Living With Depression
Occasional feeling of sadness is a natural part of being human. But when these emotions turn into long-lasting feelings of despair with no moments of happiness, the situation could be upsetting.
Depression is one such mental illness where you can experience strange emotional disturbances. It changes the way you think, feel and act. Depression becomes mental health issue when it starts to interfere with your daily life in a major way.
Experiencing weird feelings
It all starts with feeling sad or down for a long period of time. You just want to cuddle yourself and cry for no reason. You are unable to enjoy the company of amazing people in your life. The feeling of sadness constantly pulls you nowhere.
At the back of your mind, you are alone and withdrawn yourself in the loneliness. This is followed by periods when there is feeling of nothing, a shear numbness. You just don’t care about anything. Whether it’s your study, office work or hobby, you don’t enjoy them anymore. You miss important work and spent long hours alone.
You kept your emotions under a wrap that further make you irritable and restless. You are churning with fear and anguish, but still you showed no signs of reaction to anything. You are full of insecurities. You lack vision for future. You feel aimless and directionless. You start to lose hope to the face of future.
Your energy gets sapped, and you feel exhausted all the time. Performing daily tasks like brushing teeth or dressing up may become monumental for you. Night seems long and getting out of bed seems like a struggle. It seems like an invisible chain keeps you in the bed. Being a couch-bound, often napping, becomes your personality. Depression tries to make you believe on invisible voices.
The weeks of painful feelings would never let you up. The depression tells you that your life is worthlessness with no hopes. You start to question about your existence. When there is no answer, you think that world will be better without you.
Thus, the weird feelings of sadness, pessimism, anxiety and suicidal thoughts make your life miserable. Depression hits you in pretty awful ways, and you have no idea what it is. You just feel helpless in the face of a tsunami of emotions. And somewhere happiness runs away from you.
Misunderstanding by people
The worst part with depression is when nobody understands you. For most of the people, your symptoms are due to down part of your life. Getting advice like ‘stay strong’ or ‘this shall too pass’ are very common. Even though your family members understand that something is wrong with you, still they are reluctant to seek professional help due to associated stigma.
Also Check : Mental Disorder : An Invisible Illness
Caregiving burden
For your caregiver, dealing with your symptoms is indeed an everyday battle. They too experience emotional distress and practical difficulties. Sometimes caregivers become a victim of significant life changes such as disturbance in own relationship. When nothing works, caregivers themselves get to suffer from stress, worry, anxiety, sadness, guilt, shame or feeling as ‘being a failure’. Your caregiver may opt to leave you because at some point it really becomes a lot for them.
Treatment barriers
There are constellations of barriers that prevent you from an effective use of depression treatment. The foremost barrier is the stigma of depression that delay seeking professional help.
Societal stigma and discrimination may lead to concealment of symptoms and lower help seeking behavior. The second crucial barrier is the cost of healthcare service.
Not surprisingly, financial barrier cause delay in seeking medical care even you are symptomatic for many years. The third barrier is the treatment compliance. As most of the anti-depressant medications are associated with intolerable side effects, you may refuse to continue with your medication for long run.
Undoubtedly, living with depression is challenging. Depression is a medical illness and it’s very real. It can happen to anyone at any time in life. There could be a variety of reasons for depression, and it is not something that goes away naturally. Getting professional help early can promote good recovery.
It takes a lot of effort to pull someone out of depression. But that doesn’t mean we should walk away from someone with depression. Constantly extending a helping hand, especially by immediate family members is immensely necessary. It is a time for family not to be discouraged by the situation. They can surely hold your hands and take you through difficulties you face right now.
As a someone living with depression, you have been on a life-long quest to take care of yourself. Remember, depression is not a personal weakness. A series of small choices in everyday life is effective enough to create a big positive change.
Structuring your day with enough attention on exercise, nutritious foods, restful sleep and hydration will take care of your physical and mental health. Paying close attention to your feelings and challenging your negative thoughts will take care of your emotional well-being.
Practice of gratitude, kindness and forgiveness will help to cultivate optimistic attitude towards your life. Independent of the situation, get connected with your friends and family. We all are social animal. We need to connect with people in order to survive well in the life, and you are not an exception.
Ultimately, it’s you who can do miracles in your life.
Also Check : Nurturing Mental Health
Disclaimer
Mediclin Brain Health’s content is for informational and educational purposes only. Our website is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.
