19 People Describe What Depression Feels Like

By Kimberly Zapata

Depression is a difficult condition to understand. Many believe it is a disease are marked by sadness — extreme sadness — lethargy, apathy, and tears and while depression may manifest in this fashion, it is important to note that depression is not the same for everyone.

There is no “one size fits all’ explanation and so, in an effort to better understand depression, we asked our readers to describe what it really feels like to have (and live with) depression.

This is what they had to say:

1. Depression feels like emptiness. Like nothingness. Every little thing is a struggle and everything feels impossible. — Jodie
2. Depression feels like not caring about the most important things in life, and the desire to sleep through everything because, does it really matter? — Emily
3. Depression makes me feel like a failure. Like I’ll never amount to anything. — Karen
4. Depression feels like walking through molasses. — Danielle
5. Depression feels like a vice. It grips you tightly and suffocates hopes or dreams. — Forever Hopeful
6. It feels like heavy bricks crushing my chest. — Jill
7. Like you’re on a moving sidewalk that’s broken. Everyone else is going along doing their thing, and you’re stuck in the cement of your mind. — Whitney
8. Like my brain is fuzzy and my muscles are jelly. — Alyssa
9. It is a fog that never lifts. — Denise
10. Pain. An aching sensation that can’t be healed, coupled with a sense of panic, for what seems to be no reason, that won’t go away. — Lauri
11.  Life is too much and not enough at the same time. — Sarah
12. Depression feels like an addiction, always searching to find that feeling you once felt before falling into deep dark water. Sometimes you feel recovery is going well; you get so close to that feeling you once felt and then you relapse into the dark, attempting to tread water so your life doesn’t fall victim. Your addiction is the feeling you once felt that you long for. — Victoria
13. Depression feels like a lead weight. It drags along with you sapping your energy and depleting you further. — Kimberly
14. Depression feels like a screen between you and the world. Although it allows you to see others, they are too far away to call out to or reach. — Forever Hopeful
15. Depression feels like maybe the world would be better off without you. — Briton
16. Depression feels like being constantly short of breath but finding no relief because you are never able to take a deep breath. — Holly
17. Depression feels like all the reasons in the world to enjoy being awake, but you just want to sleep. — Mary
18. Depression feels like home. It is consistent and familiar and always there. — Forever Hopeful
19. Quicksand. Depression is like quicksand. — Ashford