Depression Caused By Your Own Parents/Family

Usually, parents or families are supposedly the first ones you go to when you’re feeling down and depressed and the first ones to understand you when you open up to them – but what if they’re the ones causing it?

The battle against depression isn’t something we can win or tackle on our own and we need people around us who would support us , empower us, understand us and even love us through thick and thin or our ups and downs.

But what if our own family members, most especially parents, are the ones causing it?

Here are at least 10 signs your parents/own family members are causing your depression:

1 – They hold you back from your dreams

Most parents think they know what’s best for us and expect us to follow their foot steps or be like them by steering us in different direction. Every child should be allowed or given the freedome to make their own path and decide for themselves what they want to be in life or what they wanted to do, not have their dreams dictated.

2 – They put a lot of pressure on you

Similar to the first one, having a lot of pressure on them or being pushed a lot to live up to their unrealistically high expectations could cause each child to start feeling resentment towards their parents. The line “you’re the only good thing in my life” makes them feel compelled to stay by their parents’ side and prioritize their parents’ happiness over their own.

3 – They’re emotionally unavailable to you

Do you often get this feeling that you can’t freely talk to your parents with regards to your emotional problems or feel uncomfortable when you want to talk to them about relationships?

4 – Their presence overwhelms you

Does your parents’ presence often intimidate you or make you feel anxious rather than make you feel excited to see them, sometimes to the point of feeling tense and uncomfortable having them around you?

5- They worsen your depression

Sometimes, it’s okay to admit you wouldn’t want to be around your parents , especially if all they do is worsen your depression by bringing negativity and pain in your life.

6 – Their dysfunction rubbed off on you

7 – Their mental illness affects you

8 – They struggle with substance abuse

9 – They have become abusive

10 – They don’t help you overcome your depression

One of the reasons why I’ve probably become distrustful of my parents when it comes to opening up to them about my depression is that they deny that I need help from a pscyhologist or tell me “it’s all in your head” or that “it’s only pscyhological” . Another thing they would tell me whenever I would try to open up to them is that “you shouldn’t be depressed at all and just think happy thoughts”

Yeah how? when they’re lately the first ones causing me to feel depressed?