[Defiant]

Sorry to hear about this. Depression can be debilitating. Your feelings are valid and the first step forward is realising that.

Are you low-level depressed all the time or do you have better days and worse days?

[Fadingechoes]

I have better and worse days. Im working as a temp worker for a bad ass company wirh little direction and limited training a majority of the day. Im told to build a report but new to the system with limited training over zoom to create these reports. Im about 4 weeks in and im nervous about losing the job. I graduated with my biz marketing degree and have been working temp jobs full time since covid hit, but none of them have hired me on full time. Im just stressed out, living at my parents, never really had my own place. I am just trying to not crack

[HndsmKansan]

Hey good to see you here on RJ! Thanks for taking the time to talk about something that probably affects more people than what we all realize. Glad you are seeking help as well. We all have to feel like we are “making progress” in life, with our work, with ourselves. It really is important to see and measure, positive changes. I know I keep a list of priorities each day (written) so I feel a sense of accomplishment when I get those addressed. My work also varies from day to day, none is like the previous one (some are more challenging than others and some I have more flexibility). One other thing, make sure to enjoy the good times, make special events really “special”, things like birthdays, vacations, times out. Do it for you, after all you deserve it! Keep us up to date on how you are faring.

[joeclark]

I believe you are more than one step ahead of many in analogous circumstances because you recognize that your feelings are caused *by your circumstances*. You’re feeling depressed because your job is depressing, according to what you tell us.

While it seems counterintuitive, doing something each day marginally better than the previous day gives you objective facts to look back on. That could be one more push-up, five more pounds on squat (you *are* going to the gym, I trust?), journalling one more page. It could be as simple as making sure you get through 10 pages of a book you like, or listening to an entire episode of an interesting cultural podcast like the Perfume Nationalist, Red Scare, or What’s Left. (Dull normie podcasts are worse than staring at the boob tube.)

Those objective daily achievements – you’ll be jotting them down so you can look back at them – will buttress you while you look around for a better job, or something else that might alleviate your depressing circumstances.