A story about depression. (And Fighting It)

So today, an artist I follow posted a journal talking about his journey with fighting depression as a bit of a story. I'm not certain if he'd want me to link back to that story but I'll be happy to link back to his page if he'd want me to source it. Regardless though, I thought I should do one for myself to hopefully give those trying to fight against depression of any kind, not just clinical or chronic like I have, a little bit of hope, and to offer my hand for support to anyone dealing with it themselves.

Also I listened to this song, a remix of one of my favorite game OST's while I made this. Feel free to listen while you read if you like.
listenonrepeat.com/watch/?v=6B…

"Several years ago, a young man, brave, intelligent, and persistent entered into the military to start on the path to becoming a citizen soldier. Inspired by stories from his family going back for generations, he pushed himself to succeed in the National Guard to try and see the world, and to have a sense of independence for the first time.

After almost a year of training, countless failed fitness tests, and more drops of blood, sweat and tears than one could count, it seemed his dream would become a reality. He was meeting incredible people and further fueling his furor toward his work, as he finally stood in the fields his ancestors had before him to transition to his specialized training course.

Despite everything though, something was trailing him as he progressed. Some invisible force that made each of his successes begin to feel more like burdens than achievements.That turned his furor on it's head by pushing to the forefront how many mistakes he had made getting there. It clouded the young man's mind, and despite his continual and even growing successes, thoughts of his past would not leave his mind, and this force would not leave him be.

Eventually, it made him worry about his fellow man. Made him think that he would be the cause of some horrible incident that would put his fellow warriors in danger. It was this thought that drove him to near madness, and that combined with the stress of his environment and more failures that began to crop up, drove him to the balcony of his barracks many a night and consider jumping off.

It all came to a head one night, when wracked by artificial grief from this lingering spirit, he destroyed property, insulted and tore people apart, and even berated his best friend for doing no more than believing in him. He tried to become the monster that was slowly destroying him, as, if something were to happen to him, there would be no sympathy for him if he were a monster.

However he was wrong. His friends knew he was losing a battle with something much stronger than himself, so they made sure he would get the help he deserved. Over the next few days, the professionals his friends had brought him to gave him a name, something to identify this monster with, and it was named depression.

Being the gung-ho soldier he was, he thought that with a name it would be easy to bring the fight to the monster and defeat it, but those around him knew better. Try as he might to find the beast, it was invisible. Something intangible the soldier couldn't bring to bear. So those around him knew he was not fit to be a soldier any longer.

For a good long while, the soldier completely gave up on his search. It seemed this creature had the ability to freeze him in time, as nothing the now veteran did would allow him to move toward the future. To accomplish anything near to what he had while in the military. However, during his time out of service, while he was back at home, he began remembering what he was fighting for to begin with. Yes it was for himself at the start, but it was also for the sake of his friends, his family, all those he'd really cared about. Even those he had helped cope with depression before, whom he now understood the plight of much better. This creature was something many had faced before, with varying degrees of success, and failure.

Despite still feeling trapped in a time capsule, he decided he would wait things out. See if he could catch out this creature and finally face it down. Though it would still attack him from the shadows unseen, he decided that when they all worked together, at some point they could shed some light on that monster to find it and finally slay it. Whether he won or lost was not the point anymore. Rather, his goal was as it was when he was still a soldier. To win his battle or to go down fighting."

Sorry if the story sounds overly pretentious or anything like that, but this is more of a personal vent, like what the artist did, so I just put my honest thoughts out there. Depression really can be like a monster creeping around in your mind completely unseen as well so I thought it was a decent analogy. Regardless though I want to emphasize that ANYONE dealing with depression is free to reach out to me anywhere, either through PMs, comments, even on Skype so long as you specifically mention that you came from DA so I know it wasn't a spam add. The stronger a support group one has, the easier it is to cope with it and find out a way to fight it.

Regardless though, I've got a game my folks have borrowed that I want to try out, so I can do something a tad bit happier. I'm also considering putting the story section of this journal as a deviation with a few tweaks here and there. It's totally open to criticism as well whether I do it or not, but if you guys like it and agree with me putting it in my gallery let me know! But anyways, take care for now all! =3

Artist Spotlight #1 - Rakumel
Artist Spotlight #2 - Digimitsu