Facebook Depresses Me - Facebook Blues

[Hopeful1989]

I just deleted my facebook account. I find myself on there looking at peoples pictures, wishing I was able to go and do all those fun things and it makes me sad and angry at myself for not wanting to leave my apartment or even my couch. Is this weird? PLEASE someone tell me you have felt this too.

I just feel like I am missing out on life.

I have been so moody I am happy one minutes and depressed the next.

I feel like I am going crazy.

 

[Hopeful1989]

side note: shortly after this post I had a brief breakdown accompanied by a panic attack, I am sick of this controlling me.

 

[Deleted member 1860]

Stay far FAR away from facebook. It's not reality! I still have my account but never log on anymore. I keep my account because I think that one day I may want to reconnect with somebody from my past. Maybe? Otherwise I find facebook to be completely useless.

 

[Hopeful1989]

I just kept looking like compulsively..no one ever wrote me anymore because I have isolated myself and every time I looked at it, it just made me sad. I am glad someone has made this decision too. My fiancee was like "its just facebook...you shouldn't envy them"...I was like "I DON'T ENVY THEM...I am mad at myself for not being able to do anything". I am just off a panic attack and angry a little bit. Thanks for the response though, I feel like someone is listening.

 

[Aine]

I get sad when I look at Facebook because my ex-boyfriend is there. Sad, but true. Not because I miss being with him or anything, but just because even though my own life is quite vibrant at the moment, I still miss all the things we used to do together, like poetry open mic nights or making loads of pasta and seeing how many types of cheese we can fit on it (11 was the record). His house was my second home for around two years and looking at Facebook makes me really homesick.

Sometimes, I suffer from agoraphobia. I get five steps away from my front gate and then I have to run back inside. The only thing that really worked was that, one day when I needed to go somewhere but couldn't get out the front gate, I got my friend to come over, grab me by the hand and push me along the street. At first, it was awful. I was crying and frantically trying to get back inside, but he was really great and just pushed me forward, saying "It's okay. Everything will be fine." and after awhile, it was. I still felt vulnerable but the need to run away wasn't as strong anymore and we kept doing that until one day, I managed to go to the shop by myself even though I really didn't want to go outside. Afterwards, I had to go stand in our airing cupboard for a few minutes but I got outside and I think that's progress.

Maybe that would work for you, maybe not. It's not the easiest thing to do and it's scary as hell. But I hope you find a way to get back to your friends soon. I'm sure they miss you. People don't always know what to do with depression.

Love and Light,

Aine.

 

[anni]

Oh my,

I won't get started on Facebook, but I think you did a positive, healthy thing in deleting your account if it was causing you discomfort of any kind. Since you're feeling so awful about yourself, I did just wish to reply to your post and say that it's very, very easy to be way too hard on yourself and start labeling your actions negatively.

My 78 year old mother has an account so she can see family photos, etc. Facebook can be a nice thing but can also be used as a weapon by people who wish to spread envy or discontent. Even if this hasn't been the case with you, the fact that your account wasn't a healthy thing in your life means you did well to delete it. If it's important to you, perhaps creating a new account when you're feeling better would be symbolic for you of a new way of looking at life, as long as it's genuinely postive social outlet for you. I don't mean to sound so preachy, an of course could be wrong, but it just sounded to me like the right thing to do, given how you were reacting to Facebook.

I'm sorry you're having such an awful time of it, but it's actually a good thing to have been able to verbalize how tired you are of having this intrusive PTSD 'control' so much of your life. Everyone is different, but I know for me, just plain being sick and tired of being sick and tired ( to use an annoying old phrase) has gotten me motivated to some path of actively seeking help in the end.

I hope you find some peace here, at least, and take care,

Anni

 

[Hopeful1989]

Thanks everyone! I am feeling much better about it today...but these hills and valleys of the depression are killing me. I appreciate everyone's response. Facebook can just stay away for a while. I think its kind of like when your little and you look out the window when your grounded and see all of your friends playing with each other, knowing you can't play with them. Again, thank you!

 

[Marlene]

I made up a my-space account (close, I know...but no facebook) so I could see pictures my daughter posted for the far away family. Above that...I'm not interested. For me it just seems too easy to get caught up in other people's BS and add more drama to an already dramatic life. My oldest daughter tells me, 'Grandma has a facebook account...how come you don't?' or 'Amanda's mom (Her mom is my oldest friend-we met in the army) said you need to get a facebook account'. I just ignore it. I can't even IM people or go into a chat without being triggered and feeling terrible. This is something I'm just not interested in. I know some people think it's great. It's a non-starter for me.

What anni said above about it being used as a weapon...I spent many hours comforting a distraught teenager who had been talked about or had ugly things said to her by freaking strangers and she was devistated. It's just not worth it to me.

Lisa

 

[Deleted member 541]

I get depressed on FB too, but because I don't have many friends. Not because I long to have what others have or anything else.....

 

[catjudo]

I take it from a different approach. I like FB because it let's me keep in touch with friends, old and new, close and far away. During those times when I am feeling really low and not up to getting out and doing much (times like now), it does still allow me to maintain a connection with these people so that I haven't pushed them completely out of my lives. I may go a long stretches without seeing them in person or getting together but small comments to their pages or status statements let them know that I haven't just walked away from our relationship completely. I'm still around; still care; still interested...but that's all I have to offer at the moment. When I'm feeling better, meeting up with them is a little less awkward because it isn't like I've had NO communication with them in months.

Just a different perspective, I guess. And as far as those people that can be trouble makers...I just hide them from my news feed so that I'm not faced with whatever drama their creating every 10 minutes. Typically the worst offenders are members of my family, otherwise I'd just "unfriend" them. I've unfriended family members before and it caused too much drama, now I just hide them so I don't have to see their crap but they don't know it.

 

[blackemerald1]

Facebook Depresses Me
Hello Hopeful1989. I am in agreeance with you, Facebook has the potential to be so good but in my experience with it, it is a total waste of time and not user friendly. I recently had a mentally uwell woman become fixated on me for reasons only a pschiatrist could imagine and she wrote some very ugly and untrue remarks there in my 'family' group so everyone would have read it and gone pale at the language she used. I blocked her, checked a few days later and the offensive message was back, I have to contact Facebook and get them to explain how to get rid of her forever. I have also had to explain to relatives what the message was there for, how embarrasing. The thing is she is not my friend nor have I ever met her, she searched for ne via other means and found me. My teenage son uses it and loves it and has had no provlems at all. But he also is well and socialises in person very well. I need friends in the real world with real things to say to me and though I find it very hard to get out, I know that Facebook is not the answer for me. Oh and let's not forget about identity theft, if you read the sign up legal stuff, Facebook has disclaimed itself from any consequence imaginable, yet you are required to put in a lot of personal information.
Regards blackemerald1

 

[TLight]

I was on there and all my ex's contacted me to say 'Hi' and catch up. This included people from Jr. High and grade school. I friended all of them and watched the feeds for awhile..........then I just didn't have anything to say. I don't know them............25 years makes a person not the same person and I just don't have anything to say.

Then, just the other day, for some reason I just sort of freaked out for some reason and deleted my account.

The world just feels too weird for me and I decided that I didn't want to partake..........

I'm on here......with you guys who understand and we have this in common. Granted, not such a great thing to have in common, but the support I get here is just invaluable. And I feel SAFE here. That's unusually for the internet.

Thank you all, Anthony, Nicolette, Moderators..........thank you all.