It appears that last week all my friends got married, engaged, had a baby or were on some awesome vacation. According to their Facebook posts, every single one of them was on some amazing adventure or experienced some life-changing event while I spent the week at the office and my weekend was occupied with several loads of laundry and chores.  My life sucks!

Why does it feel like every time I’m stuck home doing some menial chore that my friends are out having the time of lives? Instead of spending the day green with envy and pouting, I did a little research on my favorite social network and possible side effects of using it. Turns out, this Digital Campaign Manager has Facebook Depression.

What? Is this for real?

Early this year, the American Academy of Pediatrics put out a warning to parents and teens about a problem called “Facebook Depression.” It results from being bombarded with friend tallies, status updates, and photos of people happy, having the time of their lives, when you are not. Experts are still debating whether this condition is linked to actual depression or distinct to Facebook users.

According to a recent story by Gizmodo, Citi Research reported a dramatic increase in Facebook usage over the past 4 years (see graph below). 16 percent of an average American’s day is spent on Facebook. With that many people spending that much time on Facebook, teens can’t be the only ones falling into the dreaded Facebook Blues. We’re all at risk.

With the thought of being lumped in with the hundreds of pimple-faced, Beiber-lovin, depressed teens out there, I quickly devised a plan to get out of my Facebook funk. A little Facebook Prozac, if you will. If you should find yourself suffering from the Facebook Blues, here are a few helpful hints to get you through:

Get a grip

This is only a social network after all. Of course people post pictures and status updates that are happy and fun. We are humans. Most of us share the exciting stuff on Facebook and keep the boring stuff to ourselves. I bet there were tons of other people out there doing laundry; it just wasn’t exciting enough to post on their wall.

Get away from the computer

Seriously, if seeing other people posting about their adventures on Facebook is making you sad, go out and make your own. Get outside in the sunshine and enjoy the fresh air. Don’t forget to bring your camera so you can take pictures of it and post them to Facebook.

Interact

If you can’t pry yourself away from your computer and it’s getting you down, start up a conversation, even if it means posting about the boring stuff. It might make you feel better to get a little interaction with other human beings.

Hope this helps. Good luck out there.