Quote:
Originally Posted by kane
I agree. My mom has depression pretty badly. She is about to turn 70 and she only really started getting good treatment for it about 6-7 years ago. When she was diagnosed the doctor told her she had probably been suffering it her entire life, but she didn't know it. She had some pretty horrible things happen to her when she was a child and only recently has come to realize that they aren't her fault. That has helped her a lot, but she still has a lot of bad days. She is on medicine now and after finding the right one she is doing a lot better.
She is one of the strongest people I have ever known. My parents divorced when I was 5 and she raised my brother and myself on her own by working two jobs and busting her ass. It was pretty intense when she told me recently that for most of my life she had thought seriously about killing herself, but didn't because she didn't want to leave me and my brother alone.
She had told me time and again that she is so thankful that she didn't pass the depression on to me.
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Since I have had treatment, I have gone back over my life and recognized that my mother has had depression issues all her life too. Luckily, as I was noticing it so were her doctors and she has also had treatment. There is a genetic element to it so do watch yourself.
I am hardly the worst case and once I actually dealt with it properly I can now usually control it naturally and just look out for triggers. I never reached the suicidal level and don't think that I could but I did get very paralysed by fear and anxiety which more or less kept me from living for a year. I am by no means over it and have to fight anxiety a lot but, like I said, I try to avoid triggers and then I am okay.
It took me SO long to go get help because I was afraid of the stigma and the 'depression isn't real....man up!' talk. Then, I finally couldn't take the inside of my own brain any longer (I did hide it well from other people though) and went to see my doctor. Her first response was, 'Sarah, I suffer from depression too' and she talked me through how you can be a 'normal' person and have such issues. In other words, killed the stigma for me.
The fact is that 1 out of 4 people have some sort of mental health issue. Obviously, these are in varying degrees. It is just that people don't walk about it. Perhaps now we are just talking about it more.
Do I think some people hype up their issues? Sure. Do I think that some people throw around terms like 'I am depressed' and don't actually understand what a real depression is until it hits them? Certainly. Do I think drug companies are too eager to have people popping pills for every shaky moment in life? Totally but there are times when people really need drugs to help and then the stigma often stops them using them.