- Forum
- Depression Support
- Personify Your Depression: If my depression were a person... [fill in the blank]
Personify Your Depression: If my depression were a person... [fill in the blank]
Personify Your Depression: I learned about this coping technique today. Imagine that your depression is a person separate from you. The idea is that personifying our depression helps remind us that depression doesn't define who we are ourselves, and that invasive self-critical thoughts we experience often come from our depression and not our healthy minds. Some things to think about are: what kind of person would it be, what kind of hobbies would it have, what would it look like, what would its name be?
So, if your depression were a person, what kind of person would it be?
If my depression was a person... he would look like a cross between Dream and Destiny, with a huge, tattered cloak. And sometimes, he would enfold me within, but because he is not from Here, there would be no warmth, no body, just the dark and the bone-deep sorrow and the despair of ever finding hope or happiness again, until even the memory of those feelings is gone. But I hang on, because I have lived with him all my life, and when he lets go, reluctantly, I sometimes wonder whether he is seeking warmth and never finding it as well...
Mine would be a very large person that would depend on me to survive and would constantly be hanging on my back with their super heavy weight
It would be waiting behind me at all times, sneaking up on me when I am most exhausted and vulnerable.
If my depression were a person, it would be a person you see every day in your life, but never get more than a glimpse of. Its a person that disappears when others are around, because no one else can know. If anything, my depression is the mirage of a person you loved. You search for them, but they evade you and it leaves you feeling more hollow than before.
If my depression was a person she would come off as loving and kind, but most of all safe. She would keep me clear-headed and let me know when I did something wrong, which according to her is all the time. She is a she because to me I view my depression as a maternal figure. A manipulative, toxic mother who wants nothing more than to keep me grounded or rather in a ditch by the road. Her arms would always be open for a hug to shield and save me from situations in which she created. If I could meet her I have no idea what I would do. I would want to kill her and see her suffer, but I'm 90% sure I would apologize for whatever I'd done wrong this time and cower as I do in the presence of all manipulative characters.
If my depression were a person it would be a dementor. A ghostly black figure that sucks all the life and happiness out leaving me a hollowed out shell of my former self.
I'd probably threaten his life unless he left me alone in self defense as he threatened mine once.
If my depression were a person, it would be a (dark) green slow moving zombie, who needed to be knocked on its head and back to reality. It would need to be tied up and put in a bed, given medication to detoxify its malfunctioning body, until it can both see clearly, hear clearly, and move and interact in a healthy manner. Then it would be 'put down', back to its natural clay/mud position, to allow the human whose soul it was sharing, to have back their full life, and maybe their spark back in their eyes.
Devious in one breath - vulnerable in the next, always desperate, always cringeworthy - mine would be Gollum-Sméagol.
The human form of my depression would look like my mother but also wouldn't. She sucks the life out of me and everything I do every time she says some nasty side comment about my life, or work, or relationships and I wish she would not exist at all and then I feel bad for thinking something like this because she is my mother.
If my depression were a person, she'd look exactly like me, she'd be me. I would try to talk to her and find out a way we could work things out. I'd make sure she is aware of what she's doing to me and how she's slowly eating away at me, turning my own body against me. Because my depression doesn't define who I am but it's apart of me, and if she's anything like me, she's probably just lost and confused and needs someone to help her figure things out. Even though she hurts me, not all people who do bad things are bad people.
If my depression were a person, she'd be a master. Sometimes, she'd leave me to my own thing and rarely intervene. And in other moments, she'd be looming over my back, examining every move I make, casting me into shadowy pool of darkness. She's always there, no matter the circumstance... just less present at times. She's the reason why I'd plunge myself into work and physical exhaustion just to stop feeling for a bit. She's the reason why I want to feel pain, the reason why I can't feel much happiness. She's like a net preventing the light from coming in, and only letting the dark come in. And the worst thing is no matter what I try to do to escape, she's always there in the end.
If my depression were a person, she'd be a master. Sometimes, she'd leave me to my own thing and rarely intervene. And in other moments, she'd be looming over my back, examining every move I make, casting me into shadowy pool of darkness. She's always there, no matter the circumstance... just less present at times. She's the reason why I'd plunge myself into work and physical exhaustion just to stop feeling for a bit. She's the reason why I want to feel pain, the reason why I can't feel much happiness. She's like a net preventing the light from coming in, and only letting the dark come in. And the worst thing is no matter what I try to do to escape, she's always there in the end.
if my depression were a person it would be an overbearing grandmother, always lingering, always commenting, always knows exactly which wounds are the most sensitive.
if my depression were a person it would be someone that constantly reminds me that I am trapped, that I can't leave them. Almost like an abusive partner, who blames me for everything yet seems to cause all of my problems.
Depression for me is...shadow. Watching me from the distance in those "good" days but on those bad ones...
It s on my chest when I want to breathe, it s next to me, squeezing my throat when I want to shout for help. It's breathing behind me, walking behind me.
I just want to turn around and...hug it. To my depression, it s not your fault, I created you, you are all the thing I hate about myself, all the thing I fear about myself. I m sorry I made you but it s time to go apart.
If my depression were a person she'd cry a lot, have an inferiority complex and wear funky glasses and pants with suspenders.
if my depression were a person it would be an absolutely beautiful girl whom i'd fall in love with. she would give me everything only to take it all away. she'd tell me all the reasons i'm so hard to love. she'd make me feel worthless.
