Depression

Hey everyone I'm working with undocumented youth and some of them are so depressed. What are some of the things they can do to stop it? Some of them are home all day and depression is hurting alot (sometimes even I feel depressed) but i get up and keep going.

The only cure for them is green card

Depends on the age group really. If they are in high school, assure them that they CAN attend college. From experience, this is one thing that I was worried about most when I was in high school. There are many many options such as attending two year community college. This will not make them inferior, it will only save their families an immense amount of money. Another thing you may advise them to do is go out and get some physical exercise. Maybe they can join a gym nearby. It's very difficult to deal with this at this age. There is a sense of hopelessness and that nobody is out there to help them. I commend you for helping them.

Good point, you need to let them know that they can attend college even without status. I didn't find out until the last week of my senior year. I was depressed the whole time in high school.

Tell them to get out of the house and exercise. Exercise releases chemicals such as endorphins which would fight depressions and reduce stress. Makes them more happy, etc etc.

I was very stressed and anxious in high school thinking it was impossible to get into college, so yes, letting them know they can get into college and citing as examples the many that are already there should help. But I became truly depressive in college, and it was a result of all the obstacles I was not used to, being away from my family, etc., etc., and my status being in my mind all the time. I went from being a highly social person surrounded by many friends and comfortable starting new friendships to going several days whee I did not say a single word to anyone at any time, losing contact with many people I knew and not really being able to start a conversation with a stranger. In other words I was letting my status define my life, a very big mistake.

The issue is that we tend to focus too much on our immigration status, it is something that we cannot change and we need to learn how to focus on what we can change right now. We are being bombarded by immigration news all the time, a dream act law passes in a state, another state makes it harder for immigrants to move around, we need to find a way to think of something else to get away from the media.

I found community service to be truly helpful while in high school, it gets you moving around, you are doing something good for the community, you are working but not being compensated so there is no one asking you for papers, and you are meeting other people whose outlook on life is generally positive, generally they are doing community service to help the community, to make the community a better place for everyone. What an excellent way it is to help the depressed dreamer, it even gets you talking to other people and hopefully making more friends and in the end leads to a better life, overall.

Some people get involved in community service through the church or you may research online, Miami has a program called Hands on Miami which gets you connected to hundreds of community service events around the city and you can pick which one to do depending on when it becomes available, where it is available, you can track what you did and how many hours to contributed to the community, and feel good about what you are doing.

Once you do that, you can become more comfortable about yourself, you may still be up to date on immigration matters, you may become active, you may even read the news from time to time, but you would also have an escape, instant in time where you are not going to be focusing on immigration, its about balancing.

you may also seek the help of a psychotherapists, but personally I have taken that route already, a full year, it was really not that effective. Sure my grades dramatically improved at the beginning but I feel that was more of the white coat effect of having a professional hearing my story for the first time and someone to talk to than the sessions actually working. Eventually it just became a mix of considerable stress or lack of work resulting from again focusing way too much on my status where going to those sessions became a constant nagging reminder of my status and a lot of my time was spent focusing on status and realization of the obstacles I was facing, affecting the time and quality of my study.

As soon as I stopped going because my school only permitted for 1 year of sessions, bam my grades improved and all of a sudden not thinking about my status opened up my time, got on the Dean's list, I became more active and became absent from DAP for a few months. Now I think I have accomplished a pretty good balance where I can finally come back and become even more active not on DAP alone but on the movement as well, other groups and organizations and also come here provide some of my personal experiences and hopefully help some people achieve the same realization that they can still move forward and get around the apparent number of obstacles that are out there without thinking that they are risking their lives in doing so. There are many people that would love to see us defeated, but I think there are a lot more that would love to see us succeed.

Hello thebeast!

I don't know anything besides the fact they're DREAMers so I'm going to give you some general information.

Feelings of extreme loneliness can manifest physically as pain and is experienced by some as a sinking feeling or pressure in the chest. Even so, I would go see a doctor to make sure that there aren’t some physical reasons like high blood pressure, diabetes, or the onset of a stroke, etc.

This is for your DREAMer friends:

First, don’t let how others see you determine your self worth. Just because you're not legal doesn’t mean that your life isn’t worth living. Everybody gets lonely, even people in healthy relationships.

Second, find something that truly brings you joy. The saddest people I've ever met in life are the ones who don't care deeply about anything at all. Finding a way to express yourself and truly be creative can give your life meaning and purpose. It's the best way to get rid of depression and take your mind off all the bad things happening in your life. Music, art, poetry, philosophy, or inventing some new idea or process can help you find new passion for life and might even make you rich, LOL. So get active, start doing things for yourself, for other people, and it'll balance back out from there.

Third, and this is really important, people like to be in the company of people who make them feel good about themselves. What that means is that people like being around “happy” people. Happy people are people magnets so the more strongly you enjoy your life the more people are going to want to be around you. Does that make sense? Learn how to devour life and start today by taking the first bite and telling yourself that your life can be whatever you want it to be.

Last but not least, in your free time, do not spend all your time in your apartment unless you are relaxing or doing something constructive. Go to a random venue you have never been to but always wanted to check out. Try to strike conversation with a random stranger. Call up a friend you haven't talked to in a while. Choose a random activity that you think is fun and just do it. My point is, that if you have free time and use your imagination, you can do anything you want if it is in your price range. If you do not have enough free time, then try to cut down on activities that aren't necessary and don't make you happy and replace them with spontaneous ones that you change everyday.

I hope my answer helps and please, please, please ...... forgive me for the lengthy post.

Good luck!

Just thinking about tomorrow, clears away the cobwebs and the sorrow till there's none. When I'm stuck with a day that's gray and lonely, I just stick out my chin and grin and say.....

I like to look at this often