Introduce yourself.

Hi I'm craig and I got issues. Lots lol just need to get stuff out

Hey, I go byvoxand I tend to keep it that way. I'm 16 have been dealing withdepression & anxiety for two years now, drug addiction for one year because ofa bad break up mostly. Aaaand that's all I guess

Hi! My name is Katy and I have been dealing with anxiety and depression for 4.5 years now. Everytime I feel like I have it handled, something else happens. I was always a very happy person, never saw me without a smile. Pretty good student, very social. I'm still pretty social, but also tend to be a loner. Not I'm living somewhere where I feel like my only friend is my boyfriend. I moved to his home town last year. Stress triggers my anxiety, and we tend to have a lot of that.

Hi I'm cat, 26 years old. I had the worse winter of my life this year which has triggered the depression I had in my teens to return with vengeance... lost my house, broke up with long term bf, had to move to a different town from the town I loved and a gazillion more rubbishy things. I'm suffering with depression and anxiety atm, (and attempting recovery from atypical anorexia-I'm just a crazy mess right now.) this forum looked friendly unlike some I've seen so I thought I'd say hi!

Hi, I'm Hope, I'm 16. Back in October my best friend committed suicide and since than I've been struggling with some depression. Some days I just can't see the bright side of life. Part of this is because I'm so lonely, and I need some friends, but I'm also struggling with some social anxiety that is keeping me from having them. I'm working through it though, and I havehope that it will get better.

Hey I am lara I am really very underconfident. I care a lot abt what others say. I am all the times depressed

@rupenzal: Hey Lara, I often feel that way too;insecure and caring too much about what other people think of me. I usually let it stop me from being myself, but I'm working through it and putting others opinions behind me and I know you can too!

Hey thanks a lot. Ur advice really motivated me. U can always consider me as ur friend and share ur problems becoz I am also not good at making friends. I am a good advisor

Hello fellow depression sufferers :) I'm Liora and I find your openness and support here very heart warming. I've been struggling with depression since I was 13 and anxiety almost all my life. I am now on medication and in therapy, and I have a message for all you guys out there - IT GETS BETTER! Even after 10 years undiagnosed and untreated, it started to get better. Change is possible. <3

I am Megan. I am new here. I am more depressed and hopeless than I have ever been in my life. I feel like I am in a deep dark well where no one can find me.

Hey Megan. I'm so glad you've found 7 cups of tea. There are tons of people here who care about you and will literally shower you with love and support. Be strong. You can get through this.

Hey Megan. I'm so glad you've found 7 cups of tea. There are tons of people here who care about you and will literally shower you with love and support. Be strong. You can get through this.

I'm 19 years old girl, brazilian, and veterinary student! Had a lot of problems in the last, depression and self-harm was some of them! I still deal with Anxiety and Bi-polar!!! Now I'm using my past problems To help other people! Anything you need ,you can count on me!

Hi, I am Holly. I am 20 years old. I have been struggling with depression and panic attacks for 10 years. Recently has gotten worse due to a break up that won't go away.

Well hello there, I'm Aaron. Been grappling with the beast that is Depression and more recently being diagnosed as having Split Personality Traits, life is hard, days are too long, I worry too much and I struggle every second of every day, but I'm getting there. Hopefully I can get reasonably involved here I could use the community spirit! :)

Hello aaron!

i really empathise your situation. You are strong enough and we all believe in you dear. Feel free to message me, if you ever need someone to talk! :)

Hi...I have suffered with major depression for as long as I can remember. It has cost me just about everything that is worth anything.

I don't have friends any longer...they are tired of trying to deal with me. People that I can relate do in the short term think I am a pretty good person as I can hide who I really am from them/

Where I live, everyone gives it up to God, He will keep you safe. God will comfort you. I want to believe in God...I do believe in God. I also blame God for taking away the most precious person in the world, my daughter, and allowing a judge to decide that she should live with her father. A father who was emotionally abusive to his family, a father who physically abused his second wife (with my daughter in the home). A father who I have heard rumour...may have sexually abused my daughter when she was little..and I was asleep in the next room.

How do I trust God when he didn't give wisdom to my daughter's stepmother...that when it was bad enough for her to go to a hotel for safety, that she didn't give my daughter back to me? The stepmother that left for good and took my daughter and DIDN'T TELL ME. For 6 months, I didn't know where my daughter lived. I saw her, and still no one told me.

Oh, yeah, did I mention that I am a worthless piece of shit?

