Depression: Let’s Talk
The following essay is my speech on Depression — Let’s talk. (Community outreach) which I talked about in the Quora World Meetup 2018 Assam Chapter, held at Greenwood Resort on June 30, 2018.
Hello everyone!
Today, we Quorans of Assam have gathered here in the Quora World Meetup 2018, and I would like to talk on one of the most disturbing disease which is prevalent not only amongst the youth of Assam, but also of the whole world, and that is depression.
So, what is depression?
Going beyond all medical terms, simply put, depression is lowering of all aspects of your life. It lowers your mood, your outlook of life, your self-esteem, your reaction to emotions, etc. It is not just a phase of life, but a disease that needs to be treated.
We all think that sadness equals depression, which is not. Sometimes depressed people aren’t sad at all. A depressed person can have a great job and a wonderful family, but he/she is not happy. It is not sadness, but neither happiness it is. the person feels unemotional and apathetic, which is one of the most important symptoms of depression.
We all know what happened to Chester Bennington, the lead singer of Linkin Park. This is one of the last photos his wife shared about him sharing quality time with his family, a few days before his untimely demise. You see his radiating happiness in the photo, but we never got to know his pain inside.
Why is it rising nowadays?
- With increasing fragmentation of our families and people slowly rooting for single life, we get lesser people to talk to and share our feelings. This reminded me of an incident mu uncle and his family experienced. One day, their neighbour, a 60-year old woman, visited them. On getting to know each other better, she had put forward a small request — to invite her in their family functions, as she needed some company and a sense of belonging. This particular incident led me to believe the importance of family.
- Because of our hectic life, we not only tend to cut down upon our physical activities, but our conversations with people have become more business like instead of being more open and connective.
- We have increasingly moved on to chatting behind phone screens instead of real face-to-face conversations which would actually help in sharing our feelings, because in such conversations, visual and non-verbal cues help much more in communication.
Why do we know so less about it?
Because we equate its symptoms with life, which means we always imagine the world as being forever dark, evil and apathetic, and consider being unemotional as part of living life. And because we think its symptoms are “normal” in life, we do not consider depression to be a real disease.
Like suppose one among you is suffering from food poisoning, and you are in bed, with pain in the belly. Instead of giving you medications, someone comes over and says,
Look, I get that you have food poisoning and all, but you have to atleast make an effort to not….umm…. have food poisoning?
….or in an accident, instead of helping you get to the Hospital, someone goes to you and says,
Hey, you will just need to change your frame of mind, you will feel better, man!
….or to a person who is suffering from insulin-dependant diabetes (Type-I Diabetes mellitus), it is said that,
I understand that you are suffering from diabetes, but isn’t this insulin injection changing who you really are?
How would you feel?
Why am I saying these? Because these sentences are said by most of the people who do not consider depression to be a real disease, and I am presenting you how would it be if physical illnesses are treated like mental illnesses and hence, no treatment is given, and the patient may die.
So what can we do about it?
To those who are suffering from depression, my advice is to open up and talk to people. Go to a councillor or a psychologist if you feel you need help in coming out of it. Do not ignore it. Be proactive in understanding what you were thinking, and probably overthinking and distorting. Step out of your comfort zone. It is okay to make mistakes, and it is perfectly okay to be laughed at and considered a lunatic for as while. Does it affect us? NO! Go to exercise routines, early morning walks at forests and parks with greenery all around, to counselling sessions and morning yoga sessions, and group discussions. Have more real face-to-face conversations.
To those who are probable friends to depressed people (as you might know that you have one amongst you now), do not ignore them. People with depression have a hard time opening up to you, and will be very considerate and frank with you to give you time and space to be with them, and so in that moment, be with them. Sit down and listen to them. Get to know what help they might need. Accompany them to a councillor, instead of just suggesting one.
At the end, I would like to say that our Quora World Meetup serves the very purpose of more real face-to-face conversations which can help us in sharing our feelings, thoughts and ideas to be able to fight depression and make Assam great again. I would like to invite you people to speak up and share your ideas and doubts. We all Quorans of Assam are a family, and we will always help each other, and if you need any help regarding medical problems, or depression too, I’m always of help.
Thank you!
After this speech, few questions were asked by the audience upon this topic -
Does introversion cause depression?
No, Introversion directly does not cause depression. Yes, many times introversion helps in causing depression, but it is not a direct causative factor. Many great artists and scholars were introverts, but they channeled their energies to creativity. Most of us introverts do not know how to do so, and this unutilised energy pushes us to depression.
Is depression contagious? Can depression spread from one person to another?
No, depression does not spread from one person to another, and that’s the reason why it is under non-communicable diseases. But, the causative factors responsible for depression is contagious, for example, hectic life, addictive agents such as alcohol which give a short time of drift-away from the stress and pain, etc.
Overall, we all enjoyed this meetup and many valuable thoughts, ideas and opinions were openly discussed. I am glad this session was very interactive.
With thankful regards,
Originally published at the-sandstorm.quora.com.
