Hi gang,
Part of the stigma is the - just pick yourself up and brush off the dust - ...
There are plenty of those people who had a "bad day", picked themself up and became Mr IBM! But most of us live a stress and fall ... live more stress and fall further ... and finally the stress causes us to hit the bottom and become sick- depressesed. We need time to heal. We need help to heal.
(We have all binged at the buffet table once or twice in our life times... but the next day we eat reasonable and go right on with out tasks at hand.. Right! Well! Ask a Type 2 diabetic to wait 6 months to see a Dr - start basic treatments and make healthy lifesyle changes... they might have a rough time as well.)
Depression is an illness. It is one part how we see the world. How we think of our selves. It is one part the way we are programmed.
Depression is alson one part chemical. It is how the neuron communicate information in our brain and in our body. It is a series of symptomes that affects our mood, our mobility, our life.
So, It is easy to be afraid of this illness. At work... will others be affected - possibly! What can we do to help? how can we prevent? At Home ... our loved one is in pain and we can do absolutely nothing! to help. Is there anything more madding or more frustrating ... (yes our loved one is dying and there is nothing we can do)? Our loved one has a moment of sun and then a week of rain... when are the clouds going to blow over? What can we do?
and when all fails and the frustration blows up to... what have you done?... what are you doing? more of the stigma returns and you know the patient gets hit from the outside and from them self! Okay tell me if anyone here has not had the "I should be doing" and "i need to get" and the "guilt feelings". Perhaps that is the worst of all this. We feel guilty for being sick.
"Oh my goodness I ran in my slippers through a snow-storm to get a newspaper and now I am depressed. I am suck a nasty and stupid person. I won't do something that dumb again.
" OR "I think I remember lying on the pool table under the keg of beer and inhaling the beer till I passed out. Oh that was dumb, no wonder I am depressed these past 3 years. I better not start that again
."