Depression Awareness Week

This week has been Depression Awareness Week and I wanted to do a post focused more on trying to help others understand depression a little bit more.  Depression is something that is really hard to go through, and it's also really hard to understand unless you (or someone close to you) have gone through it yourself.  Because of this, I never expect people to FULLY understand what it is like to experience depression.  Heck, I don't even want anyone else to have to know what this feels like.  But society as a whole treats depression with a stigma and judgement and a complete lack of information, and it's time to change that.

There is this idea that because people can't necessarily "see" the depression, that it doesn't exist.  Because it's not physical, they think we're making it up.  Let me assure you, depression is NOT something that someone can just "snap out of it."  Do you really think we like feeling the way we do?  If something as easy as "snapping out of it" would fix things, don't you think we would have done so already?!?!  I've spent a lot of time trying to find ways to help explain to people why the comments they make are hurtful, judgmental, and most of all, ignorant.

For example-  Telling someone not to be depressed because someone always has it worse, is like saying someone can't be happy because someone always has it better.  It just sounds stupid, doesn't it?  Would you ever tell someone they were to blame for cancer, or a tumor?  So why blame someone because they have depression?  Asking someone how they can be depressed when there's so much great things in the world, is like asking someone how can they have asthma when there's so much air around them.  Do you realize how ignorant these things sound?

Depression causes a lot of struggles that I have to face every single day.  Struggles that not every one sees.  Like when I'm so depressed I can't get out of bed.  It's not that I don't want to get out of bed, or I'm not trying hard enough, it's that the depression is so heavy and the thought of having to do anything is so completely overwhelming, that it completely paralyzes me.  I lie in bed sobbing for hours.  Or how I can feel so incredibly lonely, even when I'm around people.  I'm so afraid of failure that it often keeps me from even trying.  I've lost so many friends because they couldn't handle my depression, or just from the stigma that was attached to it.  Sometimes it feels impossible just to take another step, or another breath.  It feels like I'm trying to breathe under water with a thousand tons of bricks on my chest.  My mind is completely engulfed in this unbearable darkness and I'm so afraid of it.  When I'm suicidal, I have to spend 100% of my energy on fighting those thoughts and trying to keep myself safe that I don't have energy left to worry about trying to eat, shower or brush my teeth.  It feels like I'm in this deep dark pit, drowning, with no way out, no light, and no one else around.  There are times when I can't bear to be around anyone and so I lock myself in my bedroom alone and just cry for hours because it's all I can manage to do.  There doesn't need to be a "reason" to be depressed- it's just there.  It's like a constant dark cloud that fills up every nook and cranny in your mind and the rest of your body until it controls you and shuts you down.

There were some comics I posted several posts ago about just how depression can affect someone.  The artist is Nick Seluk and I had his permission to post them.  I think these pictures do a good job of explaining how depression can feel so I'm going to post them again.

There is currently a campaign on the social media sites for this week #whatyoudontsee.  If you have some time, please take a look at some of the posts people are writing.  They will give you a very real look into the struggles people face every day.  Like this one-

PLEASE take it seriously when someone says they have depression.  Please don't brush it off or tell them it's their fault or that they're just not trying hard enough.  Encourage them to get help if they aren't already.  I'm incredibly grateful to have such an amazing therapy now.  Don't get my wrong, I liked my old therapist, but after awhile, it just felt like I wasn't getting what I needed.  I'm so glad I switched therapists and found someone new.  She helps me set goals, she gives me assignments to work on throughout the week; she's compassionate and genuinely seems to care.  She encourages me to give her a call throughout the week if I'm having a hard time.  She has helped me make some very real progress for the first time.