The Raw Truth About Depression
What people don’t realize is depression is a silent, isolating, slow-moving killer. Some who experience it will commit suicide — about 39,000 people every year. Some will attempt to take their life and others will be so paralyzed by fear that they will be alive, but not living.
One in 10 Americans struggles with depression. A common misconception about depression is that it is something people can just "snap out of." Unfortunately, for those people who experience major depression disorder, it's not that simple. While depression can be serious, it is far from hopeless. There are effective treatments and actions people can take to overcome this disorder. There are certain truths about depression that are important to understand, as we target this debilitating disorder that often spans generations.
We are left reflecting on our own lives as we reconstruct our beliefs about happiness, the world and what it means to suffer alone.
We feel confusion, rage and grief. The funniest man in the world, who touched millions of people, couldn’t touch his own heart.
The thing about depression is no one really talks about it out loud. It makes most people uncomfortable. Those who aren’t depressed think, “What do they have to be sad about? Why can’t they just see the bright side?”
But the raw truth is, no one has reason to judge anyone who struggles. And for the one who is depressed, life is unbearable to navigate. It doesn’t matter how much you are loved. You feel like a burden to the world.
Several years ago, I was diagnosed with clinical depression. I experienced my own isolation, pain and internal rage.
I recovered and overcame that dark period of my life. People close to me say they had no idea. “You should have told me. I could have helped.” They seem to take it personally that I didn’t come to them.
That’s the thing about depression: When you are in it, people around you seem happy. They seem to have it together. And if you suffer, the last thing you want to do is take their happiness away or bring them down. You feel like a burden to those around you.
So the depressed stay isolated and in pain, lonely and sadness.