by KAREN STEELE
Depression. You probably know someone with it or even suffer from it yourself. However, it’s something that we rarely talk about.
According to the World Health Organization, an estimated 350 million people are affected by depression, which turns out to be 0.05% of the whole world. Although the percentage makes it seem small, 350 million people is a lot of people – about the same amount if you were to add all of the citizens of the United States and Canada together. It’s easy to dismiss depression, anxiety, or a combination of the two, even though it’s far more common than you would think - one in three college students are self-diagnosed with some sort of depression, and it’s more prevalent in minorities or multiracial individuals than in blacks and Hispanics, and even less in whites, says Healthline.
When someone breaks their leg, you don’t tell them to run a mile during PE anyway, but if a person has social anxiety disorder (SAD), they are often forced to speak in public regardless. Just like a physical injury, the limitations of mental diseases are very real and should be realized and respected. In the same way that your mom might make you stay home from school if you have a fever, I believe that someone on the verge of a panic attack should be able to call in a sick day. Having to fake a physical illness to avoid a depressive day at school is a sadly common practice. However, learning the differences between what’s true and what isn’t are not hard to learn. Indefinite amounts of resources are available on the Internet, and I gleaned information from websites and personal experiences to find myths that are told about depression.
Many stereotypes about the effects of depression-anxiety simply are not true.
Myth I. Just because someone appears “happy” doesn’t mean that they aren’t depressed.
Depression hides itself in many forms and is great at using disguises. It grows inside. When Robin Williams committed suicide, many people went on Facebook saying, “How could someone so happy do this?” Most often when someone exhibits “smiling depression,” says Psychology Today, they’re using humor and liveliness as a defense mechanism.
Myth II. Depression is contagious.
It’s not. In fact, talking about it often helps those suffering. Although I didn’t like talking to a psychologist, talking to my mom about how depression affected me and trying to explain my feelings helped me understand what was going on with me. I dream of a society where talking about your mental illnesses (e. g. “I’m bipolar, man, it sucks.” “I bet. I hate being looked at weird because I have Tourettes.”) are not taboo and can be openly discussed like other topics (“Dude, I broke my wrist. I only cried once, though.”) and can be approached in a casual setting.
Myth III. It isn’t real.
I don’t know how to respond to this statement besides wanting to holler, YES, IT IS. Because depression varies between lasting a few days or months (or years), or just during pregnancy recover, doesn’t mean that one form is more legitimate than the other, or that depression in general is a made up excuse. As a sufferer of both, I can say that dealing with anxiety can be frustrating, whether it be trying to tell a friend “Just order your hamburger!” or telling yourself it’s okay to get up to go to the garbage can. It feels like a war. Anxiety makes me feel like I’m fighting my brain, thinking everyone is making fun of me, regardless of who they are or what they’re talking about. The question I have for those who say that depression and anxiety “aren’t real” is why would we want to pretend to be afflicted by these? If you wouldn’t ask to be diagnosed with cancer, then you wouldn’t want to deal with depression.
Myth IV. We are not broken.
A person suffering from depression, anxiety, or both is not a person who is “damaged goods,” to quote Taylor Swift during one of her concerts at the Staples Center. “You are not going nowhere just because you haven’t gotten where you want to go yet.” We are not defective, nor are we weak for having mental illnesses; nor are we giving up when we admit that we need help, by seeking medication, counseling, or even friendships. Hearing and reading that we are “broken” traps depressives inside stereotypes and stigmas and makes it harder for us to own our condition and makes it easier to isolate ourselves. Telling us that we “don’t seem depressed,” we’re faking it, or that it isn’t real is doing two things: 1) letting us know that we shouldn’t come to you for help, and 2) you don’t want to help.
There are a lot of things that I could go on to explain (how to cope, self-diagnose, where to seek help, how to help a depressed friend), but I feel that most of these have already been touched on. Try applying depression and anxiety to other real world scenarios, like, asking a friend who’s on crutches how you can help, like carrying their books, or putting yourself in their shoes (e.g. “What if I was terrified of saying ‘here” during attendance?”), and you might learn how to be a better friend. Don’t be afraid to ask questions, whether you’re confused how to help someone else or how to help yourself. Keeping silent about the symptoms of mental illnesses only furthers the idea that it’s something that you should be embarrassed about. If you learn anything from this editorial, though, I want you to remember that you are not broken; you are not damaged goods due to your physical, mental, or other conditions that could be used to describe you. Talk about it.
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