I’ve had anxiety my entire life, but I think the first time I realized I suffered from depression was when I realized my behavior wasn’t normal. About a year ago, there were three kids expelled from my school and the whole thing became huge. Even though I had nothing to do with the expulsions, I was dragged into the whole thing and had to be questioned by the Headmaster three times. Meanwhile the boy I liked was ignoring me, a friend of mine unexpectedly told me she was in love with me, and everything was just going too fast. I was an emotional wreck. I had zero motivation, I only listened to sad music, I didn’t do any of my homework, I was ignoring all of my friends, and I just sat in bed feeling like shit. And this felt normal. A couple weeks later, my cousin and his friends were visiting and invited me to tag along with them on their adventures. I had the most fun I had had in what felt like forever. I was happy, and that made me realize that my behavior wasn’t normal, and I started working hard in school again and talking to my friends. It wasn’t until I was happy and felt emotions again did I realize I had depression. This has made me aware of when I fall into my depression. Right now I’m struggling with it returning and some self harming tendencies but accepting my depression has made me realize that I can overcome it. It’s definitely very difficult to overcome, but I’m working on it.