OP’s story: Hey guys! So, about 9 months ago I became severely depressed. To the point I barely left my bed, let alone room or house. I didn’t bother showering very often, because what’s the point when nobody’s going to see me? I kind of showered when I knew I smelt, or my hair was getting itchy. I pretty much left my hair in a plaite for a month, then a pony tail when it started getting bad. Then a bun when it got too bad for that. As it got more matted, it got to the point where I just didn’t have the energy to unmatte it. And so it just got more and more matted. A few months after it started (around May), my mum got rushed to hospital and almost died. She had to have a pacemaker (and thankfully is fine!) but this was the last straw for me. I started having panic attacks and extreme thoughts of suicide. I knew I needed help. So I went to the doctors, I was told I couldn’t finish the year, and got put on anti depressants. They helped. A LOT. Once I was feeling better, I knew that what I had done and how I had acted wasn’t normal. I was SO ashamed. And I was trying to keep busy. This meant that I couldn’t find the time to sit down and unmatte it. It may have been possible to do so at that point, but it would’ve taken all day, possibly longer. I didn’t have the time. So it kept getting worse, even though I knew I was getting better. I washed it daily, I tried and tried to get it out. But I couldn’t without spending time. And then I knew it was a failed task. On Friday, my mum finally noticed. I was way too ashamed to tell ANYBODY about this. I tried to hide it in the bun, if I put a couple of hair ties around it, it covered the worst of the matting so people couldn’t really tell. We both cried, my mum realised how ill I had been and had been too ashamed and scared to say anything, and I realised I could’ve asked her for help a long time ago and she would have been there. So we tried the detangling. As you could see, it was a failed attempt. There was no way that was coming out without spending £1,500 + (that’s over $2,000) to get it done professionally. So we decided to cut it off. I couldn’t be happier with the final result though, and its’ the final goodbye to my most depressed perios of my life. I will NEVER let myself get to that place again, and thankfully I am doing really really well now, I have a part time job as well as continuing my studies, and have made some new friends. So yay. Thanks for taking the time to read this, if you do, and please don’t think less of me because of the state I let myself get into. I was incredibly ill, I should’ve been hospitalized and I am so lucky that I wasn’t.