How would you make a fish realise he is in the water? Yes, you feel really, really bad, your thinking is extremely negative, or you are constantly worrying about everything, or you barely do anything all day,.. but how could it be otherwise? If you have a mental health issue such as anxiety or depression, then it is only normal to experience the symptoms, and changes in thinking and behaviour you are currently experiencing - they are literally what it means to have that particular mental health issue. Mental health 'illnesses' are something to be seen as a specific psychological adaptation, meaning a set of cognitive, somatic and behavioural changes part of our genetics that become activated in certain circumstances, and the changes you see in yourself are what would happen to anyone for who this mental health issue becomes activated. 

If you want to see the water that is all around you, you need to find out which specific mental health illnesses you have by either getting yourself diagnosed or doing a self-diagnosis.  That way you can make a full list of the symptoms/characteristics changes associated with that mental health disorder - that is the water you are in. As soon as you feel worry coming up, or becoming irritable, or any of those characteristic changes associated with the illness you have, you then know what is going on, and merely identifying it should be enough to make you take a step back and see that this is just part of the condition you have and as strange as it sounds, that should stop the worrying or negative thinking.  

So whenever you feel you start to worry again, or think negatively, rather than going into the content of the thoughts and trying to stop the worrying or calm down the negative thinking, immediately take a step back by realising that you are in the water, and that worrying or negative thinking, or becoming quickly irritable, are normal characteristics of a specific mental health disorder. The biggest problem is what happens when you are not aware you are in the water: when you start to engage with the content of the the worry and the negative thinking.

People adjust to their way of thinking, feeling and behaviour and it quickly becomes a new normal for them, they think they are their thoughts, feelings and behaviour, while they are just characteristic changes that are part of a mental health disorder. For many people worrying is just normal, and it becomes their way of living; same with their negative thinking, they think everything they believe is the truth (all the negative beliefs they hold), and do not realise their specific thoughts, actions and feelings (the water) are normal symptoms or byproducts of specific mental health disorders.

An important side note is that developing this awareness of being in the water is a skill in and of itself. Many people with depression have developed such an ability for negative thinking they automatically start thinking negatively about everything, and people with worry worry about everything: they fear about the fear not going away, they have anxiety about their negative thinking, or negative thinking about anxiety, worry about worrying too much, or worrying that nothing will works, .. and what might be even the most tricky thing off all, they have negative thinking, worry and anxiety that is reactive: even if they become aware of a certain worry and they see that it is part of generalised anxiety disorder, they would start to worry about that too in some way (e.g. ok but how does merely identifying it solve the problem,.. ) and so there is this constant reacting with worry and negative thinking-effect that is extremely tricky to catch, but again,.. with all time awareness and by relentless focus on realising you are in the water, you are always able to take a step back, looking at your thoughts, behaviour and action, and then you see that ' reactive worry and negative thinking' is also just a form of negative thinking or worry, and part of the characteristics of a your mental health disorder.