If you were to describe depression through a metaphor, how would you put it?

[venin]

If the metaphor ain't comin', how would you describe it, in a couple of words.

Not particularly creative today but I've got a word that I think kinda does it

NULLIFICATION

 

[Takamagahara]

Pushing a boulder up a hill just to watch it roll back down the other side.

 

[StolenLife]

Choking with darkness.

 

[Forever Sleep]

I always liked the way Stephen Fry described it- as in it's like being in a rainstorm where others are trying to tell you that it isn't raining when it IS.

 

[murphyy]

I hope elaborate slightly off topic answers are okay haha

To me, depression is like being stuck in a dark cellar. No windows and only a single shitty lightbulb buzzing above your head type of cellar. Sure there's concrete stairs that seem to be leading up and out -- distant chatter and cars driving by and the sound of TV from somewhere high above prove a select lucky few have made it out. Problem is, the lightbulb casts weak yellow light on the first few couple of steps -- and you can't see shit past that. Even so, there should be a door at the top. Must be a door. An emergency exit or whatever. It's dark as hell, though, so you spend days, week, years climbing those steps in the dark, slipping, scraping your knees and breaking toes, and inevitably crawling back down.

Or better yet, taking a leap off the stairs hoping to break your neck and catch the infamous bus, but landing face-first on the floor, back where you started.

After some time and failed attempts at escaping either way, the desire to get on those stairs at all fades.

So you just sit there at the bottom. Alone. In the dark.

... Browsing the forums of SS.


Tldr: it's like a battle you can't win. A place you can't get out of, no matter how hard and long you try.

 

[lachrymost]

Taking off the rose-tinted specs.

 

[venin]

Pushing a boulder up a hill just to watch it roll back down the other side.

Sisyphus

Choking with darkness.

Uhhh, that's a nice one

I always liked the way Stephen Fry described it- as in it's like being in a rainstorm where others are trying to tell you that it isn't raining when it IS.

Did you see the video where the host asks Stehphen Fry "what would you say to God if you met him?" on youtube? It's awesome

I hope elaborate slightly off topic answers are okay haha

To me, depression is like being stuck in a dark cellar. No windows and only a single shitty lightbulb buzzing above your head type of cellar. Sure there's concrete stairs that seem to be leading up and out -- distant chatter and cars driving by and the sound of TV from somewhere high above prove a select lucky few have made it out. Problem is, the lightbulb casts weak yellow light on the first few couple of steps -- and you can't see shit past that. Even so, there should be a door at the top. Must be a door. An emergency exit or whatever. It's dark as hell, though, so you spend days, week, years climbing those steps in the dark, slipping, scraping your knees and breaking toes, and inevitably crawling back down.

Or better yet, taking a leap off the stairs hoping to break your neck and catch the infamous bus, but landing face-first on the floor, back where you started.

After some time and failed attempts at escaping either way, the desire to get on those stairs at all fades.

So you just sit there at the bottom. Alone. In the dark.

... Browsing the forums of SS.


Tldr: it's like a battle you can't win. A place you can't get out of, no matter how hard and long you try.

This was amazing, thank you. What other forums?

I'm gonna write my own metaphor but I'm not in the mood for that right now (tired from slipping on the stairs )

 

[LaVieEnRose]

Happiness is the stars and misery is the whole night sky.

 

[CuerpoMuerto]

I have always described it as being lost at sea, mostly because I feel there are three parts to living with depression. Theres the apathy of depression, where you are mechanically keeping yourself afloat through the waves of it all- and you are aware you can't keep going for much longer but you are so dissociated out that you don't care. Then there is the active drowning stage, where everyone expects you to be loud- but instead you are thrashing around silently pleading for someone to notice your struggle but instead you are left behind. And finally, rarely, theres moments where the waves slow down, you are able to grab driftwood, and see the shore. You feel like you could get better, but shore is so many miles away. Then, before you know it, that driftwood is taken away and you are back to thrashing in the cold. I always felt like that could get people to understand why I am always so fatigued, and why I dont want to live through it anymore. Drowning is just... inherently painful and gut-wrenchingly horrifying.

