My family tried to help me, but no amount of them listening to me or reassuring me was helping me get better. I finally went and told a doctor how I was feeling, they took away all my instruments of self harm and got me on an SSRI and within DAYS I felt better. People say it takes a long time to work or be effective, but for me it was a fairly immediate noticable difference. I went from racing thoughts, imagining everything that could possibly go wrong, feeling very low self-confidence, to just being calm. It didnt make me happy, it calmed me down. In a mental sense, in a physical sense, I could feel tension leaving my muscles where I was always worked up. I could fall asleep at night again without an hour of racing thoughts.

It made me realize depression really is a medical issue, and you wouldnt ask your friends to help you through a broken arm, so it doesn't make sense that they could help you through a mental illness either. You need treatment from a doctor for illness.