Having Hope When Depression Feels Like Drowning

Much of my experience is hard to express with words. The best I can do is give you metaphors, because those will convey the emotion and truth far more intensely than any candid explanation could.

Have you ever been caught underwater? Inhaling water and panicking as it burns your throat? I have. I can’t swim (in more ways than one). The feeling of perpetually drowning is the most accurate analogy I can think of to describe what depression feels like. The pain is excruciating and you desperately look for some relief, clawing at whatever is closest to you in order to survive. Depression is a lot like drowning, except for the fact that you don’t lose consciousness.

But I believe in hope, even when it looks like it is futile. Even when I am running out of air. Sometimes I trust others to be my eyes because I know in the bottom of my heart that somehow my own eyes are deceiving me. I trust others to be my anchor and a beacon of light to me because I know that right now hope is what drives me to live.

Follow this journey on the author’s blog.

We want to hear your story. Become a Mighty contributor here.

Unsplash photo via Christopher Campbell