Depression def.: a common and serious medical illness that negatively affects how you feel, the way you think, and how you act. Depression causes feelings of severe despondency and dejection.
Q: How would you define Depression? (in layman’s terms)
A: My definition of depression would be a constant state of hopelessness, where you want to do things, but you just can’t. You want to get up and be productive, but can’t. You want to be surrounded by people but can’t. Because you don’t want to be a burden, but you can’t help being a burden.
Q: What are the symptoms? (as you know or experience them)
A: Some symptoms I think are answers to questions, like how many days have you not been getting enough sleep? How much energy do you have? Does your work inspire you? Do your friends find you talking really slowly, or really fast? How often do you feel hopeless? Have there been any changes in feelings, appetite, or sex drive.
Q: How does it feel to have Depression?
A: For me it’s, you really want to do stuff, but you feel that you can’t. It’s not that you don’t have the will power. Some days you just can’t get out of bed. You want to and you shout to yourself in your head to not be lazy, but your body just won’t get out of bed.
There is a disconnect between what you want to do, and what your body tells you that you can do. What you want to do, what you should do, and what you end up doing. You may look at a list of things you want to do, and you try to do some of them, but you just can’t. You just don’t have the motivation, or the physicality to actually do the things. And then that perpetuates the feeling hopelessness and worthlessness because of not doing things, and that you are not good at anything, and it all just gets worse.
And I don’t know why, and it’s not something I want, but I just create a situation where I have things that I want to do, but I just don’t.
For me, I don’t know about it being about being sad. People may view depression as not outgoing or engaging with friends. It’s not sad, it’s a purple haze, and it’s just not good. You could get a call from someone who you really love taking to, but then not want to talk to them so you don’t answer the phone, or you do speak to them, and you just don’t enjoy it, even though you normally enjoy talking to them.
It’s like having an overwhelming sense of misery. It can be sad, but we generally have reasons to be sad. But there isn’t always a reason for feeling depressed. It’s a constant state of being hopeless, overwhelmed, and a disconnect between what you want to do, and what you do do. It’s about knowing that this isn’t normal for me.
I think that it’s important to be honest with yourself and those around you, and put your hand up and say, “I’m not feeling great”.
Q: What are the treatment options for Depression?
A: I think there is obviously the quite clinical way, through Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), to reflect with someone else. CBT enables you to be guided through exactly what are the symptoms you are experiencing, and then breaking them down into tasks to address them. To be actioning against the symptoms, which could help alleviate the symptoms. This method is whereby you have an impartial person work through the changes with you. Once you work through it with someone it can be challenging, but I think when you really unpack every step, it has a meaningful impact. It can really benefit you.
Every concern and problem are really overwhelming, but when you pick out simple things to resolve the big and vague emotions you may be feeling, you can focus on these, and then work through them methodically.
Less clinical, is surrounding yourself with friends and family. Make sure you have other people you can confide in. Sometimes, all you need is to share how you are feeling with someone, and you don’t have to be in a formalized therapy situation.
If you have a chemical deficit, or if CBT doesn’t address the core issues, you will need to use medication. For example, if your body is not producing serotonin, SSRIs, might absolutely be something that your body needs. Even with medication though, you need to make sure you’re eating well, drinking well, and exercising, otherwise, you’re not giving yourself a fighting chance.
It’s like with any illness, the medication alone will not resolve the problem, if you do not adjust your lifestyle too. If you had heart disease, you would be on medication, but you’d also need to adjust your eating and drinking habits, to remain healthy. Healing mental illness is the same.
So don’t live in darkness, not eat, or move. Make sure you have a nice place to live and a nice way to live. With good people who support you.
Q: Do you have to take medication if you have Depression?
A: You don’t have to. You might not have to. But you might have to. And someone that’s a trained professional who understands the cause, might say that you need meds. You need to be open to the idea. It’s not a sign of weakness. If you had a vitamin deficiency your doctor would definitely recommend vitamins. No one judges that. If you look at your brain, and if it’s not producing properly, then you’ll need to go the medication route.
We need to accept that your brain is an organ just like the rest of your body. If you had a thyroid problem, it’s a medical issue. Your brain needs attention, just like the rest of your body.
If medication is needed, embrace it, if not then don’t worry about it. Work with a professional. It might be meds that are required, but it might be only therapy that you need.
If you do need meds, don’t just take it, and that’s it, you need to adjust your lifestyle too and make sure you’re in a supportive environment. You may need a combination of therapy and medication. You definitely need other support mechanisms.
