Living with anxiety and depression has been the greatest challenge of my life. Although I have yet to rid myself of these conditions, I maintain some degree of hope that recovery from this situation is possible. Even with this small amount of hope that I have, I still have days where I feel like I have hit rock bottom. There are days when I have thoughts of ending it all, but they are just thoughts. Just because I am feeling a certain way, doesn't mean that my depression is some sort of reality that I am facing. Rather than to give these troubling emotions any label of a "real feeling," I do my best to dismiss the negative thinking.

To dismiss my negative thought patterns, I first recognize the troubling thought as nothing more than a thought. I do not give my thoughts anymore power than that. I dismiss the negative thoughts as if they are nothing more than a passing a phenomenon. If you are in a similar situation, give this try. Do not let yourself get caught up in thinking, "My life sucks, things are not going to get better." Instead, recognize the thought as being nothing more than a creation of the brain. Then start thinking about something. Find a positive activity to engage in and put your whole being into that activity. This will get your mind off of being depressed.

Learn to recognize these patterns of negative thinking. Illustrate the pattern in sketchbook. Get familiar with your depressed self so you are better able remedy your problem. Write your negative thoughts on a memo pad and share them with your therapist. If you don't have a doctor yet, I would say it is time to start finding one. It will be impossible to tackle this problem without medical intervention.