 

[venin]

It's like being a ghost caught in physical reality, other people being able to see your dead body, you trying be appear alive and being afraid they'll notice you're actually dead, hmm… your emotional and cognitive system still exist but it's like you went through a surgery regarding some tumor that infested them and THE doctor (maybe God, or just plain misfortune) removed all the healty tissue and sewed you up so good that you can't even see the tiniest mark.
Looking at yourself both physically and mentally you can catch a little glimpse of the individual that this person used to be but you don't really know if that was you or you just arrived here as his ghost.

Meanwhile you see people around you who seem to be alive, to enjoy being alive, and you want that, ofc. But you don't know how to do that. You don't know why you're a ghost and why they're not. Or why they're alive and you're not. You begin to search: why am I a ghost? why are they not? how do I get to live? Why do they treat me so badly, am I not the victim here?

You get some answers, but they're not what at all what you that they were. They're way worse than the worst nightmares you could imagine. You realise that some people are just ghosts from a certain age. You realise you did nothing wrong so you don't know what to do to correct things. You realise that those who are not ghost did nothing to deserve it or earn it in any way. They were just born into it, as were you in Ghostland..
The alive ones say there's a bigger being that they talk to and that has helped them when they started to turn slightly into ghosts, so you naturally believe them. You try talking to him, concentrating, anything you can, everything the alive ones told you and nothing happens. You just get excited when you do those "magic" things and after that you deflate into an even worse state than before.

My writing got worse cause I began to feel tired and depressed while I wrote this sau I'll stop\maybe pause here.

It's like dying every second but just the negative part of it. You never get to feel the "good" part. The peace.

 

[venin]

I have always described it as being lost at sea, mostly because I feel there are three parts to living with depression. Theres the apathy of depression, where you are mechanically keeping yourself afloat through the waves of it all- and you are aware you can't keep going for much longer but you are so dissociated out that you don't care. Then there is the active drowning stage, where everyone expects you to be loud- but instead you are thrashing around silently pleading for someone to notice your struggle but instead you are left behind. And finally, rarely, theres moments where the waves slow down, you are able to grab driftwood, and see the shore. You feel like you could get better, but shore is so many miles away. Then, before you know it, that driftwood is taken away and you are back to thrashing in the cold. I always felt like that could get people to understand why I am always so fatigued, and why I dont want to live through it anymore. Drowning is just... inherently painful and gut-wrenchingly horrifying.

Nicely put… it is so inhumanely exhausting

 

[Stormy Raine]

It's like being a physical ghost, you feel and hurt just like everyone else but nobody can see you or hear anything you say, so you navigate through life alone and depressed because you are isolated.

 

[unsaiddes]

It's like your mind tortures itself every waking hour, puts you through a mental saw trap of sorts, and then the next day you wake up with none of the memories but all of the wounds. You can only hope you don't wake up with new ones tomorrow but it's unlikely.

 

[venin]

It's like your mind tortures itself every waking hour, puts you through a mental saw trap of sorts, and then the next day you wake up with none of the memories but all of the wounds. You can only hope you don't wake up with new ones tomorrow but it's unlikely.

Well put

 

[venua]

If the metaphor ain't comin', how would you describe it, in a couple of words.

Not particularly creative today but I've got a word that I think kinda does it

NULLIFICATION

Spring weather.

 

[sserafim]

In the midst of winter

 

[Dr Iron Arc]

It's like playing the card game 52-Pickup only every time you pick one up, you drop two more.

 

[ThymeToLeave]

A completely flat, dry wasteland stretching beyond the horizon. There's a single dead tree in the center that you stay near because it's the only thing that keeps you sane. The sky is always overcast. You never see the sun, but sometimes you watch the clouds move because they're the only source of novelty around you. You know on some level that things will only get better if you leave the tree behind, but you don't know which direction to go. Every direction looks the same and if you choose wrong you might find yourself in a place that's even worse.

 

[silent.desperation]

Swimming with concrete boots on