Although I have recently overcome my depression, it’s still a touchy subject for me to talk about. My depression began about a year ago. When I started my job at Altitude Trampoline Park.

At first, working there was so much fun. I enjoyed working with the kids and even made some lifelong friendships with some of my co-workers. This quickly changed for me when I met our general manager.

Going into work became more of a drag. And, I struggled to get out of bed most days to go there. My general manager was very aggressive and degrading.

He wanted to make sure all the employees knew that he was in charge. And that he held all the power in that establishment. Going into work started to become my trigger for my depression.

There were days when I felt like I could actually make it a fun day at work, but that dream was short-lived once I walked through those doors. My lowest point was the first day I was promoted to a cashier. What brought joy to my workday was working with the children. So being promoted to cashier meant I had to work closely with my GM.

Little did I know that being a cashier also meant dealing with rude customers who yelled at me for things I couldn’t control. When I asked the GM for help, he would look at me with confusion and tell me to handle it myself. This led me to breakdown and I knew I had to make some sort of change.

I ended up quitting that job and finding a new job that I absolutely love. I have been at this establishment for about 5 months now and I couldn’t be happier.

To those struggling with depression, I recommend finding a passion. At times you might feel like you are not in control of your life, but you are, and only you can make you happy.

Find something that you truly love. And invest all your time in it. I’ve found that keeping your mind busy is a great way to distract yourself from anything that could potentially be mentally or physically draining for you.

My first experience of depression was in seventh grade. I always knew bullying was a thing. I just never thought I’d be the one going through it. From what I can recall, I was bullied from October of my seventh-grade year until the end of eighth grade.

At the beginning of middle school, I started dating this guy who, at first I thought was amazing. 

As time went on, he found ways to manipulate me, lead me on, and mentally abused me. 

Honestly, I don’t know if I would have been strong enough to end things at that age. The mental abuse was brutal. Thankfully he moved away so I was free of him and all his insanity. 

I wish I could say that Middle School was my lowest point, but that didn’t occur until my freshman year.

It was like no matter what I did, I couldn’t make myself happy. Every time I got happy, something would happen and my mental health would decline. 

To kinda overcome it, I separated myself from anything that made me sad. I stopped feeding into my sadness and would keep myself busy. 

I would stop intentionally listening to sad music. I would unfollow people that made me feel worthless. I unfollowed and unadded people that I once considered friends. 

But those people would tear me down and switch up on me in a heartbeat. I disconnected myself from them and started working on myself little by little. I would get out of bed if I felt sad because I knew that laying there would be worse. 

To anyone feeling this way, I would definitely say that by feeding into it, you’re gonna make it worse. This is what I tell all my friends struggling with depression. If you’re sad, go out and do something. Even if you just go for a walk.

By laying in bed and just staring at blank space or listening to sad music, you’re gonna consume yourself with that sadness. And I promise it makes everything so much worse. 

Keeping yourself active and knowing when to say enough is enough, is definitely the most important lesson that I had to learn for myself because even my best friend would just feed into the game that is depression.

I think my depression started as a mental game with myself first, rather than a physical thing. I always told myself self “I want to die” or “I’m gonna kill myself” but most times I feel like I’m overreacting.

I have had low points in my life where I have not been nice to myself and have treated and thought of myself as I am nothing. I have friends who have lost parents and siblings to it and I simply could not imagine. 

My story of depression started in middle school when I began getting cysts on my eyes. For some reason, I would just keep getting them and they would multiply in size in a matter of weeks. 

It looked like I had warts on my eyes. Some people would make fun of it but I tried not to dwell on it. 

When I finally had surgery to remove all 9 of them, my hair follicles were damaged and I was left with a pretty big gap in the middle of my eyelashes.

For years, my family spent so much money on treatments and nothing worked. My confidence tanked.

 Now, it wasn’t just my eyelashes but my weight and how my body looked. I viewed myself as completely different than before surgery.

Then one day, I found someone who loved me for all my flaws, or so I thought.  Two years of my life were devoted to loving him because that’s all I knew. 

But eventually, my flaws were all he could see and I was no longer ‘perfect’ in his eyes. Life went on as I struggled to get over him. And then, my life flipped again when my parents decided to get a divorce.

I wouldn’t say I struggle with depression all the time but I do struggle with anxiety a lot. I am constantly worried about everything. My depression is simply situational depression.

Looking back now, I understand that time heals all wounds, and I live by this every day. 

I know the next day will be a little easier than the day before. Although time is so broad every day alive counts for new opportunities and achievements.

My advice is to have faith. Have faith in yourself that whatever battle you are facing, you can get through it. Know that on our hardest days there are good ones coming.

Know that death is not the solution to your problem, and it is simply causing problems for the ones around you. Stay strong! Be a fighter!