16 Analogies for Depression


Depression can be difficult to explain. Like any mental illness, it feels different for every person.

Here we’ve made a list of 16 analogies for depression.

1. Weights in your arms and legs

It’s like you have weights built into your arms and legs. They’re heavy and they make any basic activity feel like I’m dragging around dumbbells that are too much for me.

2. Screaming in pain, but no sound

It’s like you’re screaming in pain, but there’s no sound coming out of you.

3. A black hole in your mind

My depression feels like a black hole. But you’re not in the black hole, you are the black hole. Your mind is. It sucks in anything that might make you feel emotion, and it turns it into darkness, nothingness.

4. Black and white vs color

Depression feels like I’m in black and white, and the rest of the world is in color. I can’t be a part of it, no matter how much I might want to. I don’t belong.

5. A prison without bars

It’s like a prison without bars. You’re trapped by an invisible force preventing you from being happy.

6. The waves of the ocean

It’s like the waves of the ocean. Sometimes the waves recede and you see the beautiful sand with the pretty sea shells. Soon the tide will come and swallow all that beauty up and drag it away from you. What helped me fight that feeling is knowing that the waves will recede again.

7. A heavy mist

For me, it’s like a heavy mist. Sometimes it’s far enough away, but at other times it presses me down. It can enter your body and lungs, brain, stomach, and limbs. Everything feels sick, as if you haven’t had fresh air in a while, and it’s exhausting and frustrating.

8. The dementors from Harry Potter

To me, it’s completely like the dementors from Harry Potter. J.K. Rowling’s representation of that struggle was on point.

9. The fog that lingers

The fog that lingers in the early morning sky. Never completely fading, always present and blurring your vision.

10. A large body of water without shores

It feels like being in the middle of a large body of water without seeing shores. Something tugs at your leg, and you struggle to keep your head above the surface. You gasp and struggle, but it’s exhausting and tiring and frightening at the same time. Sometimes you truly doubt if you’ll ever make it out of there, if the thing tugging on your leg will ever let go.

11. Being snowed in by an avalanche

To me, it feels like being snowed in by an avalanche. You’re disoriented and you don’t know which way is up, so you dig tirelessly in the wrong direction while being starved of oxygen. Everything around you is cold and looks the same.

12. A weight on your chest

It’s a weight on your chest, holding you down. No matter what you do, it stays there, and it spreads throughout your body and everything else takes more effort than ever.

13. Trying to run underwater

It’s like trying to run underwater. It’s exhausting and annoying and it gets you nowhere.

14. An old TV that lost its signal

For me, depression was an old TV that lost its signal. All colorful images turned into noisy, strange, black and white mess of spots. All of the good things I’d lost and all the bad things I’ve still got. Sounds turned into buzzing noises and my favorite things, everything I liked, turned invisible.

15. All of the joy sucked from your body

It’s like all of the joy was sucked from my body. In my chest is nothing, only emptiness, and I’m bearing the weight of the world on my shoulders. Everything that I loved makes no sense anymore. The only thing I want to do is crawl into the darkest corner of my room, curl up and cry. Even though I’m ill, crying won’t help. It’s just feeling nothing at all.

16. Being chained around your neck

The feeling of being chained around your neck, connected to all of your fears, and getting tugged around ruthlessly until you choke.

And that’s our list. Maybe you can use one of these to explain your problems to the people in your surroundings who have trouble understanding what you’re going through.

If you've experienced depression and have your own analogy then feel free to share in the comments below.

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