I actually was really young and one day I was watching TV and a commercial for a depression medicine came up and I was listening to the symptoms of depression and basically said "ohhh so I'm depressed." I have been dealing with for a long time and honestly it takes a lot of support and practice of loving yourself and surrounding yourself with people who want and are willing to help.

As soon as I read one of Ellen Hopkins books about drug use and dependency. I was like "this is how I feel during said drug use, how I feel after is just the worst"...I use cannabis now

My best friend was like "I think you have depression" and I googled depression symptoms and went "oh dang"

I forgot that this post had a second question of "how did you deal with it" lol I told my mom, and she reacted by listing all the ways her depressed friends acted that I didnt act so I couldn't be. (She has apologized and learned so much about mental health since then, so no hard feelings anymore) Both my friend telling me I should get help and my conversation with my mom also included anxiety with similar results both times. I shut down at a public event a few months later, and my mom was like "oh, she wasnt kidding" and immediately got me a therapist and started talking to my pediatrician about meds. I was 13 or 14, and very lucky to have a parent that accessed those resources. A lot of my friends werent that lucky, kids that age cant access those resources themselves as easily.

I really didnt feel in touch with myself and wanted to kms Honestly

I was diagnosed, I was younger. I just kinda took it in and..it didnt take a toll on me until i got hospitalized

I was like ten and for the first time I had suicidal thoughts and with a mom who has depression I realized I was probably in the same boat . Finally got a counselor in highschool and got on meds.

I don't really remember how I learned I was depressed but earliest I remember being depressed was when I was 5-6 and i never delt with depression properly until I was 14 but I wouldn't say delt it's more like surprising it temporary and find ways to negotiate depression