What Lies Beneath The Surface? An Illustration Book About Depression

What Lies Beneath The Surface?

An Illustrated Look At Life With Depression

Sophia Luong

What Lies Beneath The Surface?

An Illustrated Look At Life With Depression

Sophia Luong

For anyone living with depression or going through a hard time, you are not alone.

As a foreword, this book is not intended for medical purposes. The following illustrations contain general depictions of what living with depression is like and the journey of overcoming it, but keep in mind that mental health experiences are unique to each individual. The mentioned symptoms and signs of depression are based on research, thus do not attempt to self-diagnose yourself. With that being said, I hope that this book will broaden your understanding of this mental health issue and bring emotional consolation to those living with depression.

Thank you.

My world feels like it is shrouded in darkness. Piercingly black and murky, it obscures all light and vision around me. So, when did it all start? And when will this end?

I cannot pinpoint the exact beginning of this feeling of emptiness and sadness. At some point, I found myself no longer enjoying the things that I did. The little beauty of life slipped away and before I knew it, I had shut myself in a room—with no lights, no keys, and no one but myself.

For days on end, I had no appetite to eat.

Worst of all was the sleepless nights where I lay awake as grief and hopelessness washes over me.

My everyday routine of getting up and going to school became an enormous struggle for me.

In the morning, it takes every ounce of my strength for me to drag my body out of bed to get ready for the day.

At school, I couldn’t focus and learn. The world moves agonizingly slow, and every word seems to take a minute to make sense.

I wore a smile to mask how I felt.

I wishfully believed that if I try to be happy like everybody else perhaps this feeling might disappear. But my discontentment only grew.

Deep inside me, I knew that I needed help. But I hesitated to ask for help, fearing that there might be something wrong with me and rejection from others.

Even so, I decided to take this first step in acknowledging and accepting this part of myself.

A second step. And a third step. All these steps soon turned into a distance. One mile, two miles, and so on.

The journey ahead may be filled with hardships.

You may find that some treatment works, while some don’t.

You may feel discouraged because the mountain of obstacles that lie in front seem insurmountable.

But remember, you can scale the mountain by each rugged rock, in between each laborious breath to conquer it.

Some days, you may feel that the pain is unbearable to hold in.

On those days, allow yourself to be vulnerable. Remind yourself that you can confide in the people around you. Remind yourself that you’re coping and growing, and that everything will be fine.

This feeling won’t last forever. The path through the tunnel may be arduous, dark, and even lonely at times; but it is never hopeless.

There is a light at the end of every tunnel.that everything will be fine.

When the day that you step out of the tunnel comes and rays of sunshine stream in to illuminate your world again, you will be so grateful that you did not give up.