. I just let myself feel bad about things until I have had enough of that feeling (sometimes days, sometimes weeks).

Then I find a trigger, maybe going somewhere or doing something to break the cycle. It used to be a friend (a good friend bit one I didn't see all the time) that I would ring up. Then I would feel all washed out and resolute about feeling better, I will often get the tidying up bug and when everything around me is all tidy, I rarely find that I am still depressed.

That's what works for me. I think the hardest part about all that is getting to know yourself and letting yourself be who you are. I'm sure this is another huge and complicated teenage issue in itself.

While it's true that teenage depression can be useful, and help form a critical picture of the world, it's also a) not very pleasant, b) sometimes dangerous, and c) occasionally very hard to get over.

Depression can't be written off as a natural thing that you just grow out of, whatever your age. With most people, they do find ways of getting over it in their teenage years, and continue on their way through life. But sometimes it's not that easy. "I have seen the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness". And society in general is not helping.

This is just my depressed late-teens point of view, of course, but the fact that this sentence is probably rendering the above paragraphs moot in your minds is interesting, is it not? Sorry to be harsh, but discouting teenage depression as just another stage in life is not a good idea.

And mine is just a mostly-happy early-teens point of view.
Maybe it's just my school, but I haven't seen any depressed teens. Yeah, I guess it's my school.

Or the fact that we don't live in America.

I had a chronic attack of it, but it coincided with my parents divorcing so I think the two were probably linked. As a result I was a real loner as a teenager and didn't really mix at all until university.

I think it is really important to try and remember that the reason you are feeling this way is because of a chemical imbalance in your body. It helps to keep everything in a little bit of perspective.

i don't live in America either, but depression isn't uncommon around teens here.
Depression usually gets pushed into the same family of words like 'teenage angst'. They usually give people negative impressions, and they sound awfully cliched themselves. (but they sound so because they're used so often. )
everyone's been talking about how you'll get over depression and all that...but does anyone thrive on depression?
it sounds sort of paradoxical, i know. but it is possible.

I think the question 'does anyone thrive on depression' depends on how you define depression - it's definitely possible to use bad moods and negative emotions as a source of energy (creative or otherwise), but if, like many people, you define depression as a *pathological* case of negative emotions, then I guess not.

Looking back on my teenage years, I don't think my dark moods then were really much different to those I have now, but as I got older, I think I got an awful lot better at handling them. In many ways, becoming an adult is more like becoming a different person, rather than just getting older, and it can take quite a long time to figure out how you think, and which areas of your mind you should avoid straying into when you're in a negative mood. There are times (however old you are) when it can be quite a release to wallow in self-pity, but only as a very temporary measure, and as long as there's some part of your mind that still realises it's a form of indulgence, and shouldn't be taken entirely seriously.

Even just knowing that you've felt really low many times before and still came out the other side OK makes a big difference - the 'pull yourself together' part of your mind has a lot more ammunition to use in its arguments. As you get older, you have an increasing history of surviving life.

Hmmm, profound words flying here...

I get depressed very easily. For some reason, people seem to think that constant abuse "builds character". It doesn't. It destroys character.

I feel a strong sense of injustice at the complete vandalism (physical, mental, cultural and otherwise) that I see every day. There is one thing that keeps me fighting through my depression; the fact that, one day, I can turn around and stick two fingers up to the world. And everyone will see that however much theytried to destroy me, all along my greatest enemy was myself.

The first depression I had was when I was thirteen- I get bouts of it still, the most recent bad one being last term...

I don't know what gets me through-
- an underlying belief that there are better things around the corner? I don't think so, I can usually convince myself and everyone around me that the worst thing possible is going to result from whatever event...
-wandering around being sulky and seeking attention? I usually make an effort to put on a bright face I suppose... ppl describe me as "smiley" and it amazes me because thats lightyears from how I feel inside...

I suppose I'm scared to die is all. And then when its over I'm glad I am...

& I know my best friends have gone through the same feelings too, and there still here with me...

The thing I mainly get depressed about is seeing the lives of people in my family, and feeling afraid that no matter what choices I make, or however much I may bear it in mind, I won't be able to prevent myself winding up like them.

Different for me -- I see the lives of my family, and I think, "What if I don't do as well as them?"

I'm only a year out of my teens, so I guess this could be somewhat applicable

Depression, at least in high school, was one of the better things that happened to me. I know this statement sounds rather odd, but it really did help to make me the man I am today. (Now whether that is really good or not, I leave up to others, I think I'm just damned spiffy )

Thanks to those long, sleepless nights I got to read a lot of great literature, contemporary and classical, poetry and prose. I built up a rather good collection of unrequited love poems and tales of love lost That was my main hang-up in high school, and actually still is today.

The other things that come along with depression, although not actually at the same time are just as useful. The fear, anger, and angst in general, are handy if applied right. My writing was never as intense and edgy as it was when I got channelled off some of my anger at the world into it. Fear gave me that edge for awhile, driving me to do all sorts of odd and dangerous things that I would never have done ordinarily.

And if you're looking for an easy way to escape the depression and fear and anger, try biking. Pick a nice steady beat and count it off, at least mentally, while riding. Nothing clears the head for me better.