Depression is not Just Feeling “Depressed” when the Duncan Donuts Made you the Wrong Flavor of Coffee

Depression becomes a disorder when your life becomes disorderly because if it. You can say to someone that you have depression and they will say, “yeah, I get depressed too. I was so depressed that  did not get that promotion last week, but it passes.”

That is the problem with having depression as a disorder. It does not pass. It is not just a sadness and disappointment of something not going our way. It is an attack of our brains that can render us unable to do the daily tasks needed to survive in a normal way.

It can interfere with work or even cause us to lose our jobs. It can keep us from getting things done for our kids that are important. It can keep us from taking proper care of ourselves. We can become financially devastated from the effects of depression on our lives.

We can lose relationships because of our inability to communicate with other in an acceptable way. A person with depression can lose their self esteem and their belief that they can make things better. Once the hope is lost for things getting better, there can be a loss of interest in everything.

Living with depression can cause such a detrimental effect on the quality of someone’s life that they feel there is no real purpose for continuing to live. Life is too hard, too painful and there is no reward. People with depression can become slowly more and more isolated from family and friends.

It is also difficult to get out of bed to go to therapy or to get on the phone to call for a mental health appointment. This is one of the most dangerous and most tormenting things. Someone needs to go get help but they have no energy to take the steps needed to get help. Phone calls. dealing with secretaries, sitting in waiting rooms, anxiety over leaving the house…sometimes it can be too much to bear.

Depression is not the same as

“I am so depressed that I did not get a raise, but I shook it off, why can’t you? ” or

“We all have problems but the rest of us get up and deal with them. Just forget about feeling depressed and you will feel better later”

The speakers in these statements had disappointments and frustrations. They did not have a disorder of depression. The very fact of them “shaking it off” and “forgetting about it later, once they were out with their friends having fun”  is not depression in the sense of a mental disorder.

A disorder is a disorganization in the brain that causes us not to be able to do the things that other people can do. If you have depression, you know it is different that what the people around you are experiencing. You know it is different because they do not understand you, or your behaviors.

People with a depressive mental illness have a real physical disorder of the brain. Often is was cause by some kine of trauma or abuse. Mental abuse can cause things in the brain to disorganize in a severe way. The brain does not just put itself back together easily.

Hopefully wordpress is a place where you can find validation and healing by interacting with other people who actually do understand you. You are not stupid, lazy or uncooperative, as people often perceive you to be. You have a serious debilitating condition which has physical organic components to it, just the same as someone with a physical disability.

Blessings and I hope this helps in some way.

It helps me to write about my experience and to reach out to others.

Annie