Once in his classic starfish fashion, Patrick Star said this line to Spongebob when he was asked what's wrong: "I'm repressed." Of course, Patrick was not actually repressed but made a comical error in the form of improper word usage. What he meant to say was "I'm depressed" as most of you may know. As hilarious as Spongebob is, it actually highlighted something that I think is an incredible misunderstanding in the culture of the world. That is that when someone says they're depressed, they're usually taken to just be sad or unhappy.
The problem here is that depression has two meanings in our society. One of them is a fleeting feeling of sadness and one of them is a mental illness. I think most of us are familiar with the former meaning, but how many of us actually understand the latter? The illness, that is. Personally, I was diagnosed with depression nearly fifteen years ago, and I'm just starting to understand it for myself. Now, I want you all to understand that the point of this post isn't to elicit sympathy. I don't want your sympathy. But, rather, I want people to understand what depression is and what it does so that they can help people deal with their depression.
There are times when I really struggle to understand exactly what depression is. I've been told since I was a child that it's a "chemical imbalance in the brain" but I'd never really understood what that means. However, I'm starting to recognize the effects of it more these days. Depression is an extremely debilitating thing. It affects how you think in almost every situation. For some reason, it causes people to think more negatively, causes them to have many more somber/sad moments. When something triggers your depression, it's like you can't do anything else at all besides think about it. When you're hit by your depression, sometimes you just sit in bed. Sometimes you want to do something, like write your novel, but you can't. You can't get up. You can't get out of bed. You're paralyzed, unable to go do the things you love. You lose interest in fun, in life, in games, in friends and family. Everything becomes a chore. You might want to do something, but you just don't. It's like you have no control whatsoever. Life loses its lights. Depression chokes the life out of you.
Depression is something that will stick with you for the rest of your life (if you have it, obviously), but it doesn't have to control your life. There are ways of fighting it and there are ways of helping other people fight it. One thing you can do is recognize your triggers that set you off. For me, one thing that triggers my depression is thinking of a friend that's leaving on a mission. She's my best friend and it's just gonna be really difficult not having her around because she's important to me. But one thing I've done is prepare a few countermeasures for when my depression gets triggered. For example, with that loneliness I feel in regards to my friend leaving, I pull up a few pictures we have with each other and that helps a lot. It makes me happy. Or I'll just call her or someone else I love. Usually someone that I enjoy listening to and can make me laugh. That's one of the secrets to fighting depression: you have to find something you love and do it. If it's something that makes you laugh, great. If it's something that gets you to stand up, AWESOME! But it needs to be something small that can get you moving. I've been experiencing this recently and it's been helping me to feel great. I woke up this morning about as happy as I've ever been and I just have more energy.
I always thought that I was deficient because I couldn't get myself to do something. I thought I was less than everyone else, that it was somehow my fault. But now I understand that that's not exactly the case. I don't have an excuse for being lazy. I should still work hard and do my best, but it's going to be in a different way than other people because I have depression. My circumstances are different and I have to approach things differently. Sometimes it takes not telling myself to do it, but rather it takes me telling myself to do something really small and then I'll get there. Baby steps.
More than anything though, these people with depression need your help. Help them to get up. Help them to go outside. Try to understand their depression. Try to understand how they feel inside. Depression is not an easy thing, and you are going to have to approach things differently with depressed people. Go easy on them, but also help them to get up and go. Do your best.
And if you're depressed, understand that there's a way to get up. There's hope out there. You are not going to be the same forever. You will not be a failure forever. Remember that failure is not the opposite of success, but simply part of the path towards it. Good luck. And if you need anything, feel free to contact me.
-JJ, the Lunatic of Summer
The problem here is that depression has two meanings in our society. One of them is a fleeting feeling of sadness and one of them is a mental illness. I think most of us are familiar with the former meaning, but how many of us actually understand the latter? The illness, that is. Personally, I was diagnosed with depression nearly fifteen years ago, and I'm just starting to understand it for myself. Now, I want you all to understand that the point of this post isn't to elicit sympathy. I don't want your sympathy. But, rather, I want people to understand what depression is and what it does so that they can help people deal with their depression.
There are times when I really struggle to understand exactly what depression is. I've been told since I was a child that it's a "chemical imbalance in the brain" but I'd never really understood what that means. However, I'm starting to recognize the effects of it more these days. Depression is an extremely debilitating thing. It affects how you think in almost every situation. For some reason, it causes people to think more negatively, causes them to have many more somber/sad moments. When something triggers your depression, it's like you can't do anything else at all besides think about it. When you're hit by your depression, sometimes you just sit in bed. Sometimes you want to do something, like write your novel, but you can't. You can't get up. You can't get out of bed. You're paralyzed, unable to go do the things you love. You lose interest in fun, in life, in games, in friends and family. Everything becomes a chore. You might want to do something, but you just don't. It's like you have no control whatsoever. Life loses its lights. Depression chokes the life out of you.
Depression is something that will stick with you for the rest of your life (if you have it, obviously), but it doesn't have to control your life. There are ways of fighting it and there are ways of helping other people fight it. One thing you can do is recognize your triggers that set you off. For me, one thing that triggers my depression is thinking of a friend that's leaving on a mission. She's my best friend and it's just gonna be really difficult not having her around because she's important to me. But one thing I've done is prepare a few countermeasures for when my depression gets triggered. For example, with that loneliness I feel in regards to my friend leaving, I pull up a few pictures we have with each other and that helps a lot. It makes me happy. Or I'll just call her or someone else I love. Usually someone that I enjoy listening to and can make me laugh. That's one of the secrets to fighting depression: you have to find something you love and do it. If it's something that makes you laugh, great. If it's something that gets you to stand up, AWESOME! But it needs to be something small that can get you moving. I've been experiencing this recently and it's been helping me to feel great. I woke up this morning about as happy as I've ever been and I just have more energy.
I always thought that I was deficient because I couldn't get myself to do something. I thought I was less than everyone else, that it was somehow my fault. But now I understand that that's not exactly the case. I don't have an excuse for being lazy. I should still work hard and do my best, but it's going to be in a different way than other people because I have depression. My circumstances are different and I have to approach things differently. Sometimes it takes not telling myself to do it, but rather it takes me telling myself to do something really small and then I'll get there. Baby steps.
More than anything though, these people with depression need your help. Help them to get up. Help them to go outside. Try to understand their depression. Try to understand how they feel inside. Depression is not an easy thing, and you are going to have to approach things differently with depressed people. Go easy on them, but also help them to get up and go. Do your best.
And if you're depressed, understand that there's a way to get up. There's hope out there. You are not going to be the same forever. You will not be a failure forever. Remember that failure is not the opposite of success, but simply part of the path towards it. Good luck. And if you need anything, feel free to contact me.
-JJ, the Lunatic of Summer
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