I’m going to write about my personal experiences in this article that I have experienced through depression. I will also share what I have learnt and how I have understood that I needed to learn to cope and even to eradicate it from my life. I am confident that I am not alone in having a number of regular periods in my life where I have become deeply depressed, yet I understand that this does not make it easier for me or anyone else.

When I chose to speak to my parents concerning the different factors that affect my anxiety and depression, it was important for me to encourage them to understand just what were my feelings and thoughts behind becoming depressed. My mother told me that she believed that I could have a gene that was causing me to become depressed, as many family members have had similar symptoms in the past.

I have as recently as last week suffered with a severe bout of this depression, however from it I learnt a valuable lesson. I had been having a bad period in my life where seemingly everything was going wrong. It was one kick in the teeth after each other. I had nothing to look forward to and decided that I needed a night out with my friends. There was one intention that I had in mind which was to get as drunk as possible.

I was hungover and felt very sick which was due to the amount of alcohol I had drunk the night before. Through the day I struggled to stay awake and as the day progressed I became more depressed. Then, later in the day, a negative part of my body, with a number of negative chemicals inside, took over my brain and made me think very negative about myself, my life and the depression.

The lesson I have learnt is that is not a good idea to go out drinking alcohol if you are feeling low and depressed.

As I was speaking to my parents over my own feelings of depression and anxiety, I was told some interesting news and useful advice. They told me to think about all of the different things in my life that were getting me down at present and not to shut them away. They then told me that I should talk to them, think about positive things, and look to find solutions to overcome things.

This is not at all easy to do but is something I now try. I have realised that it is good to talk about our fears and phobias and that there is nothing wrong with admitting that you are stressed and depressed.

I hope I will not have to live with these regular bouts of depression for the rest of my life as I have to say I hate it, especially when it means I can not get any sleep during a night, which happens quite regularly for me. I will however look for more ways of beating my depression when it does occur.

I now try to think positive in all situations, life is far too short to be always worrying about everything. I have also started to read a lot of self-help books, these have taught me quite a lot of new things and have given me many new ideas.