Personal Narrative: Living With Clinical Depression

I awake to a narrow beam of sunlight that penetrates the closed shades of the window in my dorm room. It lets me know it is late in the morning if not already afternoon, but the time means little to me. I am still unable to vocalize this feeling I awake with so often. I know only that the prospect of getting out of bed feels insurmountable. I roll under my covers for a few more minutes of sleep, but when I look at the clock again, hours have passed. I collect my books, comb my hair with my fingers, and head out the door trying to convince myself that letting life pass me by is as tragic as it should be. Living with clinical depression is difficult. Living with clinical depression and an anxiety disorder is worse. Both conditions run in my family, so I suppose it should come as no surprise that I share such afflictions. I am unsure of when I became aware of it and when everything seemed to change for me. I just know that it did.
Other than coming from a broken home, it seems that I should have little to complain about. I live a relatively comfortable life with plenty of friends and family that loves me, but such realizations did little to drive out the feeling I became accustomed to. The knowledge that I am better-suited than most people filled me with guilt and the sense that I am ungracious. The relentless cycle of it …show more content…
Before I came to that understanding, I believed there was little I could do to manage them. Consequently, my grades during the first three years of my college career were anything but exceptional as I fell deeper and deeper into a void of melancholy and utter uncertainty. Until I fully grasped the nature of my situation, I was unaware that the prospects of happiness and self-fulfillment were realistic for me. Through many various changes in my lifestyle and perception, I can now say that I see the path to making this prospect a