WHEN YOUR 20s FEEL HEAVY

In your 20s, people expect you to be building something beautiful.

A career. A body. A name. A love story. A future.

They expect you to be hungry, bright, restless, and full of fire.

So when depression comes, it does not always come looking like sorrow. Sometimes it comes dressed as tiredness. Sometimes it looks like silence. Sometimes it looks like laughing at jokes that no longer reach your heart. Sometimes it looks like waking up every morning and already feeling late for a life you are not even sure you want anymore.

That is the cruel thing about depression in your 20s. It does not always break you loudly. Sometimes it just slowly removes the color from everything.

You still go to work, but your soul stays in bed.

You still reply to messages, but every conversation feels like you are speaking from under water.

You still show up to birthdays, class, meetings, prayers, and family dinners, but inside you are carrying a storm no one can see.

And the worst part is that you start to feel guilty for being sad when, on paper, your life should be okay.

“You are young.”

“You have time.”

“Other people have it worse.”

“Just stay positive.”

People say these things like depression is a bad mood waiting to be talked out of you.

But depression is not always sadness.

Sometimes it is emptiness so deep it scares you.

Sometimes it is lying on your back at midnight, staring at the...