I feel you there and agree with a lot you said. I have lost a lot too and have had a lot of bad things happen to me. Sometimes I feel if there is a God, he is playing an awfully cruel joke on me with my life. Hope things get better for you!!

hey bec, im 15 now and i will be turning 16 this may. honestly though i have never suffered depression i was on the verge of falling into depression. life had become too tough for me. walls seemed to be closing in on me but trust me you can fight it all. there is alot more to this world a lot more joy, happiness and even pain. we reach a stage where we wish that all this would just disappear but trust me when i say this even the pain is needed to understand the value of our joys. i know this is difficult for you to believe because at first i didn too. but then you lear to rise above. remember you are in control over your emotions, your emonts are not i control of you. take care.

Hi everyone! My name is Kimmy and I suffer from depression and anxiety. Not sure what to call it but I have been feeling this way for over 10 years. All of my friends and family don't understand what I have been going through because they just feel like Its a minor issue. It has been affecting my work life, personal life, and has gotten to the point of turning around to go back home because I refuse to go in the store or public events due to my anxiety. My depression has gotten worse. I am numb all the time. I feel like I'm functioning on auto pilot. Live day in and day out. Just to survive. I am trying to build up the courage to make an appointment with a psychiatrist and finally get help. I don't want it affecting my daughter as she grows. Thank you for listening. Lately I feel like no one cares or wants to listen to my issues. Not my family or friends. It is really getting to me.

Hello :) I'm Hannah and I'm 17. I've lived in Britain for my whole life and am a living example of the stereotype that us Brits drink too much tea! I've been struggling with depression in silence for two years - when I told my parents back in 2013 they didn't believe me, but registered me with camhs anyway, only to then discharge me after just one session -They've made it very clear that they're embarrassed of me because of my grades and I guess that the thought of me having a mental illness would feel like a 'failiure' to them on top. More recently I've been showing symptoms of psychosis but am yet to get a professional opinion on it. I was previously a listener on 7cupsoftea but since my own mental health needed some help I had to de - activate my account, but almost a year on I'm happy to be back as a member :)

Hannah, your story has made me feel sorry for tour situation and disappointment at your parents (and the British lack of understanding of MH difficulties, parents are not told the right things about it). From one British tea drinker to another: hang in there, you will get through this. I'm a mum and I really hope you can get the help you need. At least there is a lot available online. Remember when you are 16 you can self refer without your parents. ;-)

Hi, my name's James (it's not really but idk who's reading this :/) and I suffer from depression, more specifically loneliness. My back story is nothing special and it's not really worth anyone's time but I'll give it to you in the short form anyway.
Diagnosed with Asperger's at 5 but my parents decided not to tell me. I was therefore the weird kid at school and everyone hated me, and I had no clue why, which led to a lot of self-confidence issues. They then sent me to 'Behavioural Therapy' still without telling me so I felt like I was special needs. They finally told me when I began secondary school when I could start to make friends and develop an actual identity. They then decided to move and put my into the boarding at the school I was already at. I was separated from all of my hometown friends and I never saw my family. My parents decided to tear my childhood home apart (literally) so they could sell it. The depression started here really, I got seriously down and it came close to suicide at one point. To make it worse my parents decided to move again, far enough away that I couldn't board anymore. I was now completely separate from all of my friends and in a new school with no identity. It was at this point relationships began to come into play. You see the thing about Asperger's is when you do develop a friendship, because you're so happy to have it, you throw your heart and soul into it. This is multiplied exponentially when it comes to romantic relationships. The problem is that this wasn't just not reciprocated, but it's not even noticed. Therefore my first ever really relationship friendzoned me, which still hurts. My second and third did also, which again didn't help my confidence as I thought it was something wrong with me. And most recently, my fourth took a great steaming s**t on my feelings to add a bit of variety. At this point I broke at went to therapy, where I was directed here for when I didn't have an appointment.
yes, that is the short version. Pathetic right?

Wow James, you are not one bit pathetic! You have great insight to how your life's events have affected you. (As well as a great sense of humour). You've been through a lot, and these things are hard with Aspie traits, empathy takes a back seat with all the other things the Aspie mind has to deal with. I hope you can use 7cups and therapy and life in general to work out your best way forward, make some small changes, and get to a happy way of living, and be happy.

