Teddy

Teddy, age 18, began experiencing depression in middle school. He was diagnosed by a psychiatrist. He tried medication but did not continue with it. His central sources of support include friends, his siblings, and a loving dog who makes him happy and who he takes care of every day. He plans to work with animals or making music.

Teddy’s depression began in middle school. When things went wrong between him and a girl he had been seeing, it haunted him. The same thing happened with other relationships, and each time it got worse until he slipped unto a deep, dark depressio, started skipping school, and had trouble getting out of bed. When his depression kind of leaked ou on a school assignment, his teacher took him to the school psychologist to get help and then that same day he also told his mother and she took him to a therapist.

Advice from his therapists has been helpful to Teddy – particularly about how to stick up for himself and deal with difficult relationships. He tried medication at one point, but did not feel it worked so stopped taking it. A couple of teachers who have recognized Teddy’s musical talent and encouraged him have had a positive impact.

Support from his friends and family has made the biggest difference of all, because depression is an emotional thing[so] other people is what can help the most One of Teddy’s brothers has been a particularly strong source of support. Teddy is also devoted to taking care of his dog, who has some health problems. Concern expressed by a friend and awareness of how much his dog needs him once combined to save Teddy when he was feeling suicidal.

Music, animals, and happy TV shows all help Teddy feel better. He graduated from high school, and aspires to make music for a living, or be a vet technician. He wants other young adults to know they should try a lot of thing if they are depressed: Try talking to your friends that you can trust with your lifeand they;ll try to help you to the best of their abilities. If that doesn’t work out, try a therapist. He also urges people to go back and fix it or make amend if they have problems with relationships that contribute to depression and can be remedied.

Teddy says he could have avoided a lot of bad times if he had gotten help sooner.

Age at interview 18

Gender Male

Age at diagnosis 16

The main thing that I want to add is, if you first get depressed and you realize it, go seek help because if you let it continue on and on it’s going to get worse and it’s going to be harder to fix it. Because [coughed] I let mine go, I kept having it, it kept getting worse and worse and it was really bad. And then I decided to get help like, if I had help at the ready like in the beginning, I probably wouldn’t have been here.

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Teddy wants to keep helping his dog, who has arthritis. Honoring that commitment is one of the things that keeps him going.

Age at interview 18

Gender Male

Age at diagnosis 16

I knew that I was either destined to not be alive or be alone for, for the rest of my life and that’s when my little dog came up to me into my room, because I left my door open and he jumped onto my bed and fell asleep. And I guess you could say that was the second push to try and get more help, because I didn’t want to leave him all alone because none of the rest of my family except for my sister acknowledges him. So I kind of made a vow to help my dog, because he’s not going through the best of times either, with his arthritis and everything. So I was like I’m going to keep living to until he’s lived a full life and I’m going to remain living to honor him and how he stopped me because if it wasn’t for my dog walking in, I probably would have been gone already.

I’ve had him since I was 9. And I’ve always tried to protect and kept him away from a lot of things and did my best to make sure he was loved and cared for. So even to this day sometimes I’ll take him upstairs and he’ll sleep with me for the night and I will give him a treat in the morning and just seeing him really happy kind of makes me forget about all the stuff that has happened to me and what’s going on in life right now and kind of just, mainly focuses on him.

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For Teddy, part of healing was letting people who had hurt him know how sensitive he is.

Age at interview 18

Gender Male

Age at diagnosis 16

So I’d honestly have to say the last step of releasing my depression, I wrote a Facebook status saying to all of the people who have hurt me and have done something to damage me. I told them [coughed] that they should have been better things for you to do than to hurt me. You may have not intended it but you knew I was a sensitive person so just know you’ve messed up on having a really good friend.

And what really surprised me was that the people who’ve like, I’ve never talked to but were in the band with me called me on the phone and liked my status saying, You really took a huge step by publicly announcing that you’re not going to pretty much handle all of this crap anymore.

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Teddy says don’t wait too long to get help.

Age at interview 18

Gender Male

Age at diagnosis 16

The main thing that I want to add is, if you first get depressed and you realize it, go seek help because if you let it continue on and on it’s going to get worse and it’s going to be harder to fix it. Because [coughed] I let mine go, I kept having it, it kept getting worse and worse and it was really bad. And then I decided to get help like, if I had help at the ready like in the beginning, I probably wouldn’t have been here. So just try to get help as soon as possible don’t let it sit there for a while because it’s just going to be harder and harder and a lot longer for you to get rid of your depression.

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