When I was in 6th grade we had to do a research
project. I forget what I did mine on. Probably something stupid like the
natural resources of Argentina. When I asked a classmate on the bus “what are
you doing your project on?” she answered, “depression”. “Oh cool” I said and
then followed up with something along the lines of “I like history” blah blah
(real intelligent). “Not THE depression” she corrected. “Depression”. Oh (huh?).
This was my first inkling that depression was a thing. A thing beyond
just being depressed as in “oh I’m ok, I’m just a little depressed. I’m having
a bad hair day”. When I checked the shelf at the library, sure enough, whole
books were written about it. Who knew?
With the recent death of Robin Williams, I’m hoping more
people will learn about depression and mental illness. Right after his death a
Fox News reporter basically called him a “coward”. His daughter wonders how he
could not find it in his heart to stay. People talk about him “choosing” to die
in spite of being loved. I just googled
depression and the featured description, definition was
Depression may be
described as feeling sad, blue, unhappy, miserable, or down in the dumps. Most
of us feel this way at one time or another for short periods.
Not accurate for all forms.
I guess I should not be surprised when websites all over the net say to
avoid or prevent depression people can try tai chi, a good diet, plenty of
sleep, exercise. Oh those things will probably help prevent or resolve minor
depressions. They don’t cure a brain disorder. On a website describing severe
depression which I though was pretty good overall said “Counseling is just as effective as taking
medicine.” at the bottom. All these things disappoint me but don’t
surprise me. There is still such stigma and misunderstanding of mental illness.
Over the years I’ve heard suicide referred to as a “cowardly
“ act more than once. Also, I read somewhere recently concerning another suicide
(I forget who—probably read it in People) that the person would never have done
it if they’d known how it would affect their family. All this might be valid if
suicide was the act of a rational person. Unfortunately we’re left as rational
people trying to understand irrational ones. Not really possible. All we
can/should do is sympathize and empathize as much as possible and support the
survivors. It’s not possible to really get inside the head of a severely
depressed person. You don’t know unless you’ve been there.
Depression unfortunately, is something lots of people
experience in a very mild way. We all have “down” periods that we come out of—usually
in a relatively short period of time. Often they are the direct result of
something that happened. Someone died, a lover dumped you, lost job etc.
Clinical depression is not necessarily the result of any specific event. It’s
not the same as simple sadness. In fact, people can be depressed even if things
are going well. It’s a complex medical
disorder. It has full-body effects. We need to be aware that depression can
happen to anyone, it has nothing to do with a person’s strength or weakness. It’s
like cancer.
Another strike against mental illnesses, besides being
thought of as “all in your head”, is that they are often invisible.
Schizophrenia may be fairly easy to spot but as with Robin, depressed people
may not appear depressed. I read that some people said they never saw Robin
sad, but remember, depression isn’t the same as sadness. Also, his publicist and
others said he suffered from “severe depression”. Whoa. That’s serious.
Although it’s not possible to really know which people who suffer from
depression are apt to commit suicide, of course in hindsight, leaving him alone
was risky.
There’s no cure for depression. There are drug therapies
that help some sufferers but some are drug resistant. There are behavioral or “talk”
therapies but they have varying degrees of success. Of course, this is if someone
gets diagnosed properly and receives the treatment they need. Too often people
who are depressed are urged by others to snap out of it. Absurd. You’d never
tell someone with cancer to do that. Depression is a serious disease that’s
still not fully understood by physicians and lay people. Tragically it’s
sometimes fatal.
