“I didn’t want to face anyone; I didn’t want to talk to anyone. I didn’t really want to do anything for myself because I felt so hopeless, I felt like I was such an awful person that there was no real reason for me to do anything for myself. Sometimes I would sleep only 3 hours a night this would continue for weeks, but most of the time the opposite happened, where I would sleep 10, 12, and even 15 hours a day. It was like I had big huge weights on my legs and I was trying to swim and just kept sinking. And I would get a little bit of air, just enough to survive, and then I would go back down again. It was just a feeling of constantly, constantly just fighting, fighting, and fighting.”
Above is a narration from a young man about his experience with depression and how he felt during those periods. Depression is not a new word to many; however, few realize how common this subtle destroyer is prevalent around us. In our schools, workplaces, communities, and even places of worship. In some cultures, it is quickly covered up due to the stigma of its connection to insanity in these cultures thereby increasing its dangers, to the patients and the people around them. We will be looking at depression today, what it means to say someone is suffering from depression, the reality of depression as well as the deception.
What is Depression?
By clinical definition, depression means unnatural sadness, but to patients, it can mean loneliness, loss of interest, and hopelessness. It can also be more severe in terms of its intensity leading to thoughts like sadness, tearfulness, hopelessness, having a feeling that life isn’t worth living going on for days, weeks, and sometimes months. Some patients may also experience difficulty sleeping or sleeping too much, a change in appetite, a lack of concentration, and difficulty thinking. Depression has a significant impact on the ability of people to care for themselves, take care of other chronic medical conditions if they are ill, which tends to worsen the prognosis of those conditions. So ignoring it has a lot of consequences to the patients and to people around them. Psychiatrists have confirmed that depression is a common diagnosis affecting one in six adults; women are more affected than men at about a two-to-one ratio. Treatments can range from professional counseling to medications like antidepressants depending on the level of the condition.
Depression is more than just a feeling of being down in the dumps or blue for a few days. It is a serious illness that affects many people. Symptoms can vary, but many depressed people lose interest in activities they normally enjoyed, have feelings of sadness, guilt, and worthlessness, and have trouble concentrating. Research shows that a person suffering from depression can feel irritable and restless, and have sleep problems. People who suffer from depression can feel numb and tired most times, in some cases, it can even lead to thoughts of suicide.
Causes
Several factors can play a role in depression such as biochemistry; differences in certain chemicals in the brain may contribute to symptoms of depression, genetics: depression can run in families for example if one identical twin has depression the other has a higher chance of developing depression at some point in their life. Depression is likely the results of a combination of genes rather than a single gene, personality; people who have low self-esteem are easily overwhelmed by stress or react negatively about things that can lead to them feeling depressed, environmental factors; being around stressful life events such as violence, neglect, abuse or poverty may also make people more vulnerable to depression.
Treatment
Depression is a real and complex illness that is not yet completely understood. Research has made it common knowledge that the brains of people with depression are different from those without the illness, but we are not sure why. Globally, scientists are studying brain images of people who suffer from depression trying to learn why it affects some people but not others. Treatments for depression do work. One type of effective psychotherapy is called cognitive-behavioral therapy or CBT. CBT can help you change ways of thinking and behaving that may be damaging or contribute to depression.
Medications called antidepressants can also help. Researchers are getting closer to figuring out exactly how these medications work, who benefits from them the most, and how to make better, more effective ones. For many people, a combination of medication and psychotherapy may be the best choice. Depression can be successfully treated in many people, but sometimes treatments fall short. For this reason, scientists continue to study the genetic, biological, and environmental factors that influence depression so that new, and better treatments can be developed.
However, there are things loved ones can do if they suspect someone is depressed. It may be the reassurance and reaching out, phone call, or the stopping by from a friend or family member that can help a person realize that this doom and gloom and loneliness that they seem to be experiencing may not really be the true reality. If a person is suffering from depression; telling friends, family, or someone they trust, and finding a doctor or therapist are the first steps on the road to recovery. Depression treatment can take time to work, so don’t give up. If the symptoms fit, get help now.
The Mirage
Given all that has been said about depression in this article, I will like to unveil a fundamental truth about depression which if understood will ensure your survival and increase your chances of overcoming the illness. This truth does not deny the fact that depression is real, but it puts depression into the right perspective which can prevent extreme acts like bodily harm and even suicide.
I will use the following illustration from a speaker I heard recently who was very lucid with his perspective. He started by making the audience realize that a person cannot be depressed. This got some people thinking immediately when he said “Stop saying I am depressed because it is not true”. With some people already saying “how dare you question my depression”? He went ahead to warn that we should not be so quick to protect that which causes us suffering? Let’s speak honestly, you may be experiencing a depression right now, but you are not depressed. This reality separates the person from the feeling, which he went ahead to elaborate on with an example. This shift if remembered will change your life forever ready? See you are the sky? Depression, frustration, sadness, whatever you are feeling are all passing clouds, they come and they go, some are dark clouds, some are white. Sometimes, they pepper the sky and sometimes they fill the sky, but they always come and go because even though they seem like, they are not the sky. If they were; then when they went, the sky would go too, but the sky is always there. So likewise if frustration, depression, and sadness were you, then when they went, you would go too. But that is not what happens because the feelings change but you remain. The truth is you are that which these things appear in front of, you are the witness, the perceiver of depression, and that which perceives depression is not depressed.
His final analogy was with the help of a remote control which he held in front of him and asked the audience to imagine that the remote control is Depression and he is John looking at the remote control (Depression) in front of him. Moving the remote control (depression) to the right and to the left he explained that represents depression coming and going while he (John) only observes its movement, sometimes it stays for a while and later goes but John remains. He then made it clear that the challenge comes when people decide to identify with the depression and hold on to it and personalize the depressive feelings. But the solution is to not personalize the depressive feelings. Just as it is stated above in the case of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) changing the way you think and behave that may be damaging or contributing to the depressive feelings will help make the depression move away. This truth makes you realize that these are feelings and you can work towards making them move away faster. With this understanding, individuals will not be considering extreme measures such as bodily harm and even suicide which are permanent solutions to a temporal problem.
This is freedom; this is true, you are greater than anything that comes and goes.
