meh, it\'s a matter of genetics, my brother is depressed and suffers from agorophobia, my dad and grandad suffered from it, most of my male cousins and a few female cousins suffer from it. it\'s terrible, you feel bad and in most cases don\'t even know why you feel bad.
mine was also reinforced by abuse at school. I wasn\'t just one of those kids that was teased. I was taller than everyone in the grade ahead of mine, I was fat, I was smart, and I was learning disabled, so some of the things I said were a little stupid. I was the one EVERYBODY gave s**t to, I was maltreated by the kids that the bullies picked on. If I wasn\'t teased about being fat, somehow I was the stupid one. Kids would torment me for being stupid, then turn around and beat me for being the nerd.
at eight that led me to feeling depressed.
At nine, I found one person who liked me, and yes, as early as nine I started dating. she liked to hang out with me, and we had serious conversations. we were both mentally advanced children and could talk about things like electronics, biology, that kind of thing. when she moved to New York with her mother, I was crushed.
A little over ten years old, I had my first thought of suicide. The only thing that\'s kept me from commiting to it all these years is the thought of the one\'s who do care about me. I imagine what they would feel and it brings me back over the edge.
I don\'t tell my counselors because I\'m afraid they would commit me to a ward for my safety.
but that\'s in the past, I\'ve got a good life now, and I haven\'t had a suicidal thought in almost a year and a half. they used to come every few weeks. the depression is still strong, but I know in my mind that it\'s just a chemical imbalance in my brain that causes a misfiring in the emotional center. I feel sad constantly, but I try to feel happiness as well.
the point is though, if I were to put any less effort into staying balanced, I could literally be certified \"mentally imbalanced\" and be a nutcase.
BTW, sorry for the long, off topic post. I just feel the need to explain a bit, you guys are some of my closer freinds after all.