How To Explain Depression to Somone

[Newman91]

So back in March my girlfriend of 4 years decided to move out and we broke up. It took me until July before I sought out help and I looked for help because my extremely high stress job was killing me. I never thought I had depression but after several month of being on medication and seeing a therapist, I’ve realized I’ve been dealing with depression for many years now.

Long story short, my ex girlfriend and I are talking again and about to get back together. She is having a hard time getting past some of the things that hurt her. For example having zero sex drive (she thought it was because she was unattractive), never wanting to go out and do things with her (I’d always just want to stay home and recharge), being extremely irritable all the time, and things like that. After being in therapy and on medication, I’ve realized that those things were in part due to the depression I was struggling with. Now I’ve been working on myself and am a whole new person and even she has noticed that. But she still won’t let go of the past and I don’t blame her at all. But she wants answers as to why I did those things. And she is well aware of the depression but doesn’t think that has anything to do with it.

Any thoughts or advice??

[Dogmom55]

I went through a divorce and some of my side was due to anxiety. We are now back together and we struggle with this also because he does not understand. Have you asked her to go to therapy with her? I found writing letters helped because I could my true emotions out. Also just being understanding that they may never fully understand how it feels. Hope this helps a bit!

[Newman91 in reply to Dogmom55]

She actually brought therapy up to me that we should go together so we can work thru some of those things. But when I’ve pushed it a little, she keeps putting it off so it doesn’t appear like it will happen..but I do like the letter idea

[Jimdubu]

It's hard to explain depression or Anxiety to someone, there are so many facets to it . Our brains or minds can be our best friend or our worst enemy taking us to very dark places. John Wesley one of the church reformers called the mind the Devils Whore, Iv'e always called it his playground. Maybe the reason your GF doesn't want to go to the therapist with you is because she is afraid about what she might find out about herself. Here is some information I was able to scrounge about depression, hope it helps. list.ly/list/1CE4-looking-u... . Prayers my friend