I’m writing this now coming out of a major depressive episode. I’m not looking for sympathy, pity nor am I trying to guilt-trip. I only hope to provide some insight, raise awareness and hopefully change your personal perspective about depression.
Depression affects 1 in 5 people at some stage in their life and causes around 7 suicides every single day in Australia alone. Depression is different to the ‘blues’ that everyone experiences. It’s crucial to understand that it isn’t just a collection of feelings, it becomes a person’s reality. It’s not someone being too emotional or seeking attention nor does it reflect a person’s real personality. It’s not a mood, a bad habit or a phase that will pass. I can’t emphasize enough that during depression …show more content…
Some regions of the brain become smaller and dormant while others become over-stimulated. The cells and networks in the brain literally deteriorate the longer a person has depression. The most notable changes are the shrinking of the Frontal Cortex (responsible for planning, judgement and emotion), Basal Ganglia (responsible for movement) and the Hippocampus (responsible for memory and emotion). It’s also believed that these changes are a response to the increased level of Cortisol which is released from the adrenal gland (which just-so-happens to grow in sufferers of depression). As a whole, the brain of a person with depression functions differently than that of a healthy person. Unlike other illnesses of the body, you can’t see the damage it’s doing, thus making it impossible for someone who hasn’t experienced it to completely understand it. Thankfully, all of these changes are reversed as a person recovers from …show more content…
Depression drains all of the joy out of life and leaves you with only pure pain and misery. What was challenging becomes overwhelming; what was sad is now unbearable and what was joyous is pleasureless. Every step literally feels like you’re walking through quicksand and you have to force every breath and gag on every mouthful you force yourself to eat. You lose yourself and your personality becomes overshadowed by your depression. It’s as if there is another soul inside you who is doing its best to take over control. No matter what you do or say, there's always depression knocking on your shoulder saying you're not good enough, not worth it, useless.
I had the joy of dealing with social anxiety when I fell into depression, so I’ll reflect on that also. Having anxiety and depression at the same time is like being afraid and exhausted at the same time. It’s the fear of failure but no urge to be productive. It’s wanting friends but hating to socialise. It’s wanting to be lonely but not wanting to be alone. It’s having so much to say but being too afraid of rejection to speak. It’s caring too much about everything then caring about nothing at all. It’s feeling everything at once then feeling paralysing
Depression affects 1 in 5 people at some stage in their life and causes around 7 suicides every single day in Australia alone. Depression is different to the ‘blues’ that everyone experiences. It’s crucial to understand that it isn’t just a collection of feelings, it becomes a person’s reality. It’s not someone being too emotional or seeking attention nor does it reflect a person’s real personality. It’s not a mood, a bad habit or a phase that will pass. I can’t emphasize enough that during depression …show more content…
Some regions of the brain become smaller and dormant while others become over-stimulated. The cells and networks in the brain literally deteriorate the longer a person has depression. The most notable changes are the shrinking of the Frontal Cortex (responsible for planning, judgement and emotion), Basal Ganglia (responsible for movement) and the Hippocampus (responsible for memory and emotion). It’s also believed that these changes are a response to the increased level of Cortisol which is released from the adrenal gland (which just-so-happens to grow in sufferers of depression). As a whole, the brain of a person with depression functions differently than that of a healthy person. Unlike other illnesses of the body, you can’t see the damage it’s doing, thus making it impossible for someone who hasn’t experienced it to completely understand it. Thankfully, all of these changes are reversed as a person recovers from …show more content…
Depression drains all of the joy out of life and leaves you with only pure pain and misery. What was challenging becomes overwhelming; what was sad is now unbearable and what was joyous is pleasureless. Every step literally feels like you’re walking through quicksand and you have to force every breath and gag on every mouthful you force yourself to eat. You lose yourself and your personality becomes overshadowed by your depression. It’s as if there is another soul inside you who is doing its best to take over control. No matter what you do or say, there's always depression knocking on your shoulder saying you're not good enough, not worth it, useless.
I had the joy of dealing with social anxiety when I fell into depression, so I’ll reflect on that also. Having anxiety and depression at the same time is like being afraid and exhausted at the same time. It’s the fear of failure but no urge to be productive. It’s wanting friends but hating to socialise. It’s wanting to be lonely but not wanting to be alone. It’s having so much to say but being too afraid of rejection to speak. It’s caring too much about everything then caring about nothing at all. It’s feeling everything at once then feeling paralysing