Making life suck less

Where shall I begin? As I've mentioned, I don't want this blog to focus on how to figure out whether or not you have depression, when to get help, what to take, etc. I want to chronicle my journey of living and (hopefully) prospering despite having depression and struggling with it even after the pills have worked their magic. I remember when I first was diagnosed with depression as a senior in college. It had taken me years to even decide I needed to see a shrink, and the first time I saw a campus psychologist she was terribly mousey and made me feel like a lab experiment that was on the verge of writing at any moment. I never went back to her. Then I found out there was another counselor, so I gave him a shot. He had Pink Floyd music playing in the background, and kind of reminded me of my dad. Most importantly, he didn't make me feel crazy. So I kept talking to him, and, after he and I agreed that I was a text book example of depression, I started on the pills, which, after many long, frustrating months, finally lifted the big black cloud under which I had been drowning. Of course, the pills don't fix everything, and I still struggle with my little gray thunder cloud (no longer big, black, and ominous) on a daily basis. I'm usually not as happy as everyone around me, not as warm around other people, not as rational as most adults, and significantly less concerned with what I'm "supposed" to be doing. All that can get me in trouble sometimes, but that's just part of the struggle I've gotten used to by living with depression. My biggest goal on a daily basis to help me feel more "normal" (whatever that is) is to find a way to be happy every day, even if only for a short while. So part of this blog will be me making a list of things that make me happy. I actually got the idea of making such a list from a book on how to write a novel, which was a gift from my boyfriend for my birthday. The book said that in a Woody Allen movie the character's shrink suggests he make a list of 100 reasons not to die/ 100 things that make life with living. It ties into research that has shown (both clinically and in my own experience, that gratitude is a major key to living happily. This also ties into my faith in God, by remembering all the things I have to thank Him for. Which also reminds me that I should stop being selfish and thinking of myself all the time. 100 things that make life worth living: part 1 1. God To be continued...