When you’re lonely, you don’t become cripplingly hopeless and withdraw from life? You just contact some friends or easily make new friends and have a good time and carry on with life?
When you’re driving your car and everything is fine until you come to a stoplight, you don’t suddenly become depressed at the stoplight like I do?
When you wake up every morning, you don’t have crippling existential dread? You just get up and go about your day cheerfully, without analyzing the futile meaninglessness of the big picture?
I’ve struggled with depression since childhood. It’ll come back, I’m sure. My father told me to remember that everything is cyclical, and I think that’s true. I’m in an up time. There will be down times.
As mentioned by others, it’s simply the absence of something bad. Although, I’ll go on to say that it does feel good, when you know how it feels to feel terrible at every moment. Not having that is, as someone else said, a relief. Like waking up feeling better after having the flu. Life is just life, but at least that shitty thing is gone.
I’ve spent half my life feeling awful. And even now, without depression, I’m still painfully aware of how completely fucked everything is. It simply isn’t my problem, even though it is. I wish you the best.
Yeah that’s what has always gotten me through things as well…knowing that there will always be some sort of a change. Sometimes it’s a good change and sometimes it’s a bad change, but it will change. It’s gotten me through some really low periods knowing that it won’t be like that forever. I just actually very recently dug my way out of a low period that lasted longer than I would have liked, and I’m doing ok at the moment! But I know at any moment, things could change back. But it’s ok. It’s just part of the constant changes of life.
I will say what personally helps me is to always be distracted. I’ve heard some people call this unhealthy, but I disagree. Rumination is the root of my issues, personally. And living in the moment is the best way to happiness. Obviously, you don’t want to go absolutely nuts with it and just have hookers and blow 24/7. Living in the moment does not have to be self destructive.
So when I’m able to be distracted by simple things like a cheerful conversation, it really helps. Right now, I’m filling my extra time with a TV show that I’ve gotten into. So I am able to spend most of my time thinking about and being distracted with that. Rumination is the worst.