In nearly everyone's life, there comes a point where we feel dissatisfied with our current situation, are feeling at our wit's end and honestly have a hard time being genuinely happy. When you deal with depression, and you've been battling it relentlessly for years, it can be impossible to give yourself the "permission" that you need to allow yourself to be happy.

As a person who has dealt with depression for the better part of her life, and has seen a lot of stigma surrounded what it means to live with it and what it looks like to others, it can be near impossible to fully allow yourself to be comfortable in who you are and be happy with what that means. What many people don't realize is that living with depression doesn't mean that someone will be constantly crying or outwardly expressing their feelings. Oftentimes a person can go through life appearing "normal", and enjoying themselves, but still have difficulty with saying to themselves that it's healthy and okay to be genuinely happy.

Now there are times where it can be impossible to feel like you'll ever be happy again, whether because you're in a difficult situation or because you might have guilt over allowing yourself to be comfortable with yourself.

The first step with transitioning away from a stressful situation, whether it was long term or short term, is to openly admit to yourself that you deserve to be happy. Whether you have a whole argument prepared on why you deserve to be happy or you honestly don't know how to justify your happiness, just start by giving yourself permission. Don't worry about what others will say for a while if you're afraid of backlash.

While it's very honorable and great to care about others and their happiness and mental health, yours is just as important. Not taking care of yourself does affect your relationships with those in your life and being able to practice self-care is extremely important. With whatever situation you're going through in life, whether it's short term stressers or a major life change that has set you back for a while, don't resign yourself to feeling discontent or unsatisfied permanently.

It can get better, yes, but it won't begin to happen until you physically give yourself- and only you can- give yourself the permission to truly be happy.