Understanding Depression and Clearing up some Confusion Over It

While browsing Twitter this morning like I always do I came across a tweet that said “Depression isn’t a mental illness, it’s just hopelessness from the hardships of life” and it reminded me just how badly some people misunderstand what depression really is. sure there is situational depression, the bad things in our lives will of course bring us down but if those bad things end so does the situational depression, that’s not the case with clinical depression.

Caused by a chemical imbalance in our brains clinical depression can wreak havoc on anyone’s lives no matter how well that life might be going. often the people in your life can take it personally and feel like if they made you happy and you loved them then you wouldn’t be depressed and not only is that an incorrect way of thinking about it but blaming someone and guilting them for being depressed will just make it way worse for them.

when it comes to mental illness the most harmful thing you can do is make assumptions without educating yourself about it first, If depression was just about how bad or good your life was going do you think we’d see so many celebrities commit suicide? There is a certain kind of low self esteem that comes along with mental illness and that comes primarily from knowing how a lot of people judge you and view you differently once they know you’re mentally ill.

I was diagnosed with Bipolar 1 disorder 25 years or so ago and can attest to the fact that the worst part about it has been the people I care about misunderstanding my illness and abandoning me because they took it personally, there is nothing more important than the people in our lives understanding what we’re going through. So please next time before you judge , stop and think to yourself that this person can’t help it anymore than a cancer patient can help feeling sick from Chemo

There is a great book on depression – The No-Bullshit Guide to Depression https://amzn.to/2Nb99Wb

Depression and Anxiety have been a part of my life for nearly three decades now and I have been put on so many depression medications I’ve lost track at this point. You see mental health and depression memes a lot online and I can keep a good sense of humor about them but still wish more people had more empathy and sympathy for those of us who have a depression background and although this is not a depression blog or mental health blog I will periodically be posting about this subject as it is near and dear to my heart so be sure to follow me for future postings.

Please note I may receive commissions when you click through links and make purchases