What I've Learned

When I had depression and anxiety all I wanted to do was lay in bed, avoid people and situations and be alone all the time.  I never wanted to leave the house. When I was forced to I would never talk to anyone, I would usually sit in the corner on my phone or ask my parents when we could leave. When I was depressed and anxious I had no motivation to do anything. Most mornings I didn’t want to get out of bed so unfortunately I missed a lot of school which lead me to get very behind. I lost interest in almost everything. I no longer wanted to go to dance or talk to my friends outside of school. I had a lot of trouble sleeping and concentrating on school work was very hard.  Looking back on how I initially handled the situation, I realize that I shouldn’t have skipped school and avoided friends and social situations.  I should have used something called exposure therapy. Even though you just want to lay in bed all day and avoid things, you need to force yourself to get up and do the things that you are avoiding. I learned that avoiding things didn’t make my situation any better and in some ways actually made it worse. I also learned that wishing or hoping for the problem to resolve on its own is not helpful. When you are depressed or anxious you have to learn coping strategies and work hard to get better.