If I am depressed does this mean I am mentally ill?
Neah… I don’t think so.
I don’t feel it like it. It’s a disease of the soul, not of the brain, science should just give me a break.
Science has never felt it if it says so. Really, when your heart literary breaks and sinks into a complete black hole, when all thoughts disappear and all that is left is nothing, how can this be a disease of the brain?
But they say it’s a mental disorder. And affects more than 300 million people of all ages worldwide. All ages. Really? Nearly 1 in 4 women and 1 in 6 men experience depression during their lifetime. Does this mean they are all mentally ill? That’s hilarious because it could then be very well considered a normal state. Which in fact, I do think it is.
Depression is in my opinion a regular state of mind. Just like happiness. I mean, nobody would ever say happiness is a mental disorder. “Hey you, why are you laughing all the time? Why are you so positive? Why do you trust yourself so much? Why do you enjoy everything? – You are definitely mentally ill!”
People are used to label negative things/feeling as being wrong. Bad. Sick. Well, for me this is wrong!
If nobody says winter is bad because is the opposite of warm, vegetation, pleasant things that summer offers us, and try to enjoy it for its different beauty, then why not apply this judgement to all other things in our life?
Yes, I am depressed, but not mentally ill. Let me just be depressed!
Here is a good one: “The higher incidence of depression in women has been attributed to differences in sex hormones, physical strength, personality traits, and exposure to stressors. ”
So there are more mentally ill women than mentally ill men. Due to hormones. Really? Do you hear yourselves? How about because of hard lives they are forced to live? How about because of discrimination, of the difficulties in bearing and raising children, of putting up with men’s superiority and physical power?
Depression is different from being depressed.
It’s rather difficult (have you notice how many times I said “difficult” here? well, my shrink would say this is a sign of being pessimist! ) to draw a line between depression and being depressed.
Who can say when being depressed ends and when depression installs?
You are entitled to be depressed if you have suffered the loss of a loved one or pet, have been in a financial crisis, or a relationship failure. If your lover dumped you or cheated on you, if he died or if he betrayed you somehow. (your expectations, in fact.)
But when things come back to normal (who says it is time to come back to normal? who says when it is time to stop morning after somebody?) when enough time has passed and statistically speaking you should have recovered from that state of depression, you, a mentally healthy person ought to come back to your state from before depression.
If this doesn’t happen then you have depression. A mental disorder.
Here is what they say: “Clinical depression, on the other hand, prolongs that period of sadness, not allowing you to recognize a positive change in your circumstances.”
To recognize a positive change in your circumstances! – that’s a good one.
Here is a piece of news for all of you. You DO recognize this positive change, you see it, but it doesn’t touch you anymore. It doesn’t mean anything to you anymore. It’s there, good, so what?
This is being depressed and having depression all together. It’s seeing the sun, liking the sun, it’s seeing your child and loving your child, is seeing your loved one and loving it. It’s being able to laugh and enjoy a party, yet remain far far away.
If this is depression, ok, it is depression. If this is mentally ill, no, I don’t think so. I am still a functional person. I have my moments, like every other healthy person, when I am really sad, and don’t want to see or do anything. But these pass. Fortunately. 🙂 And then my regular state comes back. When I function properly but I remain far far away from the heart of things.
But does this makes my brain ill? My mental ill? How can they even say which one is this? When one stops and the other starts?
If you are able to be happy, but the happiness doesn’t touch your soul, this is depression. Yet, this is not a disorder of the mental. It’s of the soul. Why doesn’t the science just get it?
Oh, I know, because they haven’t yet invented a soul medicine. They cannot say “your soul is ill. Here is a pill to make you healthy again!” – that would be so funny…
All they can do and prescribe stupid and harmful drugs is to say “you are mentally ill”! Here is a drug that it would destroy your brain so hard that you won’t know what’s wrong with you!
Don’t fall into this trap!
You are depressed, but it’s ok. Don’t fight it. Embrace it. Let it tell you what it wants to tell you. Listen to your soul, it will speak to you without words.
It’s not a mental disease. Don’t believe them. Approach your problem from a different prospective. Let it be the way it is. A part of you. All you need to do is live with it.
Be the winter you are. Don’t deny it. You will never bring summer with Xanax.
We people should simply accept that we are different. Like all nature is.
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Featured picture via Pixabay.com under CC