When it's not your life that's being affected by it, it's easy to tell someone else how to deal with their demons. And while having a good support system is important, and getting advice from others is appreciated, it's important to know what is the right thing to say to someone. Here are things that people should remember about having depression/anxiety:
1) It doesn't go away
I may be having the time of my life. I may even have nothing in my life to complain about. But that doesn't mean the thoughts and emotions that cause my anxiety/depression don't just go away. My circumstance in life doesn't always have to do with how my thoughts will affect me.
2) There isn't really a "cure"
There's medicine you can take, you can exercise, you can journal, you can do just about anything, but that doesn't mean this will go away forever. These are techniques to help me get through my feelings, not to cure them. Thinking that it will ever completely go away is just naive. A lot of time, I need to do things to ride out the storm.
3) It can come at any time
I could have not have had an anxiety attack for months, or I could have not felt depressed for a while, but that doesn't mean it won't come back. It can come out of nowhere, or it can come as a result of something that's happened, but just because I haven't felt this way in a long time doesn't mean I won't feel it again.
4) Expect the worst, hope for the best
It's terrible to say, but suffering through things like anxiety and depression, you know you're going to have to deal with it for your whole life. And, because you know that it could happen at any time, you prepare for it. Anxiety and depression mess with everything in your life; your work, your school, your friends, and sometimes even your family. The best thing to do is know how to prepare for what you may encounter, but hope it never comes.
5) I can't control it
I would love to be able to have the ability to control my thoughts when I'm having an anxiety attack, and I would love to be able to manage my thoughts when I'm depressed. Unfortunately, that's not how things work. I can do the best I can to restrain it when it's happening, but there's no such thing as being able to deal with it later. In the moment, it's the worst thing that's happening to me, and those feelings can't always get pushed aside.
