How long will this subject remain in the shadows? How long will it have such a stigma attached to it that people dare not even use the word ‘Depression’?
Life has no value to depression. EVERY DAY 121 Americans commit suicide. 50% of those people suffered from depression.
More than 38,000 people a year commit suicide. Yet 80 to 90% of those that seek help for depression are helped using therapy and/or drugs.
The problem with that, is the fact that only about 50% of those that suffer from depression seek help. Why? Because it’s a dirty little secret that no one wants to talk about!
Kurt Cobain, Robbin Williams, Mindy McCready, director of the movie Top Gun Tony Scott, linebacker for the Kansas City Chiefs; Jovan Belcher, actress Lucy Gordon and Jonathan Brandis-star of The Never Ending Story. These are all people that committed suicide. I could easily fill a page with names.
Depression is sneaky and deceptive. It creeps into your life in such subtle ways, you don’t even know it’s happening until one day, you look around yourself and your entire word has gone grey. What I mean by grey, is that your world no longer has any color to it. It has no life. NOTHING matters any more. NOTHING brings you joy. Depression has stolen that from you.
(this is one of those things that No One wants to talk about or admit to) I am one of the lucky ones. I’ve struggled with depression off and on for most of my life. I never attempted suicide, but I did think about it at times.
Right now, I’m good. Hell, I’m great! Life is wonderful, alive and quite rich for me. But I never know if or when it may come into my life again. I hope never. But I can’t be certain of that.
WEB MD says that some of the signs of depression are:
- Fatigue or loss of energy almost every day
- Feelings of worthlessness or guilt almost every day
- Impaired concentration, indecisiveness
- Insomnia or hypersomnia (excessive sleeping) almost every day
- Markedly diminished interest or pleasure in almost all activities nearly every day (called anhedonia, this symptom can be indicated by reports from significant others)
- Restlessness or feeling slowed down
- Recurring thoughts of death or suicide
- Significant weight loss or gain (a change of more than 5% of body weight in a month)
If you know of someone that might be depressed, reach out to them. Start a conversation. Let them know that it’s alright to talk about it! Let’s bring depression out of the shadows and into the light. This is the only way people are going to feel safe enough to talk about it and seek help.
* I found my information/statistics at various websites. Here are a few that have wonderful articles on depression and how to seek help:
Copyright (C) 2018 Penny Wilson
Please be sure to check out my Mental Health Help Page for more helpful resources.
*I know that this is a repeat of an older post, but I felt that it was worth repeating. <3
