Women with depression who’s day in the life involves activities or jobs where you have to be present/ in the moment and cant sit in a corner and hide from human interaction. How do you do it? (Especially if you’re not on prescriptions)

The weird thing is, I’m a completely different person at work. People are like “you’re so fun and friendly!”. It gives me insane imposter syndrome. I think part of what helps is I have a 45 minute commute to work and listen to pump up music the whole way up to and including dancing and singing at the top of my lungs.

I self medicate, my username checks out lol. I also got a work from home job to help with human interaction and it does to an extent, but my job is a call center so I still struggle heavily with talking to people (often angry or upset) all day. It’s extremely draining, FMLA also helps if you have access to that.

I study veterinary and work with animals.

I remind myself that animals bring joy to so many lives and they desperately need people like me to look after them. No matter how bad I feel, they’re worth fighting for.

I’ve dealt with depression for a large part of my life. When I have had to interact with others I have learned to compartmentalize my depression. I have no safety net in my life. I don’t have parents I can go to when things get tough or anyone to catch me if I make a mistake. I literally have no choice but to suck it up and carry on. I still deal with my depression just in a different way. It’s made me more emotionally stable (although sad about my circumstances) to be able to temporarily shut that off so I can make money to pay my bills. No one else is going to do it.. If I don’t push it aside I’m gonna fall flat on my face and no one will be there to be able to help me.

at work im friendly and helpful, at home i hide in my room for days on end and only come out to eat. if i leave the home to a bookstore or grocery shopping i always have both my earphones in so that nobody tries to talk to me.

Realistically I need the meds to keep me going. However when I didn’t have them- caffiene before and during work realistically around 700-900 mg daily, weed for sleep and “killing time” until I had to be human again.

Super dosed self medication, honestly though- changing jobs to where I didn’t have to do as much hard human interaction made life A LOT easier.

Tbh work is one of the places that make me feel better and stop overthinking my life for some time. So on those days when I need to be physically present at work, I talk to my colleagues as much as possible.

By taking my medication. It’s a game changer and life saver.

Honestly I don’t know how I do it. Sheer will power maybe? I’m just raw dogging the hell out of life hoping for the best

Exercise, take supplements, journal, listen to uplifting music, meditate