So I used to lucid a lot back in the day but kind of just stopped. After watching the movie Waking life, i wanted to get back into it. So i been doing reality checks for like a week and i just had my first one today. Mind you i been suffering from depression for the past couple of years. So in my lucid dream i can normally change scenes and stuff but its hard for me to control the other people in my dreams. Its like im having a constant struggle of control and i dont know how i can fix it. I asked one of them in the dream and they said because i have so many conflicting beliefs/problems, but i dont know if that means anything or just my self conscious just bullshitting. If anyone has help much appreciated 
I’ve never tried to control other people - why do you want to do that?
Sometimes I’m not able to control/change things in the environment, which is frustrating. I once asked some dream characters why I couldn’t do such and such and they told me quite simply that ‘I couldn’t do that sort of thing here’. It could be that some dream environments are less personal and more ‘stable’ and therefore we can’t go around morphing things and manifesting whatever we like!
Sorry to hear about the depression.
I think it would be the aftermath of depression and being out of practice for some time. Scars take time to heal. After being in that state there is a sense of hopelessness that tends to follows and it can carry over in dream performance. The feeling of control and empowerment tends to fade noticeably. If this is the first lucid in a while where you’ve attempted to control things, don’t fret it. It may take a bit to get in the swing of things again. Keep at it and work to remain positive. You should be on the right track if you’re getting lucid and recalling your dreams.
I agree that part of it could be that you’re just out of practice. If you’re trying to change the scene around you, try a different approach, like lying down in your dream with the intent to go to sleep and be in another lucid dream, in a location you want to be in.
I’m curious as to why you would want to control the people in your dreams. If a dream character does have valuable information and you just have a battle of will, what are you really gaining out of the experience? I have found that usually the dream characters who are the most independent are those of people we have met in waking life. You have a model of who you think that person is, so they will generally stick to that model in dreams. If you can’t make specific dream characters go away or bend to your will, then those are the ones you should be getting information from. Usually, they resist for a purpose.