DEPRESSION IS REAL

I found this article in a blog I subscribe to.
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Depression, like all mental illness, comes in many shapes and sizes. It can take years or just days to diagnose your mental illness based solely on the symptoms that you show. For many people, the suffering they have felt is all too real. Whether it be the emptiness and lows of depression, the peaks, and valleys of Bipolar, the fear, and terror behind PTSD, or even the stress and pressure of Anxiety; the pain we all feel differs between each of us. This, of course, does not make it any less real than those yet to be diagnosed.

Every so often I see the same gif on the internet of a forest and a bottle of pills. If you’ve seen it, you probably know which one it is that I am talking about. The top portion of the woods shows the words, “This is an Antidepressant,” which for some people it is, and I do not discount that fact. The bottom half though, shows a bottle of pills falling over with the words “This is a lifelong addiction.” That really, every single time I see it, just makes me lose my head for a minute. I want to grab whoever made that and scream at them, knowing full well that it won’t solve a single thing. A similar image that surfaces every once in a while is the one below:

Similar to the gif, this image discounts the use of medication as a treatment method, in preference of nature. Like I said, nature is great and all, but it won’t help me to not kill myself!

I love being outside, camping, living off the land, its great; and it does help alleviate some stress and sadness. Yet, it’s not a long-term thing, it will not help me every single day for the rest of my life; whereas, the medication will do just that. Sure, I agree that it will technically be a lifelong addiction, but it will keep me alive. That’s like telling someone with diabetes that they’re just addicted to taking insulin. See the craziness here?

Depression is real, so is Anxiety, PTSD, Bipolar 1&2, BPD and a whole bunch of other mental illnesses. So please, do not discourage taking medication that will save our lives. Please do not tell us to cheer up because other people have it worse. Please do not stigmatize the discussion of mental health. Please just listen, and let us live our lives the best way we can.

Yours,
Wolfgang

About Patrick Day

In 2010, I escaped from four long years of deep, dark depression. This blog shares lessons I learned from those years as depicted in my autobiography - How I Escaped from Depression - as well as other insights about depression and anxiety that only come from someone who has gone through it. When you have a heart attack, you become an expert in heart attacks. When you have diabetes, you become an expert in that condition. As such, I am an expert in depression, with a four-year experiential degree and graduate studies in how to live a life going forward that keeps the ever-lurking Depression at a healthy distance.

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