“Depression is not a choice, you have to live with it or sometimes just surrender”.
These are the words of a person who wanted to commit suicide because she felt that she had no choice.
Most of you will lay this piece of writing aside as soon as you would have read the word depression. And why won’t this thing come into the picture because you are forbidden to talk about it and are hardwired to treat it as something which deals with people who are attention seekers and grab sympathy of the people around? We often stigmatise this ailment and assess that the person who goes through it is not fit for the society and needs to go to a mental asylum. We boycott that fellow and consider it as a mismatch for the group leading him into more isolation. In spite of helping that fella to cope up with it, we leave him into seclusion than never before. This way the patient never shares what and how he is feeling even with their intimate friends because somewhere in the corner of their hearts, they have a fear that he might lose them and they may distance themselves from him. The depressed person has to deal with the problems on his own which could be so hazardous for his mental temperament that it might even lead to death. You might even wonder how is it even a social issue of the society but now putting all cards on the table, depression is often regarded as the “common cold” of mental fatigue. It has also been a social issue throughout history. But the real case is that the number of depressed people in the world is growing at a higher rate and the suicides due to depression are also increasing with every passing year.
Depression is so hard to be perceived when you have a picture-perfect life but nobody hears the muffled cries behind those smiles. Depression is not always accompanied by sadness or feeling gloomy all the time. It is a feeling which makes you feel hollow even if you are full from outside. You may have a life that is lit as heaven but may feel so sad that sweets on the table may resemble a sugar-coated poison. It is a feeling that you are drowning in an ocean even if you are an expert in swimming. You know that there is a way out of everything but still chose to have darkness as your rescue. You may have people who care for you more than anything in the world but if you look through the eyes of a depressed person, there is nobody to talk to either here or there. It is quite easy to say why did you not believe in yourself and your hardships are not that big enough. But to get into the shoes of that person and then deal with it, takes great power. Giving a pep talk to someone else is an easy job but to convince yourself that everything will get better is a pipeline to a depressed spirit. Depression does not knock at the door and comes in when you give it permission to enter. Instead, it slams the door and hits you so hard that you feel that you can never get up. Blessed are those who did not experience depression at any point in their life and even if they did, they grew out of it and blossomed again. Depression is such an epidemic that people fail to recognize that a patient is one of their friends. It is when you want to scream, shout and cry at the top of your voice but all you can do and say is “I am fine”.
One of the most developed countries or rather the superpower of the world, U.S.A., is no exception when it comes to its citizen being affected by this illness. In fact, it lands in the top 3 nations that are the most depressed countries in the world. The survey conducted to examine the depressed patients shows that one in five adults suffer from one or the other form of mental illness but the sad story is that only 41% of them receive proper treatment and care. The rest 59% of them just go either misdiagnosed or simply undiagnosed. The major reason is that the majority of us consider depression as a taboo or a hush-hush topic that should never be discussed. We forget to understand that physical illness and mental illness should be given the same concern. We feel sad if the person has physical injuries but what if the person is broken from inside. In that state, he has simply nobody to talk to about how he is feeling as he has the fear of being judged by family or friends. Even if the person pushes the envelope, his peers denounce it and consider that the patient wants to grab attention. Depression is a feeling that unless you have felt it before, you can never know what it takes to isolate yourself from your loved ones and ultimately doing something heinous such as taking your own life. It is found that even for developed countries like Canada and The USA, the no of psychiatrists for every 100,000 people is less than 15 which is a significantly low number. In a scenario, where the doctors to patient ratio are so low, it is understandable for an illness to be left untreated.
Depression can affect a person of any age but the most vulnerable of all are teenagers. The reason can be numerous ranging from academic performances, peer pressure, societal pressure or hormonal changes in the body and finding a hard time to cope up with it. This may be regarded as something normal if a teenager has these issues but if these symptoms last for long then there is a real urge for psychological counselling or medical treatment because teen depression can’t be cured by willpower. Instead, it requires long term treatment. Sometimes, it gets really difficult to comprehend if the teen is sailing with its ups and downs like a normal teenager or is facing something serious as teen depression. This can be figured out if a behavioural shift is observed in teen. If he feels overwhelmed all the time and finds really difficult to adjust in the environment or has recurrent episodes of anxiety and restlessness then the teen should consult a medical practitioner or else he may face serious consequences and they might get so serious that it may result in death. The reason behind the teenager being depressed may be numerous and varies from one individual to other. We might believe that the cause boils down to hormonal activity but it’s not the case. Had it been just the hormonal activities held accountable for it, the rate of teenagers considering suicide may not have been skyrocketing. It’s the peer pressure, academic pressure or early childhood trauma that leads them to consider it.
