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?
My depression is a girl who looks just like me- my twin sister I guess. She walks next to me with her head lowered but her eyes always looking in front of her, always with a furious expression on her face. When she is angry or upset she puts pictures in my head of her destorying everything around us. Smashing vases, throwing things at the wall, screaming at the top of her lungs. When she feels sad or low she will sit very close to me and continually whisper horrible things in my ear. She tells me that I am useless, a burden and I'll never be good enough. I talk to her sometimes and once in a while I will fight with her and tell her she is wrong.. But at the end of everyday she always wins.
@Melancholyhills - Yes. ): Absolutely, depression is like a dark, almost soulless version of ourselives that wreaks havoc in our minds. It keeps us company but often only puts us down. I like how you mentioned trying to talk with it. I do that too. It always finds something negative to throw back in my face, some fault in my logic or argument, yet it itself is also very irrational. I appreciate this, thanks <3
my depression is a large hulking monster with horns. It won't let me see around it because it is so large and keeps getting in my way. My depression feels satisfied when I give up and go to bed at 4 in the afternoon.
my depression is not human, its a spider who has made its web im my stomach and chest and head.
@funfettifrosting This is a creepy and uncomfortable way of seeing it but I completley understand why. Because depression is all those things
My depression is a womanly family figure who lures me in by saying that she just wants to care of me, but once I can't escape she tortures me and tells me how much she wants to kill me. But she never does. She just stops and comforts me in my tears and lets me go. Sometimes she would comfort me just so she can torture me more. Knowing this cycle already, every time she lures me with her seeming care, I would go in, knowing this would happen just to get it over with. I was never able to resist her way of luring me. She always knows what I want.
@yoursandnobodyelses - Yes ): Depression is like a siren of the soul, luring us into a vast darkness, it even teases and tortures us even threats of destruction that it never intends to follow through on. It has worn us down so much that we dont even try to resist its call anymore. Its like an abusive relationship. As sad as depression is, I absolutely loved this comparison, thanks so much for sharingetting it with us.
My depression used to be this very mean person who had a power to invade my head wih it's thoughts, Depression is that person that comes in and ruins all your fun, Depression is that person no one wants to be by but they stick around anyway because they don't know what else to do. My depression used to be like that, my depression used to use the voices of my friends and call me a bunch of names that clouded up my brain like it was venom, But now I have gotton better I have unstuck myself from Depression and carried on my life leading to happier days, I would describe my Depression now to be like a person that tries to change their ways, tries to make themself seem likeable but acts up sometimes and let those horrible thoughts slip under it's breath time to time.
@limegreenPlum9327 - Wow, thank you for your valuable insight. How wonderful to hear from someone who feels they are on the right path. Your depression has come a long way, and maybe sometimes it is still annoying, but I am glad you and your depression have some healthier boundaries now and now are trying to figure out a mutually beneficial situation in your brain. Changing our thought patterns takes an exhaustive amount of time, but I believe in you! Its ok to take a break from that now and the too, we're only human. Thank you and good luck to you <3
If my depression was a person, it would be a person of indiscernable gender. They move slowly and deliberately, kind of like a fog. They always know what they're doing. They see me having fun, and they just grab my shoulders softly, almost like a familiar friend, and remind me of everything I don't want to be reminded about. They whisper it softly, each word dripping like a slowly burning acid. If I escape them for a while, they remind me that they're nearby, just by existing nearby. Watching. Waiting for a weak point. Almost like some sort of sick monster.
@SentientCozyTeacup I love this concept
If my depression was a person, it would be a 1000 pound sumo wrestler with a big black cape. The fucker squashes me all day preventing me to move, function, or receive sunlight, better yet any perception of life. Sometimes it gets up to use the bathroom and I'm free for about a day, then it comes back to break my bones till I'm nothing.
if my depression was a person, it would be small and meaningless. it would be rude and disrespectful because it doesn't know how to respect itself as a whole. it would wear a large oversized sweater and baggy jeans with a cheap knockoff of designer shoes. it would punch people in the face if they have a positive attitude to life. it would be alone all the time with only words to ever come out to say "you're fat" or "you hate yourself.". no-one would ever be able to live with my depression. ever.
My depression is a shadowy version of myself, it wants to kill me and I want to let it. It gave me a means of doing so, and once I tried it took the means away. I want to banish it back in which it came and move on, but I'm stuck with it and myself.
