I Battle Depression and Anxiety Stories of Experiences

EP Sangha member anya1212 commented on my story “The Blossom Pales in Comparison” with:Is our questioning affected by our past experiences and beliefs. Do we question without reasoning or analyzing the immediate situation. Does this...

So often, when a problem occurs, inside or around us, we revert to thinking that if we put our life on hold we can positively contribute to the solution. If a relationship isn't working, if we face a difficult decision, if we're feeling...

I have a hard time feeling hope. Luckily for me, hope isn't the only answer to facing difficulties. I am stubborn. I think that is the difference between me and my father and sister, who also suffer from depression. I'm stubborn and...

Sometimes, life and people seem to push and push. Because we are so used to pain, we may tell ourselves it doesn't hurt. Because we are so used to people controlling and manipulating us, we may tell ourselves there is something wrong...

"I woke up this morning and I had a hard time for a while," said one recovering man. "Then I realized it was because I wasn't liking myself very much." Recovering people often say: I just don't like myself. When will I start liking...

As the sun sets i think about how today will be the last day i will be able to be me, at least the sane leveled out me, because tomorrow the madness begins again, the medicine is almost gone and i wont have anymore for a few weeks...

Take a risk. Take a chance.

We do not have to indulge in obviously foolhardy or self-defeating risks, but we can allow ourselves to take positive risks in recovery. We cannot afford to keep ourselves paralyzed.

We do not have to keep...

Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.
—Step Five of Al-Anon

Talking openly and honestly to another person about ourselves, in an attitude that reflects self-responsibility, is...

About 2 months ago, a stressful situation happened at work which caused my first panic attack. I was prescribed Klonopin, which helped, but it lasts about 6 hours and I'm not a pill person. The stressful situation at work ended but...

I have no where to take my feelings. I can't find the solution, because it doesn't exist.
I don't have goals, ambitions or dreams. I don't want to achieve anything. I feel as though life is just prolonged suffering, at least for me. It...

A helpful tool in our recovery, especially in the behavior we call detachment, is learning to identify who owns what. Then we let each person own and possess his or her rightful property.

If another person has an addiction, a problem...

We can let ourselves be close to people.

Many of us have deeply ingrained patterns for sabotaging relationships. Some of us may instinctively terminate a relationship once it moves to a certain level of closeness and intimacy.

When we...

Well, I made myself some tomato soup and a grilled cheese. About the only thing I can even cook....it's so sad :(

Anyways, the fam's off in another part of the state for mother's day. I don't know if I'm a mom or not, so disregard me...

Many of us picked on ourselves unmercifully before recovery. We may also have a tendency too pick on ourselves after we begin recovery.

If I was really recovering, I wouldn't be doing that again . . . I should be further along than I...

Thoughts of suicide are coming to me in floods. I don't try to think about it. They just come to me all the creative ways I could end it. I just can't block them out or ignore them. It's just turned into a sick game almost. I try...

Okay. Time went by so fast and it's already 10th May. Crazy.
I thought I'm going to my dream school. Been wanting to go this since 2011. I'm so sad... really really really depressed about it. Sucks. My parents promised me...I don't...

You cannot lose because life is not a game. There is no opponent unless you pretend there is. There is only you, what you decide to create, contribute and enjoy here, and the people you surround yourself with because of who you decide...

Good feelings can become a habitual part of our life.

There is absolutely no virtue in the unnecessary suffering, which many of us have felt for much of our life. We don't have to allow others to make us miserable, and we don't have to...

I'm sad to see things changing into worse.

I had the best possible kind of relationship with my therapist, but now, it's turning into a nightmare. If I try to talk about my feelings (how I feel like I'm not worth it, how I hate myself...

Sometimes we'll take a few steps backward. That's okay too. Sometimes it's necessary. Sometimes it's part of going forward.
—Codependent No More

Life is a Gentle Teacher. She wants to help us learn.

The lessons she wants to teach...