But the sad part is that it is not just the teen part of an individual when the symptoms persist. These symptoms may be visible from as young as 12 years of age and can last until 25 years of age. Guess what? This age group is the youth of the world in whose hands are laid the future of tomorrow. Most of these individuals feel depressed, exhausted, worthless or culpable. With such frequent episodes, their interest in life and leisure activities get diminished. But this trend is more pronounced in the youth of this decade as compared to the last one which is attributed to the increased use of social interaction via a screen in this digital world. This lets them feeling lonelier and zoned out all the time. When there were times to meet and plan a certain thing in the playground, there are times to plan and meet ’bout something on the WhatsApp groups. The times to “let’s have a slumber party tonight” have been reduced to “let’s have a group video call tonight”. The youth is connected to each other via every means but deep down they struggle to find which one is the best method to reach for help when they are aloof. They have a group of twenty cool kids, with watches that are expensive, to hang out with but they have nobody to talk to when having a bad day. We look at everything in a superficial way and often ignore the things in a spiritual way. A girl may have parents that care for her a lot, two sisters with whom she can share her thoughts, a boyfriend that loves her the most but still, she may feel depressed.
Depression does not come to you respective of your gender, it may hit you anytime but the female gender is considered more prone to depression than men. A woman of today has many roles to play. Whether it be the mother or a daughter, employee or the employer, she has a lot on her plate as the clock strikes five in the morning. It usually becomes kinda hectic for her to outperform in all the tasks and nail to the best to please all the individuals around her for whom she really cares. Amidst all this, she can go through a lot of ups and downs, she may have mood swings owing to the menstrual cycle or a little tiff with a buddy. Most of the woman are very sensitive and have a habit to take things personally. This leads to extreme mood swings in them which results in depression. The opposite is the case with men who have a habit to blame others for anything undone. Owing to this fact, it had been observed that women are more likely to suffer from depression than men. Woman go through different kinds of depression than men do. The most common of all is a premenstrual dysphoric disorder when the woman experiences mood swings prior to and during her menstrual cycle and some may even experience anxiety in a regular fashion. Postpartum depression is the one when the mother experiences depression after her pregnancy and in some cases my experience during the pregnancy itself. This might have an adverse effect on the child as well that may accordingly result in the genetic makeup of the child for the whole life. The soul purpose to keep the mother happy and healthy during pregnancy is to have a baby who is healthy not only in physique but also when it comes to having a faster neural activity.
The most common causes of depression in a woman are the issues dealing with pregnancy and menstrual cycles which often stem from rapid fluctuations in reproductive hormones. There are also psychological causes visible in a woman resulting in depression. Since a woman is more emotional than men, they tend to live in a depressed state longer than a man does. It is not just the hardwired behavioural pattern of a woman to be blamed for but it is the progesterone levels that do not prevent the stress hormone rush getting her more vulnerable to develop negative body images and stress-induced depression.
As said before whether it be any group or gender, the depression goes undiagnosed most of the time and the female category is no new to it. But when it comes to curing women suffering from depression, therapy and medication serve to be the most sought after treatment. The latter may have certain side effects in a few individuals so it is advisable to monitor the symptoms as antidepressants may do more harm than good. Their increased usage may result in further suicidal tendencies and irritability often accompanied by sleep disturbances and sexual problems. So, therapy proves to be the most preferable method in the treatment of depression. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is one kind of talk therapy that helps the woman to navigate between her thought patterns and identify the ways to improve her habits leading to depression.
Depression may manifest in an individual and take a toll on a multitude of methods. But the story does not end here and the worst comes when the person is so helpless that it leads them into taking their own lives. As suggested by recent WHO studies, approximately one million people around the globe die every year that accounts for one death every forty seconds. Just imagine that by the time you have read this sentence, a person had already committed suicide. Suicide is in the top 10 reasons for death around the globe with 60% of the deaths due to suicides in Asia itself. It is indeed put on the maps that China and India will top the list for suicides in Asia as they are the most depressed countries in the world that are responsible for 40% of the Asian deaths due to suicide. The suicide rate has risen by 60% in the industrialised nations in the last five decades which proves that with the more competition, comes more loneliness which brings a lot of self-loathing eventually leading to death if not treated with proper therapies or medication. The suicide death ratio in men to women is more as men commit suicide more than women. Though it is women who do many suicidal attempts, the successful attempts are more pronounced in men. Men tend to have more violent ways to end their lives and usually don’t discuss their problems with anyone considering it as a sign of weakness. But it is the other way round in women who is more expressive in terms of sharing their feelings and has higher chances of getting diagnosed than a man would have.
Measures to treat an individual may be abundant but the crux lies in identifying if the patient is suffering from mental health illness. The only advisable thing is to talk to a person who really cares for you and loves you for who you are. The depressed folks are often surrounded by people who genuinely care for them but they are blind enough to see their love and act like a paranoid. The first aid in these cases is to reach out to an intimate friend who might prevent the recurrent episodes of depression and then consult a therapist for the same who may provide a complete full stop to chaos in life. Clinical Depression can be cured with proper prescription and therapies. It is not a virus that is contagion and may deteriorate the health of the people who are around the patient. Instead, it can be doctored even with the help of fellas around the sufferer. The only urge is to stop stigmatizing depression and treat going to a therapist in case of mental illness in the same way as we go to a doctor when we catch a cold.
This article is authored by Manika Sharma, student of Bachelor in Technology at KIIT University.
Also Read – The Constitution Of India On Right To Health