Hello dear James. I send hugs! :)

Being alone doesn't mean you have to be sad and feel lonely most of the time. Instead, make that time as your precious time, to meditate, to evaluate yourself, to analyze what's going on around you. To trace the path you wan to go, to figure out the things you want to do, and to improve your abilities and skills with your own. So, never be desperate when you are alone, but give it value and use it for yourself, to finalize what you really want. I know it's gonna be hard for you but with time eventually it will be okay dear!
Please feel free to message me or any other listener when ever you want to talk <3

Hello! My name is Paul. I've had depression for a long time. It's tough. I manage to get through the days, but I would hardly call it living. I've practised mindful meditation for about 1 year, and although it has not had any real effect on my depression and often doesn't give much solace, it is the only thing that in theory "makes sense". To me "living" is a predicament: none of the things that one would "normally" appreciate or strive for have any real appeal to me. However, mindfulness makes sense to me in theory, as it tries to cultivate a more peaceful mind by focusing on the mind itself rather than on external things. That's not to say that ones emotional health sometimes can be improved by external things, but for a person like me who has a permanent job, a fairly good income, a nice flat, a few friends, and who lives in a peaceful, democratic country, I can't see how any external things would be able to diminish my discontent other than "superficially". I'm lost in life, and I dream of a more mindful and peaceful state of mind, something I fear I will never obtain.

Hi Paul, I like the way you describe mindfulness. I haven't tried it much and I think I should. I think yiu arevright about making changes internally, we can change oir own thinking but not other people. I hope at 7cups you can try to find some other ways to help reach a more peaceful and satisfactory state of mind too. Sometimes it is just a small thing that helps you see a different 'signpost' in life and change direction. There are lots of hints like that here (like the way you have described mindfulness has given me the help to try it more) so maybe something else as well as mindfulness could help you in other ways.

I'm Kat, I've had adhd, depression and anxiety my whole life. Recently I've been really struggling with dealing with the loss of my mom she passed away last August I thought over time i'd be able to figure myself out on how to cope, i've just been trying to reach out and going to my therapy but I've been depending on self-harm to feel better. I also had to pack and move all mine and my moms belongings out of the house I grew up in I saw picture of her and had to go through everything it really just put me in a deep dark place. I really miss her it brought back so many memories all I just wanted was to hug and see her again. It doesnt help when my older brother that has stage 4 cancer didn't help to do anything all he's done is drink abuse his pain pills and use dope I can't be around all that negative when I'm trying to better myself, I worry about him so much but I know he won't change or ever think of me and how I'm really doing... I feel so helpless :( especially when I try and things don't workout well.

Hi...my name's Aya, not real, but then again, I don't really like my real name. Anyway I'm 16 and have been battling depression for a long time. I didn't even know I had it as I was madeto think it didn't happen. I was forced to acknowledge it when it became severe and I became suicidal. My parents don't know about this as there is a strict unspoken rule that doesn't allow us to express any sort of negative emotions. The more severe and negative, the harsher the "punishment". I still have things in my past I have yet to address but I can't just yet. Or anything form of self-preservation I have accomplished will fall apart.

I really hope you can get the help you need to work things out, Aya. You've come to a good place at 7cups, although there are a lot of distractions here. Can you get professional help from a counsellor or therapist where you live?

Hello, my name is Jesse and I've recently found seven cups of tea. I suffer from major depressive disorder.I was diagnosed as a teenager. I've been managing it well recently and was looking for more support when I stumbled across this website!

It's so good to have you here and to have you be a part of our lovely and supporting community! Welcome, welcome ^_^

Hello, I'm Rebecca and I have struggled with depression since I was 16. I am now 22. It comes and goes, but every time my depression looks a little different; I don't recognize it at first. I am working on taking steps to deal with my depression as it is now, this being a part of that.

Hello @worldtraveler16

As much as I would love to say that depression is a phase that will be over soon, it isn't the case. Depression is variant, but often is a long process. Finding some help, someone to talk to, going to the doctor about your depression are the best things that you can do right now, to get the support you need. Another good idea is to read more about depression using the self-help guides available on this website.

A lot of self-love. It's really difficult to love yourself when you are dealing with depression, but it's important to practice some form of self-care. Remember to breathe. Remember to do the things that you love, if you can. But most importantly, remember to give yourself time. Be kind to yourself. Every step is a step forward. I'm proud of you dear! < 3

Hello my name is Wannie I'm suffering from the same issue as you. I will continue to keep you in my prayers

Thank you for joining our community! I hope we can help you identify your depression in the early stages!

Bumping this up

Hi.. You can call me Line. I'm 22 years old. My depression started 8 years ago, but it's getting worse in the past 3 years. I'm trying not to hurt myself in any physical forms, but lately my mind keeps telling me to do so and I want to stop it.I hope I can find wonderful advice/help here.

Hi I'm Kayla. I have had two of the worst years of my life. I have always suffered from depression for as long as I can remember and it eventually grew into self harm. Last year I buried 8 friends in 12 months. I dont know what else to say.

-hugs- I am sorry things have been so rough for you. I can't even imagine what that's like. I hope that 7cups can be a supporting community for you while you heal.