A Clothing Based Analogy

I was trying to explain what being depressed is like long term and more specifically what sinking into depression is like.

Imagine you see a picture of you in an awesome shirt.  You realize you haven't seen that shirt in forever.  One day you think "hmm, I haven't worn that shirt in a while, maybe I'll wear it tomorrow."  The next day you go to pull it out of your closet and you don't see it there.  You think "odd, where did I put it? Oh well, I don't have time to look for it now, I'll find it later."  You can think of a couple of spots that your clothes often end up that isn't on a hanger in your closet so you're not too worried but you do wish you'd found your shirt that day.  A little while later, you start looking for your shirt.  You check a spot and it's not there, you start to worry.  You check another spot and it's not there, your worry increases.  You start thinking "did I throw it out?  Will I ever find it?  Did I actually own it before or did I borrow it from someone? Maybe it's gone forever."  You try on every other shirt you own  trying to recreate the picture you saw of you in an awesome shirt and how it made you feel.  You fail to do it.

The shirt is happiness, trying on every piece of clothing you own is everything that used to make you happy.

Depression sneaks up on you where one day you realize you haven't felt happy in awhile but you're pretty sure you have been happy in the past so you think "oh well, everyone has rough spots."  You start to realize that not only haven't you been happy lately, you don't even know how to find happiness anymore.  Eventually, you believe that you were only faking being happy before and actually you've never been happy in your life.  You worry and freak out about those facts and that makes it even worse.

I've discovered now that one of the key things I have to do when I'm feeling down is remember that I did in fact own that shirt and that I have owned other awesome pieces of clothing and even if I don't own any right now, I will definitely own some again because clothing ownership is cyclical (what? analogies aren't perfect although I do shop a lot at thrift stores so there still might be something to be said for this).