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 were a person, I'd lock it up in a Saratoga-grade trunk, throw the key away, and stash the trunk five levels underground. Oh wait, I already did that, but there are still remnants. It sure knows how to rub off on a person.
If my depression were a person I would pity them. Always wanting attention and never getting it from me. They were always that rude friend that you stay friends with becuase they have no one else. The one who you finally cut ties with and it feels great not having them around. They meant well and you've been with them for so long but it wasn't worth it.
I'm gonna miss them but I'm glad they're gone.
@ThreeMink7 - I like this perspective. Depression can raise so many feelings and reactions from us, and feeling bad for our depression is definitely in there. Saying goodbye and taking steps away from it can be very difficult, we may even feel guilty for not having the depression so close to us, but ultimately we have to do what's best for us. It is like a toxic person. Thanks for sharing this with us
If my depression were a person, they would be surrounding me all day everyday, whispering horrid things in my ear. And when I'm at my lowest, they'd offer my the razor smiling and winking, egging me to do it
I'd imagine my depression more as an indescribable animal. Some days its big, other days small and skittish. Sometimes it has a calm expression, or it has sharp menacing teeth. There are days it runs rampant and tires me. And there are times it's actually still. My depression is something I try to care for, but it's still a learning progress.
@BeeTiger - I like this: a creature whose form changes shape based on its severity. ): It is a process to learn how to take care of it, how to take care of ourselves, and it's ok to take a break from that process now and then too because it can be exhausting; we also deserve to be proud of ourselves for wanting to learn how to take care of it and doing what we can. <3 Thanks for this insight
If my depression were a person they would be physically holding me down 24/7 making it impossible to be breathe.
If my depression were a person, they would be choking me and pushing down when I need things to be calm. They would whisper in my ear things that make me feel like i'm not human. They would stand behind me when I look in the mirror, and point out the fact that i'm not perfect. But I would deal with it, as my depression comes by many names. Many faces. It goes by the name Dad- the one I didn't get the perfect childhood with. It goes by the name Mom- Who trys her best for an uncaring family. The arsenal of names that personify the fear of staying alive gets updated after every single interaction.
@Jillias - Poignant, thank you. Depression is represented in so many things, from the way it physically feels, to the negative parasitic thoughts it accosts us with, to the people we should rightly feel compassion from, to friends and family and pets and strangers and even, or especially, our own reflections in the mirror. I appreciate you posting this, thanks. <3
If my depression were person, they'd be the annoying acquaintance that thinks they're my friend. They show up at inopportune times & want to chat, and I don't want to be rude, but I keep looking for a way to break from the conversation. Meanwhile, time just floats on by while I'm trying to muster the nerve to get on with things, but I'm stuck, mired in a conversation I didn't initiate & can't seem to terminate.
Mr. Depression wouldn't have a chance to say anything before I bludgeon him over the head and choke the life out of him. If I were arrested and put on trial for murder, I would claim truthfully that this was self-defense against a deadly predator who was attempting to destroy me bit by bit with merciless sadism and extreme malice.
