Depression

If someone were to ask you to describe the colors you see when you look at a variegated rose, would you be able to do it justice? Or if someone wanted to know what the burger you’re eating tastes like, could you convey the sensations, textures, and flavors in a way they’d get? In both cases, you could do a fair job of communicating what you’re experiencing, but it’s fairly difficult to express certain experiences such as depression through words. This is one of the difficulties that a person going through depression experiences. It can be difficult to make sense of what is happening to you when you’re going through it, much less to describe your experience to others. However, understanding the experience of a loved one who is struggling with depression is key to supporting them. Understanding and describing depression When a loved one has depression, they are struggling with a mood disorder that affects how they feel, think, and act. Various possible forces interact to bring on depression, and these include genetic vulnerability, flawed mood regulation by the brain, and experiencing stressful life events such as bereavement, job loss, or the failure of a significant relationship. It affects a person’s ability to perform day-to-day tasks. It can be difficult to describe what depression feels like. From the outside looking in, some of the ways to discern depression include: Seeing a loved one's sleeping patterns affected, with them sleeping too little or too much. Changes in appetite such as eating way more or less than usual. Frequent fatigue. Expressing feelings of guilt, hopelessness, and worthlessness. Expressing suicidal thoughts and attempting suicide. The person experiencing depression might describe their experience of depression in this way, but there are other ways they may do so. Each person’s symptoms of depression [...]

There are many misnomers around depression. One is that it is just sadness. Another is that it is rooted in a negative experience – a break-up, job loss, or something else. People think you can power your way through depression or just look on the bright side and things will be better. But as anyone who lives with this pervasive disease can tell you, none of those above statements are true. There is such as thing as functioning depression. Depression is not just a sad day. It is not being down because the weather is bad, or it was a hard day at work. It is not feeling glum because your team isn’t doing well or missing your youngest who just went off to college. This can be sadness, grief, or disappointment. It lasts for a day or two and then you can function normally and not be consumed by whatever got you down. Depression is more than sadness or disappointment. It is, at its core, a feeling of emptiness. It’s a lack of motivation. It can even lead to a sense of hopelessness and an inclination that all we are is a burden. Anyone can get hit with a season of depression. Normally these last anywhere from six to eight months and can be treated with medication, therapy, exercise, and other healthy activities. But what if despondency lingers? What if seasons come and go, winter fades to summer and back again, and the lack of motivation, inability to concentrate, low self-esteem, and loss of interest in what you used to love - lingers? What if even after medication, trying to exercise, eating better, and going to counseling, each day still feels like a grind you are trying to survive with your brain in concrete? What if doing what [...]