The Weight of the World

After listening to a few minutes of Hack earlier today, where they discussed depression and other similar ailments, I feel like posting my views on the topic in an attempt to show that not all sufferers of this "mental disability" are as thick as two short planks.

What the general public fails to understand, as well as the hosts of current affair radio shows it seems, is that people who are too embarrassed or ashamed to talk about their depression with their family or friends are most often just idiots who've had a bad day and got it into their heads that there's something wrong with them.

Depression is not shameful. Nor is it embarrassing. Depression is a chemical imbalance in the brain and nothing more. Depression is caused by lack of serotonin, not getting dumped, losing someone close to you, getting fired etc. That's grief, sadness, loneliness, melancholy and so on. Those feelings are all symptoms of depression for sure, but they're still caused by your brain not an outside event.

Now obviously I'm no expert, but being someone who suffers from depression and has sought professional help for it I feel I can speak without fear of any major conflict. I'm so tired of hearing about people's huge battles with depression and how it's such a struggle to overcome. IT'S NOT! Yes, some people have a really hard time dealing with it, people feel so terrible that they want to kill themselves, and some of them actually do it. But you have to actually let yourself get to that point. If you recognise it for what it is and do something about it then depression is as easy to deal with as a common cold.

There's only two steps for God's sake. Long term, you take medication to fix the chemical problems in your brain that cause it, short term you FUCKING TALK ABOUT IT TO SOMEONE. If you keep it all to yourself you're an idiot and deserve to feel unhappy. You don't even have to talk to someone you know, anyone who'll listen will do. I've told my doctor about this blog and why I started it and he said it's the best thing I could have done to help. Talking about how you feel get's everything off your chest and makes you feel like you have someone by your side to help, even if they don't say anything.

I'm not in any way trying to make light of depression, it's a serious problem and professional help should be sought as soon as possible, I'm just pissed off that it seems to be the latest "fashion" when it comes to health problems.