“You wake up every morning to fight the same demons that left you so tired the night before, and that, my love, is bravery.”
Depression is much different than just being sad. Sadness is one of the many human emotions we experience in our lifetime. Feeling sad is a natural reaction to situations that cause emotional pain we tend to feel sad about our daily life events and in certain circumstances. And like all other emotions, sadness too naturally fades away, usually once we overcome what has been upsetting us. Simply put, sadness is NORMAL. Depression is not. Those fighting depression tend to experience a persistently low mood that they can’t seem to escape. It affects not just their emotions but their thoughts, perceptions, and behaviours as well making everything less enjoyable, less interesting, less important, less lovable, and less worthwhile. In its most severe form, depression may even lead to suicide.
This often happens because individuals feel powerless and are unable to express what they are going through. They believe that they have no other option left and that life has nothing more to offer. In fact, I have seen too many people who go through life feeling this way, not only as a psychologist but even at a personal level. I have seen friends and family suffer silently and go through it alone without seeking help or comfort even from their loved ones.
Although a lot of stressful and traumatic situations do act as triggers that lead to depression, most of the time depression takes hold of you silently without any evident distress in life. One of the main factors that may be a cause of depression may be some sort of imbalance in the brain’s chemicals, the neurotransmitters. A lot of times, even changes and imbalances in the body’s hormone levels may lead to depression. Similarly, heredity also plays a vital role as it has been found that people with a history of depression in the family are more likely to develop it.
The fact that people believe there’s nothing or no one that can help them get out of this deep pit they seem to be stuck in is the reason that awareness about depression is much needed. Depression, like most mental illnesses, is treatable and it is necessary to make everyone aware of this problem and how it can be tackled effectively. A lot of antidepressant medications have been specially designed for treating depression. Although these medications take some time to start working, they are used to treat depression by balancing the brain’s neurotransmitters. Counselling is also a very powerful tool in winning the fight against depression. It provides a safe space to talk about everything you’re feeling without the fear of being judged or misunderstood. It helps you focus on just yourself and deal with your feelings. A combination of medications and counselling is the best and most widely used solution to overcoming depression.