DEPRESSION IS REAL
It was a day next to my 15th birthday when I was absorbed in my thoughts, not knowing the presence of my elder sister (who is my best buddy too) beside me. I came into reality by her snapping in front of me and she asked what happened to you honey? You are always absent minded nowadays and your health is declining day by day, is there anything we should talk about? Upon this affectionate behavior, I sighed and that sigh was a mixture of contentment and relief because I thought at least there is someone who cares. I decided to pour my heart out in front of her and started with these words: “I think I am going through a phase of depression and…”there she interrupted me and without listening to my whole story, instantly said: “O come on honey! Don’t tell me! What do you mean by it? How can a 15 years old be depressed? Don’t think about this stupidity and just focus on your studies”. After saying these painful words, she walked on, but this incident boosted the burden of my heart and mind and made me think about why people don’t take it seriously and most importantly how they define it and why they consider it not to be a matter of lads or youngsters?
Depression is a mental illness that impacts one mentally, emotionally, physically, behaviorally and spiritually. Depression is one of the most serious issues. It is not limited to age and needs to be dealt with patience and support. It’s not being negative, feeling sad or crying all the time but it’s about feeling numb and lonely, feeling like no one cares and so on. Depression and anxiety are not a sign of weakness, they are signs of having tried to remain silent for so long. Depression makes people hopeless and unmotivated. But they are not happy with it and are fighting with it every single day. They fight their inner darkness to achieve light — by spending long periods of time distracting themselves to find an escape from their inner turmoil, by fantasizing about the memories they cherish, by participating in daily-life chitchats with their peers and by faking smiles, and sometimes by planning out how they’d explain their crusade to others but then not following through it because they fear it won’t be endorsed.
People dealing with depression need affection, care, sympathy and support. All they want is to get heard. Be a compassionate listener to them. Let them lighter the burden they’re carrying in their heart,mind and soul. Listen to them with all ears and without being judgemental, make them believe that they are not alone and you are always by their side. Be supportive, motivate them and empathize with them. Start accepting others for who they are. Be kind, respectful and be patient to everyone because we never know what people are going through. We need to understand that people who are depressed are not weak minded-they are sick. Don’t humiliate them. Normalize their dealing with it, visiting a psychiatrist and taking medicine because if not treated well, it can cause death. So it is not something to make fun of, depression is killer, depression is real!