Summarized from years of experience, counseling and reading about depression. Hope it can help someone.
- To admit “I had depression” still needs courage in our society but it’s even much much harder to say “I am suffering depression now, help me!”
- Depression is not feeling sad, but feeling numb and lack of motivation and strength to do the simplest things in everyday life. Even breathing is a big effort.
- It’s very difficult to detect early phase of depression from outside, because depressed people usually try to behave normal. They fake reactions as what they should be, not as what they really feel.
- Depression usually goes with anxiety. Being unable to take the responsibilities in work and life makes them anxious, feeling guilty to others. And anxiety to an unbearable level can deprive the strength further, which makes all these a vicious cycle.
- Depression is a desease, both psychological and physical. It can be useless or even counteractive trying to deal with it all by yourself or only with the help of the untrained people. Medication is not always necessary, but you need at least a trained therapist to assess and deal with it.
- Depression is the “cancer” in mentality. Sometimes it’s difficult to distinguish it from normal mood swings just like it’s difficult to distinguish some cancer from benign tumors. They both have complicated causes yet to be understood. Both causes other complications. For them, “curation” is not a guarantee because they both tend to relapse.
- Relapse of depression is somehow unpredictable because it often does not happen at the most difficult situation, but at the point when things seem to turn out better. Each relapse tends to be worse because of the accumulated frustration and hopelessness. The good news is people who have experience with former depression can usually recognize it and make it treated earlier.
- What’s worse about depression is that it attacks one’s “will power” directly, just like destroying the immune system of mentality. “Fighting depression” is unlike fighting any other deseases because there’s no strength left in the mind for “fighting” when you are in major depression.
- Those people with depression end up with suicide not because (although they may have some of these thoughts) they think “This world is hopeless”, “Life is unbearable”, “No one loves me”, “I’ve lost everything” or all the thoughts that make an ordinary person sad, instead, it’s the thought of self-hatred, valuelessness, guilt and “there’s no other way out” that kills them. In this case, death is a seductive outlet for a complete relaxation.
- In the worst situation, one may lie in the bed for the whole day with pure suicidal thoughts in the head. But it’s not the most dangerous moment because even suicide is too complicated a thing to do. When one gets a little more strength to move around and do things, that’s when those around should watch most closely because then he/she has the strength to kill himself/herself.
- Depression can cause much physical and emotional burden to the family and friends around. All those who support their depressed family member or friend are great people. Give them a bow!