Brave? Inspirational? Legendary? No, I'm just me.

It's been a weird day in DealingWithDepression head office (read as On My Sofa, in My Front Room) with several people saying some rather lovely things about me. Thing is, I'm not diagnosed with depression, but I just can't see it as others are telling me things are. I don't think I'm anything special. I just listen to people, talk to people and post silly pictures on our FACEBOOK PAGE.
Over the course of the week I've been called brave, inspirational, and then today by someone I would consider a really brave person - legendary. All I've ever done or wanted to do since I started on DealingWithDepression is to stop anyone else feeling how I felt during the time when my (now) husband was so poorly and to stop the feeling of isolation and complete fear and terror. It seems, from the comments which people have been making that DWD is helping people, it's helping to help people to talk about their mental health conditions, it's helping to provide an outlet for how people are feeling, it's providing safe peer to peer support, it's providing the most amazing and supportive community that I've ever felt part of. It's doing everything I ever wanted and more besides. I can't tell you how amazingly proud I am of what I do on DealingWithDepression along with the support and help of my lovely teams both on the forum and on the FB page. Without them I just couldn't handle it all!
It totally blows my mind to know that there are over 12,600 people who are following our ramblings on the FaceBook page. I find it amazing to know that so many people all over the world read what I and the team post. It just doesn't seem possible from my squishy sofa in the UK!

As someone who has lived with a loved one with depression, how do I see depression?

Depression is a bitch. It's always there, waiting to jump out and bite you on the bum when you are least expecting it, so you expect it every day. You expect it every minute, waiting for it to come and steal your loved one from you, to take them to somewhere that you just cannot reach, no matter how hard you try. You wait for one more letter to be what pushes that loved one too far, just watching and waiting for their mood to crash and to recede back into their own world again.
You wait trying all the things you've tried before - starting simply. Making sure that the person is eating, so you make them food and hope they eat it, the same with drinking, the same with trying to get them to go out, to do something different, to try distraction. Sometimes it'll work, sometimes it won't. But it wont stop you trying...