Talking Openly About Depression

I’m finding that I’m bumping into more and more people who have, or have had, Depression. The more I talk about it, the more people are owning up to having experienced serious challenges in the past, of trying to live happily. When I review the professional research, its an epidemic in our society - mostly undiscussed between friends and family.

Hence this blog - what am I in favour of? - people talking openly about depression.

I have friends on medication, people in sporting teams having big ups and big downs, I’ve recently learned about family having experienced it.

And its not just the occasional sad day or pessimism.

So what is Depression?
It can be complex to describe, so let me oversimplify it for my purpose here. It can include feeling extremely low for at least two weeks, where you lose interest in the things you used to enjoy, and potentially suffer other symptoms like not being able to sleep, or eat, losing weight, and feeling worthless. Your memory may suffer, or decisions become crazily hard to make, a focus on the negatives, lack of exercise or willingness to engage with others.
One of the frustrating aspects of this is that people “know” they have many positives, but they just don’t seem to matter. They can see the faults in thinking, but feel helpless anyway.
And this can make things worse - “I’m no good - which I know is wrong - but I still feel no good - so I must be really, really no good”.

How do we fix this? Some people have no ability to help themselves, and don’t try. Others try too hard and fail, and fail, and fail. In these latter cases, our job is to demotivate them. They can be too ambitious. It can be hard for the depressed people to accept this, but the ability to manage themselves has gone (temporarily), and they need to accept baby-sized goals to get themselves going again, and to be patient.

As a way of finishing this quick review, and this blog of support for talking openly about depression, one summary point is that people aren’t so afraid of depression itself, it is lifelong depression that scares them.
If I offer you a pill that will give you depression for a day, after which you will be cured of depression…., would you take it?
Most people say yes.
Depression itself is ok, its permanent depression - the lack of control that messes with us.

So if you know someone with depression, support them. Go to beyondblue. If you have any questions, if you think you might be depressed and want to check it out, add a comment here and I will answer you.