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There's no doubt that depression is a battle, and it seems to have taken a particular toll on you. As the days go by, you find yourself interested in less and less. You think back to your life a mere few months ago, and compared to where you are now it seems like you've just lost so much.

Work has become unbearable, as the thought of you dragging yourself day in and day out to a job you can't stand just so you can scrape enough money together to do it all again the next day has ground your will down; lately your job performance has suffered tremendously, and your boss has already had a conversation with you about your absences. At this point, losing your job is not only a real possibility, it's downright probable.

Your personal relationships have deteriorated as well. While you could never describe yourself as a social butterfly, your constant flakiness and continuing withdrawal from your circle of friends has all but alienated them from you completely. Nowadays you rarely see or speak to them, and when you do, the conversations are strained and perfunctory. You almost never leave your apartment anymore.

Your detachment from the world even ended up costing you your relationship with Alex. While she made every effort to be supportive and understanding, your refusal to try and manage your situation forced her to have to choose between having to constantly look after you and pursuing her own goals. As she continued to excel in her program at school, as she made it very clear on more than one occasion that she was dedicated fully to her education and career, and couldn't afford to be held back by somebody who insisted on being stagnant. The subsequent split was practically inevitable.

You never could wrap your head around the whole notion of therapy and view it as anything other than invasive. Refusing to admit your need for help, your decision to try and tackle your depression on your own now seems woefully miscalculated. Your friends may have been willing to listen to you at first, but over time your reluctance to accept any of their advice simply drove them away, leaving you with little in the way of a support network. With nobody to vent to and an inability or unwillingness to seek help on your own, you quickly lost any desire to attempt to overcome your depression and your downward spiral seemed to compound geometrically.

Pouring over the events of the past few months is, even now, exhausting and defeating. Looking at the person you were mere months ago is almost surreal; it feels like a completely different person living a completely different life. In fact, it's hard for you to imagine ever having had a life that wasn't completely devoid of feeling or drive. The prospect of trying to imagine what your future holds seems not only impossible, but irrelevant and of little interest to you, as your life has become just a series of trudges from one emotionally exhausting moment to the next.

You look across at the table to your mother, weakly meeting her gaze before dropping your eyes to the floor. You open your mouth to answer, but no words come out. You don't even bother pretending to try and think of what to say.