Depression has a high degree of morbidity and a worrisome level of mortality. It is a potentially life threatening illness. It is incredibly painful to those who suffer from it and to their loved ones who find it hard to understand and accept, and are often left feeling powerless to be of assistance to their loved one.
Depression is usually an episodic illness. Most people respond well to antidepressant medication and therapy. The most commonly utilized medications are SSRI’s (Prozac is an SSRI). Presently most people with depression are not hospitalized and are treated as oupatients. ECT as described by Kitty Dukakis is sadly a treatment that is frowned upon and often thought of as barbaric. ECT (shock treatment), is in reality, treatment done under general anesthesia,that is effective, and in many instances safer than the use of antidepressants.
What causes depression is a mystery. It is often associated with loss,change, or stress, but if you think about life there is always change,loss and/or stress. At any point in your life you can correlate an episode of depression with those kind of events, and yet, you can probably recall instances of change, loss or stress when you did not become depressed. Some people experience depression as coming out of the blue. For some people depression is related to the length of the day (seasonal affective disorder). In living with depression or any mental illness, it is helpful to learn the earliest signs of illness coming on. This is a place where family can help by providing feedback to a person that they are becoming symptomatic and need to seek help.
I think that some of the confusion that is happening is because of an incredible over use of the word depression. Think about how often you say or hear that word. Next time before you say or when you hear it, ask yourself, do I mean depression or do I mean sadness, discouraged, having the blues. Perhaps if we would stop using depression to mean a short lived discomfort, we would have a better appreciation for the devastating illness of depression.
I’m glad you pointed out the difference between blues and depression – I think the difference it often underappreciated.
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Very informative post – thanks!
All of us require the making of organic chemical compounds by the body, and in the brain to function.
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Some of us do not make enough of these complex, and critical compounds – or do not replace them as quickly when our bodies use them up.
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Under stress, all of us use up these compounds, most of which are in a category called “neurotransmitters” more quickly under stress.
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Those who cannot replenish these compounds as quickly are more vulnerable to depression, as opposed to sadness, because of the resulting deficiencies in nuerotransmitters. For my fellow geeks…a bit of the chemistry of this illness.
If people would get accustomed to thinking of depression as a biological thing sometimes requiring medication to ameliorate, like high blood pressure, then I think there’d be less of a stigma around it. But we live in a “buck up” culture, so that’s a toughie.
I have good friends in NAMI, and am married to a former LICSW. What often isn’t grasped is the overwhelming, oceanic SWELL that engulfs the sufferer and those around them.
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You haven’t been around much for a while, Rhonda, and I hope you’ll stay.
it really makes me sick. Some people I swear just think that suffering that kind of devestation is good for the soul or something, as if it toughens you up. Ugh.
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All I know is I went through a very frustrating conversation about depression with my older brother today. If it weren’t for the fact that it took place in emails, I probably would have lost my composure.
Some time ago I heard a young women speak about her personal experiences with depression. She appeared lovely and smart. She was graduating from college at the top of her class. She was engaged to a person who she loved and additional happened to be a model and wealthy (For some of you this means nothing, but it was part of her story). They had just come back from a trip aboard and had met the Pope privately in Italy. She was on top of the world. The next thing she knew she woke up in the psychiatric ward of the city hospital restrained. She had slashed both her wrists and had no memory. She said friends and family asked her “Why would you do something like this with all you have?” Her reply was “You think I wanted to do this”. Depression is in both my wife’s family and mine. Thank you for a wonderful article rhondabourne.
I would hope that the intelligentsia gathered here would be well aware of depression and it’s implications and consequence unless I’m being presumptious.
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What’s troubling is that Mrs Patrick has been battling this terrible problem for a considerable period of time and it has significantly impacted the patrick family now and in the past.
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Wouldn’t it have been a courtesy to advise the electorate that there periodically may be an “issue” where the governor (if elected) may not be able to discharge his duties as required. Just out of common decency rather than bushwacking us. At this point in Mrs. Patrick’s life this problem will have periods of exacerbation and remission, it’s not going away.
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Having Lt Gov Murray at the helm does not instill confidence in me.
why don’t you start by compiling a detailed report on the status of Ann Romney’s MS; likelihood of complications through 2016; and a response from Mitt about where he may not be able to discharge his duties.
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you know, as a courtesy.
Well said, GGW. We’ll look forward to that report.
BMG – Is there a way that we can get rid of a user and not just an individual post?
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MCRD seems to have joined BMG only to spread rumor and innuendo. (See above.)
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These constant attacks, filled with comments that have no documentation or sources, are both tedious and unfair: Casual readers might not know that MCRD has been with BMG for only a week and has had more than one post removed by other users’ rating.
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Perhaps you could come up with a symbol that alerts readers to a user who has had comments deleted repeatedly?
“MCRD seems to have joined BMG only to spread rumor and innuendo…Casual readers might not know that MCRD has been with BMG for only a week and has had more than one post removed by other users’ rating.”
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I think posting something like this after his remarks does the trick well enough.
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Actually, I think posts that are just personal attacks or offensive remarks should be left alone to fall of their own weight.
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Postings that are just factually false should be challenged or debunked. Its an opportunity to slam dunk an argument and educates those who don’t know better or are only mildly interested, but might be supportive.
…I just wanted to thank you for your very sensitive post, and I agree with you 99%. The other 1% being that, I tend to believe that much of what is considered depression is actually a physical illness and should be treated as such.
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I’m not going to go into Thomas Szasz’s Myth of Mental Illness, but what he apparently was trying to convey was that mental illness is actually a physical disease, and calling illnesses that affect the mind has an unnecessary and unwarranted “moral” implication. These diseases, syndromes, whatever you want to call them, have physical implications, and need to be treated as such, not just as “moral failings.”
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Thanks