Expressing Feelings vs. Claiming Depression

[gobsmacked3]

Rising on 45, I have encountered many dark times in my life.

From sexual abuse as a child with its legacy haunting my very being to losing both my parents in tragic fashion before my 17th birthday. My mother succumbing to breast Cancer that withered her to the bone, robbing her of the dignity that meant everything to her as she neared the end. My father descending into self-pity through heartbreak and drinking himself to death three years later.

Tough, galling times where the needs of my grief were never adequately addressed rather complicated by a parent's alcoholism. Flipping our realities by compelling me to be a defacto parent to tend to his childlike needs in a time where my head felt like it was full of shattered glass.

Rather than the hugs with the assurance we will get through together i got frequent backhanders during drunken rages of self-pity.

Skewing my reality further was 'boys don't cry' ethos that ruled every male being growing up in the 80's.

Particularly on the Creggan Estate in religiously backwards Derry, Ireland.

Reflection allows the feelings to flow:

Lonely.....
Sad............
Heartbroken.....
Lost........................
Betrayed...............
Devastated..............
Bereft............................
Abandoned..................
Etc, Etc, Etc......................

#Depression???????

I pose this for all the feelings I just expressed certainly paint the picture of a person who is depressed. The extension to this as I sit in the 21st century is I have no doubt that I would have been coerced into thinking I was depressed as well as diagnosed and medicated for it.

In no way am I trying to diminish Depression, with this age being a God sent to the many in the past afflicted by the terrible condition and being forced to suffer in silence. Many breaking their silence by choosing death over a tormented existence.

BUT

For all that are genuine, there are others who claim Depression with the insidious aspect being the $$$$$ attached to the drugs administered with a diagnosis.

You do not think the 'Powers that Be' using Media and other branches of control doesn't tap into this gold stream by planting seeds in impressional minds?

With it inspiring peers group pressure, particularly amongst adolescents.

How many in the 13-18 age group are 'depressed'?

Ask yourself this?

How many times do you hear a person say they are 'sad' or a myriad of other feelings these days?'

Has our self-awareness been so compromised in this age where we choose a compromised being of medicated control over expressing basic feelings?

[Phoenix98]

I agree, and for a lot of people, especially now a days with the internet, self diagnosis sites and listening to strangers on the internet, more and more people think they are suffering from depression when they actually aren't. And this is bad for a whole host of reasons I won't get into.

Now I actually have expressed my feelings like you have but also in a positive light but I also did used to suffer from what is medically known as Major Depression the most detrimental form of depression to the point of attempted suicide and let me tell you there is a difference between depression and expression. But also a lot of similarities that make it hard to discern which one is which sometimes.

And people who suffer from depression, drugs are not the solution they are only a temporary fix to the issue, like putting a blanket over a horrible piece of art. And those who have never been through it they can never understand what it feels like or the mindset. It's soul crushing, your body is heavy it feels like your body weights a ton, you don't even want to get out of bed or you do want to but you just can't. Your mindset, mentality is toxic, life seems more like a poison, a toxin then a joy, and at times death seems like a preferable choice to a tortured existence not worth living.

the solution to depression is having people who have been through what you've been through who understand and know, people who care for you and won't leave you who try to help you not belittle or denounce you or what your going through. But you have to fight it, you have to use willpower and a lot of it to fight an uphill battle out of it, that's how I got myself out of it without using drugs. And once you get to the top of that hill, mountain etc, you can finally be free of it and it feels so good. But it's not easy and a lot of people fail to get out of it, the key is to not psych yourself out and give up.

The difference between expression and depression

Is that with expression you feel better after expressing yourself, you get better and feel better the more you come to term with what is happening and with how you feel. And with time and through expressing, like writing or painting you get better.

With depression the opposite happens, when you understand what is happen, coming to terms with it, it doesn't help, and unless you catch it early on, time makes it worse and expression sometimes makes it worse as well and only makes you delve deeper.

[TakeMaker]

I strongly agree with you.

Life is hard, it always has been and always will be for the masses. I know so many people who are now on prescribed anti-depressants and anxiety medication for symptoms that for me fall within the normal spectrum of human emotion. We all have Down Days, we all struggle with the futility of life sometimes. We all have periods of believing this is how things are and that there is no release but this is LIFE. Do we swallow the pills and blot it out, pretend we don't feel that way? Who does that help? It just makes it easier for other people to deal with you and for you to keep on working...

In my opinion, medication is to be saved for those who are finding it hard to operate due to their depression. People who can't even get out of bed and wash themselves and even then it is only a temporary solution, to get the ball rolling so you can address the real issues that are causing the depression.

Sometimes I think doctors should just try a hug first...

[Anonymous]

Best take i have seen on depression, very powerful and i agree whole heartedly, doctors are so quick to write prescriptions for medication, that doesn't always work, a quick fix without getting to the root cause of the real problem.

[gobsmacked3]

thank you for your kind words

[SunnyCaliGirl]

This is a very good take and well written and it gave me a lot to think about :)
Thank you for such a good, it was very powerful

[gobsmacked3]

thank you for you kind praise

[SunnyCaliGirl]

You are most welcome :)

[isjusti]

I agree

[gobsmacked3]

thank u

[Anonymous]

Another good take.