I'm worried I may be depressed....

[Strange_Girl]

I don't know, for a while or it may be longer than a while, I don't know I seem to have given up counting, I've been feeling down sometimes but it's not just a 'normal' down feeling where a joke or something will lift it. Nothing can. i go on for hours just not speaking or doing anything. I lose all concentration, I just stare into space. When I'm like that, I can't be bothered with anything, I just want to crawl into my bed and not move. At all. Just lie there.
I'm a teenager, 17 years old and at college. I don't see how I could be depressed but it just worries me. Hell, I worry about everything. I'm like a hypochondriac or something. My friends have noticed that I'm not exactly happy, just today I mentioned a disorder someone in my maths class had Seasonal Affective Disorder, and my friend said 'You've been sad the past few weeks, I mean really sad.' I didn't know what to say to that. I thought no one had noticed.
I'm just really worried. I need some assurance but I don't think I could get any.
Can someone help me?

[Strange_Girl]

I do not feel suicidal. I don't know if I feel like this all the time, it just happens and I read up on Bipolar and I don't think I go from extreme highs to extreme lows. It's very difficult to explain and I'm confused. Right now, as I type, I'm feeling how I described above in my post. I'm going to see a doctor tomorrow but I don't know if I'm just being ridiculous. I keep thinking 'depression can't happen to me, it happens to other people. This is normal, I'm a teenager.'
I'm not good at talking about my emotions or problems. I feel like I'll be a burden and causing unnecessary problems. I don't want to talk to my parents about this, I feel that they don't take me seriously and deliberately refuse to see my unhappiness. I'm in college and have been wanting to drop out since the start as I felt I wasn't ready for it yet. I'm very shy and all the people at the college panicked me. But my mother refuses to let me drop out and when I argue she shouts about what she's going to do for money as she gets child benefits for me as long as I'm in full time education.
It's hard feeling like this every day, wondering if you're broken or something. I want to feel normal again but I don't know how.
Thank you for replying to my post and being concerned. I appreciate it.

[Mike5709]

Hi,  I work for a college and I think I can assume that there are professionals you can access on your campus. Check out the Student Services division or health center services. Whether it is depression or not your can rest assured that what you are describing  is very common among college students.

Remember this...Asking for help does not mean you're helpless.

Best of luck...Mike

[mammo]

Let your parents know how you are feeling so that they can get you evaluated to see what is going on.  Often we are depressed and don't know why, often feeling like we have no reason to be depressed, but still we are.  This is where therapy helps, and will uncover why you feel as you do.  But talk to your parents about all this, they love you and want you to be happy and healthy.  Take care...

[heyjude1]

Hi!  I can't help you but I can give you advice that you can consider.  I can relate to deep depression, I've been depressed most all of my live.  And, you are discribing depression.  First,depression can be caused by an event in your life and will be short term and disapate over a short term or when the problem goes away.  But, depression long term and spiraling over a long period of time with no known cause is normally caused by chemical inbalance and requires antidepressants to keep your brain chemicals in balance.

I have found that antidepressants combined with therapy is so helpful.  The antidepressants will relieve the depression and the therapy will teach you how to  cope and skills to overcome depression.  Therapy also taught me to recognize when I was going into a depession and act on it quickly to stop it in it's tracks before it becomes worse.  I also learned it is okay to get help.  I hope you will get help so your depression does not devestate you.  There is help available.