Depression

I decided that I would write a post on depression.

Why?



Well you are going to have to read to find out, I guess.

Before half term a college friend and I realised that we were drifting apart and so decided to go to McDonald's before lunch. She revealed to me that she had experienced depression. The worst thing about it wasn't that she felt like crap but that her parents were sort of ashamed. Sort of like, look at our only child; she was supposed to be normal and perfect and we have broken pieces.

A few weeks ago, one of my best friends told me about a conversion she overheard - not about depression, but about mental illness. The people she overheard called a teenage girl experiencing a mental illness as an attention seeker.

Now the other day, what happened is that the senior mentor for my team, a guy called Tarzan, told us we had to give a speech on what we would change in the world. I went for the education system. Yes, me the girl who thrives through education. I went on about how it does not prepare us for real world and the example I gave was that we are made aware that there is something called depression. However, the word is thrown around without any meaning at all because we are not taught how to deal with it, why it may happen and how to actually recognize the symptoms in oneself or others.

I never really thought that my audience was really receptive about what I was saying until today. We will get to that after.

Depression is a really horrible illness. It is an pandemic these days. As common as the common flu. Sure there is less stigma on mental illness. Sure society have let women have votes and slavery has been abolished (in some countries) but that does not mean that there is not more that can be done? I know about the symptoms of depression and how its treated and why it may occur and stuff like this because I read NHS pages and books about it, however, imagine someone whose sort of started to feel depressed not knowing what the hell is happening to them.

What happened today is that my NCS team were introduced to this programme called cafe art where there got homeless people to make and sell their own art. Two of the former homeless guys came and one guy, David, told us about his story that had half the girls crying and the rest of us holding back tears. He owned two businesses then had a stroke and lost everything and ended up taking drugs and getting depression. He tried to commit suicide at least 10 times and now on the sort of other side, he was a photographer, dealing with his depression by drawing and taking pictures. It was inspiring. One girl started crying and revealed that she dealt with depression too and two others had to go outside to get fresh air. Both were so worried and did not want to go to the GP because they thought their parents would look down on them. It was so sad, I was nearly in tears. One had come from Norway and could not adjust to London and had bad anxiety and just wanted to kill herself. The other - the most emotionally stable girl from the outside - was just so broken inside.

The reason why I want to do psychology in Uni is because I would like to be a sort of therapist who helped people through talking cures such as CBT. I also want to understand more about what makes us human. Not just about when something goes wrong but about when things are right. Learning psychology so far has been so revealing even though it is not something to learn for facts but understanding. There was this girl, nickname Pineapple Jam who I thought lied to us. But learning about Psychology, it sort of creates a grey area. I now understand that memory may not be accurate and that what people ask may influence the response. Now, I look back and think well I do not know what was fact anymore. I do not know what to think or what she was supposedly thinking. And do you know what? I love that. The curiosity, the grey areas and questions that are inherent in Psychology. A subject where I never need stop asking or trying to understand.

If you want to find out more about the way that depression or any other mental illness is diagnosed look at the latest DSM.

All I know is that I will henceforth be skeptical of stability.