If my depression were a person, she would be very dark and snakelike, coiling around me until I can't breathe and hissing lies in my ears.
If my depression were a person, she'd be a little all over the place. Somedays she would be distant and let me breathe without her clinging down onto me. Somedays she would be hostile and have her hand tight on my wrist, hip-to-hip, telling me everything I don't want to hear. Somedays she would be mopey and needy and force me to stay in bed with her - to sleep through my classes and ignore all my texts.
If my depression was a person, she would be a tall, looming figure with a creepy grin and long, tickly nails. She would be constantly nagging me, poking me gently. Sometimes, she'll go unnoticed. Other times, she'll make me break down, no matter where i am.
She would be the lonely girl in the corner that nobody talks to. She is painfully awkward and doesnt know how to just be herself. She has no confidence and is too embarrassed to look people in the eyes.
If my depression was a person. She'd be a faded version of me, like a shadow that is constantly attached to me and follows me more persistently the greater the light and happiness there is in my life. Her face is always blank, expressionless, and her eyes filled with an empty sadness. Her movements are lethargic and always steady. Though she seems hollow, she exerts power, especially when a person tries to approach. Her countenance turns cold, her posture taller, her head tilts upward, and her eyes narrow judgmentally towards anyone who dares stand in her presence. And then the moment they leave, her shoulders droop and her face wilts and tears fall unbidden from her eyes. At night she wallows over what ifs and very outlandish and unrealistic futures. Shes a very lonely shadow who often feels just part of the background and wants more, but is very unwilling and unaccepting to any changes.
If my depression were a person, they would never have any defined shape at all. They certainly wouldn't look like me, given that I put no stock into my own thoughts or feelings; if my depression looked like me, I wouldn't be depressed in the first place.
It looks like the people I love. The people I value. The people who I think have feelings, thoughts and opinions that matter. What person it takes on depends on what is happening at the time. And it doesn't just have to limit itself to one person at a time, either. It can be everybody, all at once, a dozen faces it knows I would pay attention to; would listen to.
If my depression were me, I could ignore it, because I'm very good at ignoring myself and how I feel or what I think. I'm good at telling myself I don't matter. If my depression were some stranger, I could walk away from it, because a stranger means little to me and I've grown up with so many bullies in my life that one extra bully means nothing. But my depression is not me. My depression is the face and the voice of the people whose input I believe to be true. It is not rough, it is not violent. It is the whispers in the early hours of the morning when I can't get back to sleep and my mind is heavy with thoughts. It's the smooth-talking voice that sounds like it might be made of silk that convinces me I'm hated, and deserve to be hated at that, while wearing the faces of people it knows I would never question.
A grey tatured cloak 3 times my size. Stangling me, enveloping, suffocating but he's afraid of blood so if u bleed he loosens for a bit. Thats why the cutting works. He hates people seeing him so he keeps you at home isllolated. When u do go out he lets your face smile and show but as soon as they turn he forces himself down your throught. Every year he tightens he will kill me so very slowly.
He would be a handsome, cool guy seemingly nice to talk to and getting involved in deep, meaningful discussions. He would appear to understand me. However, all that would be a smoke-and-mirrors facade and when I find out whats behind the facade, the negativity comes out! His gaze, once warm and understanding, becomes cold like a reptile - sleazy, beady eyes with a sleazy, greasy grin to match ... as my concerns, once understood and empathized with, are now taken for granted as dismissed! Somehow, Ive become a disappointment! Its become my fault!
The guy in front of my becomes a menacing demon scorpion!
That, folks, personifies my anxiety and depression. Facing down the demons becomes real!
If my depression was a person they'd look like how I present myself. Disheveled. Sloppy. Not well put together. Tired. That sorta vibe. They wouldnt have a set face, theyd be more like a shadow, a solid shadow of what im supposed to be except its only filled with darkness. Horrible thoughts, feelings, and emotions that swirl like a vortex inside it. A vile person filled with so much negativity you can almost see the grotesque innards pouring out of their mouth.
They'd be a master of disguise. Hiding in the shadows mostly unnoticed, all while pulling the strings and manipulating everyone that passes by them. They'd be a horrible person. Kinda like how I feel sometimes.
if my depression was a person i would be always chained to it, always holding me back from the things i really wanna do
depression is forever my partner in crime in the confines of my mind.
My depression would be a split personality between snapping at the littlest annoyance and feeling like the world have given up on me.
If my depression were a person it would be a melancholic little blue guy who lives in the control center of my brain. For whatever reason someone left him in charge and he just keeps making the worst calls. I'd like to think he isn't doing it to hurt me purposefully but rather it is just who he is and he can do nothing else but hurt me, hold me back, and suppress the better parts of myself I'm pretty sure exist. It's hard to remember anymore because he's been in charge for too long.
The person would be Chuck Bass of Gossip Girl. Being happy for the person you lovr eventhough you are not a part of it. And there would be people coming but they go away/ shoo them away because its empty or dont want them to feel what you are feeling right now.
If my depression was a person, it would be a sailor. It keeps tying me down to where I can't get loose.
If my depression was a person he would be an evil monster who I had to fight everyday.
If my depression was a person it would be a stalker in the dark sulking in the shadows until i'm alone to affect me when I see it staring outside my window.
If my depression were a person, it would be constantly standing in my way. It would be following me around and attacking me whenever i make a mistake. It would be telling me that my coping behaviors are worth the pain and grief it puts on me and my family if it means i get that temporary relief.