Personal Narrative: My Personal Experience With Clinical Depression

Depression is often very hard to talk about for the people personally experiencing it. I found it very hard to talk about until very recently. For the longest time, I hid my problems from the majority of my friends, family, and peers. I was deeply afraid they would ridicule me and say things like, “you can just snap out of it,” or “other people have it worse than you; be grateful.” Because of my fear, I told only a very select few people who I trusted.
My sophomore year was when I first noticed that I wasn’t really myself. During a weightlifting class I was doing a lift and injured my back badly; I tore a disc pad and bulged a disc in my lower spine. I tried to deal with the pain as best I could and continued to participate in track. At the state-qualifying meet, I aggravated the injury enough to have to go to the hospital for treatment. Ever since then I have had chronic pain and spasms in my lower back. I endured months of physical therapy and saw very little results. I became very discouraged afterward because of how limited I was. By the time football season rolled around I

I became increasingly short-tempered and grew distant from a lot of my friends. I lost interest in school, maintaining friendships and most social activities. Quite frequently I would give into the depression and let it dictate my mood for days on end. I often thought about dropping out and just staying at home so I wouldn’t feel so overwhelmed. During this time I felt the most depressed and isolated and it would occasionally lead to self-harm. I was so very close to giving up. Eventually, I decided that I needed to get help so I started seeing a counselor while also receiving antidepressants. The summer before my senior year I returned to football, gained back my social life and had one of the best times of my life. The combinations of counseling, antidepressants, and a good social life have led to where I am