A woman writing about her depression for a site called Racked summed up teen depression, and depression for people of all ages, very well in the title of her story: “Depression Takes My Body Away.” But she said one thing that helped her feel better were her choice of clothes. “As a depressed teen, I used clothes as a lifeline to pull me out of the fear that I was insubstantial. They made my body into a fun experience I could control.”
*While it’s unclear whether clothing can make a significant difference in depression or not, for the author of this story, Arabell Sicardi, she says, “As long as I had or could work towards the clothes that I love, as long as I could fit into them, take up their structures as my body’s own, I’d pull through.”
*As Sicardi continues, “I bargained with my despair: If I gave in to it, which I was sure I would, I wanted it to be on my terms…I changed my style every day like I was running away from something because I was.”
*Sicardi also feels, The physicality of mental health looks different on everybody when it’s visible at all… Depression’s work is rarely done. It test to see how far you’ll bend the weight of your shame that you can’t wish it gone.”
*While she may struggle with depression for a long time, Sicardi says, “I’ll never stop rediscovering myself within it…I believe there can be freedom in this, that possibility creates freedom you cannot kill, that the void can be scary and strange but not evil, just something to cope with…Depression takes my body away, but my body was a gift, to begin with. Fighting depression means I have to give it to myself again.”