Some introduction and some queries, I guess.

How often do you get depressed?

Depends on what's been going on. Sometimes if there's a lot of stress it can be every night, and sometimes I'm fine for weeks. Dunno. It's been okay for about a year. Before that it was just constant and I nearly lost it completely, so now is pretty good compared to that.

I'm glad you're good now. I was messed up for an entire month a few weeks ago. So what happened a few posts ago? It's ok if you don't wanna talk about it, though.

I don't really remember. My memory is really bad... I think I just started feeling really alone, like I didn't have anyone to support me, and started getting all crazy about it. Something like that... Just stupid thoughts that get in my head and grow and grow and grow. A couple of nights before that was worse, because I saw this HUGE spider and had this massive panic over it, and started going crazy. I hate phobias... Oh well.

There's obviously a problem when a spider can cause you to have a panic attack and enter a deep depressive state. Then again I've never understood arachnophobia.

It's one of my more embarassing fears... and I've only had it so bad recently, the last couple of years, I think. I mean, I've never liked them, but it was more of a "I don't wanna touch that" sorta thing than a real phobia. I can't even look at them now. Except those really small ones, but they're still creepy. I have a few other fears, some worse... sort of. Fear of spiders is bad because they're everywhere all the time, y'know?

My worst fear, I think, is my fear of the ocean. But I don't live near the ocean, so it doesn't bother me most of the time. I've been scared of (most) sharks for a while, but now that's worse and I'm even scared of whales, and most fish, even just looking at them. I'm scared of needles, as in syringes, and heights, but those aren't as bad. There's other things too. I forget most of the time. Aliens is one. Silly, I know, but it's not a concious decision; all you get conciously is the fear.

Hey, 123! Sorry about the late reply. Did anything happen before these fears got worse? It's ok, you can still treat them and lots of people are scared of this stuff.

I used to have a fear of falling (like rollercoasters, high dives, etc) as a kid. You'd think it's not a problem just because it's easy to avoid those things. But I hated the fact that it scared me, I didn't want anything to scare me like that. So I started doing it a lot, went on rollercoasters at every opportunity, even went bungee jumping (which would have been my worst nightmare once). And after a while I started to kind of like it. Now I have no phobia of it.

Point in case: exposure therapy works, and you end up with a great confidence boost too.

Yeah, some of them happened for different reasons. My fear of heights was caused by going on one of those giant swings, I think. Lol. My fear of needles has gotten worse each time I've had a vaccine or blood test. I'm not sure about my fear of the ocean, or of spiders. I know why I hate the ocean though. The depth and the size. The darkness. The thought of being there, in the cold and wet, pitch-black, deep in the middle of the ocean, feeling things brushing past you, not knowing when something's going to happen. And shark, they're just scary. I know it's getting worse, because I had to close my eyes the last time I watched Finding Nemo. It'd be funny if it weren't so sad. Like what you were saying about hating being afraid, I really hate that part of myself. I hate being scared of stupid things for no reason. I'm not ashamed of my fear of heights; that's just a natural fear. But the rest annoy me, a lot. Unfortunately, I have to live with it. No way am I going to expose myself to it repeatedly. That's like asking me to stab myself; even if I know I won't die, I can't willingly put myself through the pain of it.

Hey, 123, do you have any hobbies?