Depression Facts: Depression Lies, Cheats, and Steals from You

Depression is a serious mental health condition with far reaching effects on your entire life.

Fortunately, depression can be treated successfully with medication and counseling and you can gain back the life that slipped away from your while you were struggling with untreated depression.

Depression lies to you – it twists everything into the negative and won’t let you see the whole, complex picture.

Depression cheats you out of your own experiences, ultimately out of relationships, and sometimes even your job.

Depression steals significant parts of your life from you. Here are a few depression facts that show how depression, left untreated, can distort your perception of the world around you, yourself, and also the condition itself.

Depression fact: Depression lies to you

Depression will put a negative spin on events and people.

When someone doesn’t return your call or has to cancel a meeting, most people will realize that there are many possible reasons. But depression will suggest that there is only one reason, and that is that this person doesn’t like you and is rejecting you. Then depression will tell you that this is because you are not good enough, and nobody will want to be with you.

Negative chains of thought will escalate to paint a dark picture of the world around you, and make you feel there is nothing you can do to change it.

Another lie that depression will tell you is that everything that happens to you is bad.

Your perception becomes very selective, and positive events feel insignificant to you, compared to negative experiences such as problems at work, bad luck, or even little accidents that can and do happen to anyone.

After a while, you get used to these wrong perceptions. The lies of depression feel like the only reality you have ever known.

Depression also tends to distort your memory.

Depression fact: Depression cheats you out of your own life experience, relationships and good functioning everywhere, including work

If your depression is severe enough, and left untreated, you disconnect from reality. Your negative perceptions destroy relationships and make it very difficult for you to function at work.

You start to undermine yourself with constant self-doubt. You can’t see opportunities when they arise. Because the present and the past seem very dark and negative to you, you extrapolate to the future. Positive outcomes seem unachievable.

This way, depression can cheat you out of your most important relationships and your career prospects.

In very severe cases, you may lose the motivation to go to work or socialize at all.

Depression fact: Depression can steal significant parts of your life from you

Depression can steal your enjoyment of life, in big ways and small.

It can spoil a very special vacation, a wedding, quality time with your kids.

It can also disconnect you from nature, from the simple pleasures of food and sports, from the appreciation of art and music, and from the enjoyment of ‘doing nothing’.

Depression can prevent you from living in the present moment, the only moment that is real.

But depression can also steal your future. It can steal your hopes and dreams, it can steal your vision for yourself and others. It can, as a consequence, also steal away some of the chances you get to realize these dreams.

People who came out of depression often say that they feel the condition stole their time, time out of a life that will never come again.

Depression fact: None of the lies and cheats are real

Depression can feel as if you live in a hall of mirrors that distort your own reflection while cutting you off from the rest of life.

But it is important to remember: none of these lies are true. None of these cheats are real. And when your depression is treated, you will come out of this House of Lies and connect to reality again.

There is hope, and there is successful treatment

Although depression can be powerful, there is hope. Real hope, based on real life experience.

Depression can be treated successfully and that House of Lies will fall apart. You will be able to resume your life and rebuild your relationships. You will see that life is a mix of the good and the bad, that you are not singled out for the worst of luck, and that you can look forward to achieving your goals.

Most of all, you will be able to enjoy the small things and the big things in life again, right here, right now, in the present moment.