ADHD and Depression Together
Depression can be soul-crushing and nerve-wracking on its own - but when combined with a little ADHD, the result is simply colossal. Colossal chaos, because a person with ADHD will react differently to depression than a person with just depression. In my case, this depression lasted about six years, and I don't really want to depress anyone, but I'm not sure I was able to recover from it permanently. Because a person with ADHD is a roller coaster of emotions: sometimes they're up, sometimes they're down, but not like an average person. They're much more intense, much deeper down when they're down, and much higher up when they're up.
People with ADHD are overly sensitive. Basically, he perceives as a tragedy things that an average person might not necessarily perceive as such a tragedy: such as rejection, criticism, ostracism, and misunderstanding can put a person struggling with such an intense neurological and mental problem into a deep pit. For us, for example, losing our partner, even a breakup, means the end of the world in itself. And if, say, with the creativity of ADHD and finding a new madness, we can sometimes move on relatively quickly (at least that's what my experience says), the first few weeks or months are almost maddeningly sad and difficult.
Depression finds us more easily, even so, in today's world, when so many people are depressed without ADHD. And like any emotion or condition, we experience this condition much more deeply and intensely. That's why it's harder to get out of it. Many people with ADHD then escape into drugs, alcohol, or sex, and their lives become like a tragicomedy. His environment can only say: “we have no idea what’s wrong with him, but it’s definitely a big problem.”
Many of us are more prone to committing crimes at this time, because we don’t really care about anything. We become insensitive in our overly sensitive form, which is quite dangerous, especially for our environment, but also for ourselves. Suicide often comes to mind at this time, and unfortunately there are those who can’t take the pace any longer. The environment is very important: a supportive environment is very difficult, but maybe it can help, but it is also very stressful for our environment. I know this from experience. When I was depressed and in the deepest stage, my mother tried very hard to help me, but she almost broke down in it. However, an environment that doesn’t support and doesn’t develop, but rather drags you down and leads you into trouble, can often be fatal for a person with ADHD. If we don’t have positive and motivating examples in front of us, we forget that life is not a game. This is very difficult to understand. It's also very difficult for the environment, because they see nothing but an aggressive, angry, sad chaotic person who can't be helped because he doesn't even want to help himself. We find our own little brain stimuli that give us momentary happiness, I've already listed these: drugs, alcohol, sex can be such things, but many of us just don't get out of bed and watch series that actually never run out.
Can a person with ADHD get out of depression?
The answer is yes, but very difficult. Without help, almost certainly not. And the problem with this is that people don't want to help others these days. They don't want to notice that the other person is bad - they are obviously really screwed - but everyone is screwed in their own little world. Everyone has their own problems, and an average person can't take on another burden. Especially people like people with ADHD are extreme on average, and sometimes even too much for themselves.
I think it's very important for such a person to find smaller handholds. Or just handholds. Whatever, even if it seems like the greatest stupidity in their own eyes and in the eyes of those around them, hold on to it, because with such handholds you can climb out of the pit. Get informed, learn. An ADHD brain is very fast-paced, very fast-paced, and not superficial at all. There are actually many positive aspects to this mental and neurological condition that people struggling with it can take advantage of. Don't give up on yourself in any way, and there will definitely be times or weeks, even months, when you will give up, but the point is not to do it permanently. Find a handhold and hold on to it tightly. Be honest with yourself and those around you, no matter how shameful or sad what you have to say is. Lying often blinds the mind, especially when we want to lie to ourselves. For example, I didn't want to admit that there was something wrong for a long time. When I had done things that I couldn't deny anymore, I only admitted it.
But this realization was the first step to my recovery.
Will I fall into this pit again?
Maybe. Never say never. I'm too sensitive, I overcomplicate things, I overthink things, so I make myself sad quite easily. But I also never give up. No matter how bad my environment may seem, in the end I always show them - and of course myself - that I'm not as bad as my mental state makes me out to be. I can be stable in this chaos I live in. I can control the chaos. I often slip up, and then horrible things happen, which makes it hard to forgive myself. It's often hard to forgive those around me that they don't understand what's going on and don't want to understand. I think this path is often lonely and the most painful thing is that they really don't understand what's going on with us. But the more time we spend in this chaos, the better we will know exactly what's inside us. I think the most important thing for a person with ADHD is not to want to control everything, but to learn to control what they can. And don't give up if you don't succeed at first.
