Saw this video title that said "you can't logic your way out of depression," which hit a chord with me. I'm a very logical person, and have been the foil to my best friend who's a deeply emotional person. Not that I don't feel emotions, it's more of how we express those emotions. I'd listen to them when they're spiraling, reassure them that they are definitely loved and aren't a burden to everyone around them, etc.
Sometimes I think of myself as a hypocrite because I don't follow any of the advice I give. For every irrational/depressive thought I've had, I've thought of the logical response. The things I say to myself are objectively wrong, which makes me feel pretty stupid because that's what they are: irrational thoughts. It almost resembles gaslighting, honestly, the way I've invalidated almost everything I've felt. Obviously, it's not that easy to undo a lifetime of self-hatred and low self-esteem.
When I take anti-depressants, when I go to therapy, often I think to myself that I'm treating the symptoms, but never the disease. My therapist said that most often, even when you try to work on yourself, the core belief wins. And that's it, really. Core beliefs from a lifetime of being failed by my parents and myself.
I've heard that the early stages of your life define who you become for the rest of your life. Not to say that I haven't changed, I'm a much different, hopefully better person than I was. But again, the core beliefs, and the feeling that this part of me will never change.
I can get better at treating the symptoms over time, dressing the wounds, making sure they don't get infected, not picking the scabs so they can scar over cleanly, but of course scars never heal. They're your body's attempts to fill the gaps, but it's fundamentally lost a part of itself that will never be the same. And I'm not sure I'm comfortable with that, the idea of living like this for the rest of my life when I've always hung onto the hope of 'getting better.'