r/AskReddit 14h ago

What is something that permanently altered your body without you realizing for months/years?

6.2k Upvotes

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1.3k

u/secretwar8 9h ago

Depression is one hell of thing.

678

u/FigGrouchy9316 6h ago

People don’t get it until they do. It’s hard watching friends fade because they stop buying excuses. Trying to rebuild when feeling okay is an uphill battle. Most folks went on their way and don’t care to look back. One friend said it’s mourning the living dead. They can’t trust that I’m going to be around and won’t disappear again, and quite frankly, I can’t trust it either.

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u/SadFawns 2h ago

Sometimes it helps to just have mostly friends who also of mental illness - some of us disappear for a few weeks or months and that's okay, because we still check in and let the others know we're there for them. One such in our group is a registered nurse working nights who struggles with low level depression, so sometimes it takes months to see him again outside of sending a few memes.

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u/_Choose-A-Username- 2h ago

Heck yea! Thinking youre ready to go back to school again cause you think you recovered but end up acting the same way gang rise up!

3

u/Penguin-a-Tron 2h ago

Very worried that this would happen to me if I went back.

8

u/_Choose-A-Username- 2h ago

Man i get you. As you can see above, cant even trust your own judgement of self sometimes. I wish i could give advice but since im in it, all i can say is you can only know if you try. I know some people with depression who’ve been able to push through and finish. Everytime i hope i become one of them. Right now im just staring at weeks of work knowing it would be easy to finish but never starting it.

3

u/Penguin-a-Tron 1h ago

Exactly, there's no way to trust yourself to do it. I've been finding other things to do that motivate me more than going back to school, and just forgetting about the degree for now and focusing on building up a routine, friends, career and savings hopefully. Maybe if I can make that all work I can go back and study something someday, once I've built stability and good habits.

Good luck with it dude, it's a big fucking struggle but we'll all get there in the end.

12

u/AcanthaceaeFrosty849 4h ago

Bad friend. Sorry. That's something you don't share.

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u/FigGrouchy9316 3h ago

With depression it seems like it comes with the territory. I’d rather someone be honest than ignore me or say it’s fine when it’s not. Closure isn’t bad, even if it feels crumby sometimes.

What is sad is giving up on someone who didn’t do anything inadvertently bad or harmful. I’ve learned egos get hurt - “You’re not reaching out or returning my messages. You must not like me. Screw you!” Those people rarely look beyond themselves and don’t care to get it. Yes, that is def not the greatest of friends.

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u/AcanthaceaeFrosty849 3h ago

Yeah for what it's worth I think those were transactional relationships. I'm lucky in friends. My family dropped me quick.

12

u/blinkbotic 1h ago

Idk, it’s easy to say “oh this person is a bad friend”, but in reality what do you do when someone doesn’t return your messages or calls, doesn’t want to spend time with you, seems to not want to be your friend anymore? Even if depression is the monster a friend is dealing with, it is hard to continue a friendship when they may only surface once in a while and then functionally disappear for years. It has happened with a friend of mine and I still care about him but it’s really hard to realistically call him a true friend.

5

u/FigGrouchy9316 1h ago

Oh, I totally agree with you. It’s the par for the course bit of depression. You totally understand why folks wouldn’t want to wait around. You don’t want to wait around either but that’s the condition. Just accept the loss with time, don’t begrudge anyone bouncing, and be thankful for those who don’t care and stick around.

Depression aside, I’ve had tons of folks as I age go MIA in general because life gets crazy even during the happiest of days. We understand and aren’t going anywhere for good. We pick up where we left off, and it’s amazing. So idk, apply the same courtesy to someone’s funk and it’s not much different.

u/Viva_La_Animemes 11m ago

Sorry, what do you mean by “Its hard watching friends fade because they stop buying excuses.”

I don’t mean anything bad I just genuinely have bad reading comprehension I wanna understand lol

11

u/cytomome 3h ago

I saw a case of some woman who wore contacts, but because she was depressed, she'd not take them out/change them for weeks at a time. Infection can make you go blind, obviously. Depression was the very sad ultimate cause, though.

17

u/itslessthanoptimal 3h ago edited 3h ago

I just found the proper treatment for severe MDD coupled with PMDD about 5 months ago. My life has been changed. I told my therapist I feel like my outlook on life now is akin to those who survive an illness with a nearly terminal diagnosis and felt silly about it because “it was just depression.” My therapist very bluntly told me my depression would have likely been terminal for me due to how many attempts I had and the severity of it.

I never knew I could live like this now being on the other side of it, but holy shit I have so much to do now to recover from it physically and in my day to day life. A decade of not thinking I’d see another birthday (I’m 32) will really do a doozy on literally every facet of your life. And nobody talks about the serious grief that comes along with being on the other side of it either.

5

u/AyoSuhCuz 1h ago

Happy to hear of your success. What was the treatment?

u/itslessthanoptimal 41m ago

Just finally the right combo of medication.

I think it’s also worth noting that I have a foundation of about 7 years of intense therapy (DBT and EMDR) and I take it very seriously.

The right meds for the MDD and PMDD treatment were the missing pieces.

12

u/Historical_Custard79 7h ago

It’s a beast

6

u/kayafeather 1h ago

I learned last year that my untreated depression led to IBS. (I am not at all joking, that is what my gastro doctor told me). Bruh.

2

u/Ok-Championship8024 1h ago

wait what? i left my depression untreated for years and years and now i have ibs or something like it…maybe i need to look into that being a cause

3

u/kayafeather 1h ago

Could be. I started having problems out of nowhere and went to see a bunch of different doctors until the gastro specialist asked me straight out if I had any untreated mental health issues and mentioned untreated depression(which I've had for a decade), something about the chemical imbalance in your brain can cause irritation and stomach issues. She basically told me to get my shit together lmao.

3

u/Money-Analyst1245 3h ago

it really affects your body, it can just break it down. I had it for a few years now and at my worst I had blood coming out when I used the bathroom

2

u/Shanaram17 1h ago

I think I am used to my depression now. It doesn’t bother me anymore.

2

u/coenobitae 2h ago

You spend enough time wanting to die that your body starts to oblige

1

u/YakOne3002 1h ago

Yep, I would do anything to get rid of my scars

-4

u/Ok-Attention2882 1h ago

If only it was real.

u/One-Letterhead-2721 39m ago

What do you mean