Depression is a term very familiar to students of psychology. In fact, this term could have been one of the most used terms by psychologists in the last decade. It is quite common among the working class of our generation. A study suggests that almost 35% of the population in India suffers from mild to severe depression. If you are reading this article, you probably are aware of what depression is and the kind of difficulties and discrepancies it brings to one’s day-to-day life. Here, I’d like to take the less-traveled road and tell you that depression can have benefits as well. Before starting, bear in mind that most often, no amount of benefits can outshine the level of difficulties it causes and thus it is wrong to assume that ‘depression is good’. If you think you are feeling low or anxious, please do yourself a favor and consult an expert in the field.
After half-an-hour of research and half-a-day of mental rumination, I am of the opinion that depression could very well be an effective (with a considerable amount of side-effects) method to deal with some of the problems we face in life.
Say, you are met with an impossible task. If you are an active individual and very much confident of achieving the goal, you might try out a thousand ways before giving up. But, it is normal that a person would feel low or depressed after the first few tries. This actually benefits the person in the sense that it saves a lot of time that would have been wasted otherwise. If the task is not only impossible but dangerous or suicidal, depression can, very well, save one’s life. (‘depression can save your life’- that is something you don’t read every day)
Another major benefit of depression is that it gives your brain and body enough time to recharge. Always tackling the problems of life, neither our body nor our brain receives the rest it deserves. Lethargy is a common symptom in people with depression. They often showcase little physical movement and their brains would be too depressed to think about anything else. It might not be the 5-star resort that you wanted, but still, it bears fruit.
Quite a lot of studies have been conducted to identify the difference in thinking when it comes to a depressed brain. One of the major findings was, a person with depression is more focused and consequently more accurate in solving a problem. Even in real life, we come across people who, after a short period of depression, get back up and achieve the things that they wouldn’t have been able to achieve before. This is because they were able to take a break from everything else- exclude other people, keeping to oneself, little interest in other activities (all symptoms of depression) and focus all their energy on the problem at hand.
Depression can also be the only option for some people to deal with stuffs they never thought would have happened. Like after the death of a close friend, parent or offspring, a feeble mind might fall into depression. And they might need a few weeks to grieve, to cherish their memories together and to ultimately get them out of their system. This brief period is a necessity for them get back into their normal lives.
These are among the shortlist of benefits one might gain from depression. But in no way does it paint ‘depression’ as a giver rather than a taker. Especially, in cases of severe depression, none of these benefits might even be visible amidst the problems it causes. This article is just a thought for you to reflect upon. Nobody likes being depressed, but they still get depressed one way or another- something totally out of our hands. So, it is fair to assume that it should somehow be beneficial to the one who initiated it in the first place- our bloody brain.
If I am not wrong, a large population of the ones reading this article are themselves depressed and want to know what the hell is good in feeling the way they are feeling at the moment. I just hope you find some solace in knowing that you are not on your own and that it comes with a bit of benefit too…
