Using Steemit to overcome depression
Depression is a touchy subject and very misunderstood. Millions of people suffer with it worldwide but despite the best efforts of doctors and therapists, sometimes it's just not enough. Some will think that in time you'll overcome it whilst others think that action is needed.
I've personally suffered from depression during multiple points in my life with the most recent being the worst I've suffered so far. I've been signed off of work, lost my house, my long term girlfriend, my saving; I've racked up thousands of pounds of debt and it's all just started to get to me. And then I found steemit, the perfect cure for me.
The first few days I just browsed, constantly, going from article to article just reading whatever seems to take my fancy. After a while I eventually had the thought; "What if I could write something". This was when I published my first post. You can still find it on my profile, It was basically me talking about how all of you, the community of Steemit are great.
After publishing this I went on to think of other things I could write, I may not have any actual experience writing articles but it was worth a try! So I continued for days and days, post everything I could think of, anything to take my mind off of what was going on in my life. I wasn't making any money, but fuck it, that's not what this was about. The idea of this was for me to vent and hopefully create content people want to read.
It's working, as silly as it sounds it's really working. The motivation I've lost over the years is starting to come back to me. I started seriously trying to write a book and I've posted the works of my family members here in hopes of getting them a few readers of the work they produced. I've started taking care of myself and my routine is starting to take shape.
I may be far from full recovery and It may be a while before I'm off of anti-depressants all together, but I don't care. Because for the first time in too long I've finally found something I love to do; Create content and interact with other users of this great community.
Thanks for reading, I hope you don't mind the depressing content but my hopes for this is that someone sees it and tries to figure their own path out.
You're getting there. Don't worry. It takes time. It did for me. In fact, I'm still having issues every now and again, most of it from lack of self-confidence. However, with help from others, you can overcome it. Believe it!
Self confidence, IT really does take a plummet in these situations. But thanks for the kind comment, It's always nice to be around other familiar with this topic.
I also get long spells of depression. I figured out that if I get bored or let myself get into a rut where I sit and watch videos or sit and do nothing I start thinking about all of the wrongs that have been done to me and the people who have done wrong according to me. That starts a cycle of anger and depression that causes me to be an asshole to other people, which causes other people to stay away from me, which makes me more angry and lonely and so on.
So I decided to use that angry energy to start working out and keep myself busy working around the house, gardening, learning new subjects or running my small business. I keep a close eye on my moods, check my attitude and listen very closely to the tone of my own voice when I talk to other people now and I find that I am still lonely but I don't have a chance to let it get to me because my mind is busy with other things.
One thing that I do that is very important is stay away from drugs and alcohol. It is fun getting high but not so fun comming down.
It's sad that depression seems to be such a major issue nowadays. I agree also, prolonged amounts of time on my own tend to set me off, I end up just thinking about the most ridiculous things. As for the alcohol and drugs, I agree again. Besides the fact that i can't actually drink anymore because of health reasons, back when I did drink it would never end well. And I don't mean it would end up with me getting in a fight or throwing up. It would end the next morning, when i'm hungover, staying in my bedroom/away from people and thinking to myself.
I think that it has become such a major issue these days because we have way too much free time on our hands and we tend to text, sit on social media and surf the internet alot instead of socializing and connecting with others on a personal level. I also believe that this isolation makes us angry and lonely.
We watch TV and believe that our lives should be glamoruos like some of the characters that we see and when we come back to reality and see that life is not as glamorous as the characters on TV it is a hard pill to swallow.
We also have great expectation put on us from work and peers and speaking or myself, I have no one to talk to because most of the people that I meet are into getting drunk all day and have no drive or real interest in anything or they are very negative so I tend to stay away from them. I also believe that the food we eat plays a big part in our mental health because most of it is garbage and that is why I enjoy gardening. I eat better and I get a nice feeling when I give away vegetables to people I know.
I'm glad to see your finding alternative methods to keep yourself busy rather then going out and getting drunk. You're absolutely right with the media and entertainment shoved down our throats though. People have a hard time being happy because they don't have the things people on tv/social media have.
As much as I believe Facebook could have turned into a wonderful thing, It's not living up to it. It doesn't bring people together, it pushes them away from each other.
Like you said, the more people are relying on social media and modern entertainment, the more isolated they become and that's one of the reasons depression is so ripe nowadays.