And know that you might go through multiple regimes of medication. You might have to go through many brands and dosages. It might take months before your body produces what it needs to work. It might not work at all. It might be a year before you start feeling better. You might even be diagnosed with treatment-resistant depression.
I still want to emphasise that, above all, it’s normal. And it’s not fine, but normal, and you’ll need to explore which options work for you. Not everyone needs medication, but if you do need medication, embrace it, and keep trying.
It can be an agonizing, long journey, but make sure you’re on the journey.
Q: Is it genetic?
A: For me, I think it’s a combination of your environment, genetic factors, or it could just be an accident.
If I look at my family, it’s most likely genetic. A number of my close family members suffer with some form of mental illness. So if I had to look at it surgically, at my family tree pattern, I would say, yes it’s genetic, but some families have no challenges at all, and a person in that family could still have depression.
A lot of mental illnesses, are a product of environment, like anxiety. Our society is changing, and it has been shown that 25% of girls before the age of 14 have an anxiety disorder. And while young people today are more open about mental illness, this is still not a stat we have seen before. It’s because of the social pressures on social media. We’re in a hyperattentive world. Where the number of followers you have, and the number of likes on a post are important, and it’s resulting in a world focused on instant gratification through visuals, and having the perfect social media life. The success metric in our personal lives is around exposure. We are forced into a mould, to be a certain type of person. And none of it is 100% true. So definitely the environment we live in.
But also, it is as a result of the challenges we experience in our lives. Instances of mental illness, like depression, also occur in relation to the number of wars, colonization etc a society experiences, all problems forced on people by others. PTSD has been known about for thousands of years, in that, during the Crusades, soldiers would still hear clashing of metal long after leaving the environment they were fighting in. This shows that mental health has been documented for thousands of years, in written records. It’s always been a problem, but we’ve never looked at in the right way. Younger people are talking about mental health more these days, we are starting to see more mental health memes. The world is starting to have a more casual relationship with mental health. Children as young as 14 years are talking about it. Sometimes younger.
Overall, mental illness is both genetic, and environmental.
For example, you might get cancer even if you don’t smoke or drink. It could be that it is genetic, but we cannot be sure what the exact cause is.
The brain is complex. Don’t try and put it in a box.
Q: Anything else you would like to add
A: I heard my cousin’s kid of 7 years, tell her mom, “it’s not good for my mental health” and I just think that she has had exposure at such a young age to have the language to express that her mental health is important. Overexposure of stress is not good, and young children are acknowledging this.
We are on the cusp in history where the generation before us denied mental health, and our generation is starting to talk about mental health, and being open about it, and I’m sure the next generation will have normalized it.
Young kids are talking about stress and mental health. We are starting to talk about it in legislative, medical, social society. We are changing the landscape in the ways in which we talk about mental health.
What is important is empowering the frontline, those who are the first people who are going to be managing the symptoms of a mental illness. For them to be able to recognize it as mental illness, and then treat it as such. We need to empower them in the knowledge of the right action to take.
We’re starting to see a lot more openness around mental health, even in societies where it was previously a taboo.
It doesn’t matter who you are, your age, or upbringing – anyone can suffer unique mental health challenges. From all walks of life. It’s not a failure. There are treatments, and there are things you can do to improve your life.
If you want to, you can change the world. We are ready. We’ve never been more ready. It’s a really beautiful time to talk about mental health.
Just talk. If you’re not having a good day, say so. Just talk.
If you’ve had a bad weekend, don’t lie. Don’t think of a different things to say, to make up a story of a good weekend. Just say how it really is. You’ll negatively impact yourself if you are not honest about your mental health.
Talk about it. Write a blog. Whatever it might be. You’re going to change someone’s’ life. And they’ll change your life. There’s a ripple effect of mental healing.
Be the young girl saying that she doesn’t want to do homework because she’s stressed
Or the 80 year old who is admitting that she is not doing well mentally.
Or members of the LGBQTIA community, and all the mental health issues they struggle with.
Women are more likely than men to get depressed – One of the reasons is due to the different challenges women experience. But also because men don’t seek mental help.
People in the developing world, where there is no access to treatment. People are exposed to mental health issues but what they see is violence or they are violent. But because they are not treating the illness, there is a vicious cycle of violence and illness and homelessness. In the developed world they have access, and no one knows they have mental health issues.
Look at it as what it is. It’s who we are and what we are and how we talk will create the perception of what mental illness and mental wellness is.
We’ll see the mindset change that we want to see. In 30 years we’ll live in a beautiful world. But until then we have to talk.
Resources available to you, if you are struggling with Depression:
SADAG: http://www.sadag.org/
The Mispronunciation of Me 