Firstly I will say this; Depression is real! I have been there and I experienced it.
I was depressed for years and though I am gradually healing, depression is as real as day and night.
Know this today, someone can be beautiful and be seriously depressed, the rich and wealthy also get depressed; so that is to say that depression is a respecter of no man.
I fell into depression four (4) years ago and I didn’t realize that I was gradually stepping into the world of depression.
Little by little my sadness began to increase, my tears became frequent, I started eating less, working too hard, started doubting myself, I began to long for validation from others (it wasn’t forthcoming by the way) and everything began to look vague in my eyes, beautiful colours started looking grey.
I began to lose faith in my abilities, lose interest in everything that mattered to me, I became less confident in myself, but I still never knew at that time that I was depressed, and that’s simply because we tell ourselves that it’s just a phase and we would get out of it.
So what is depression? Well according to betterhealth.com, depression is a “constant feeling of sadness and loss of interest. I will lay emphasis on the word “constant” because depression doesn’t just happen, it is a feeling of constant disappointment, constant negative energy, constant experience for sadness and pain, constant feeling of being rejected, the constant experience of being bullied etc.
It is a repetition of negative words and actions on a certain human. It’s like telling a person “you will never be good enough” but you don’t stop there, you show the person with actions why that person will never be good enough and you keep on repeating the negative words and actions every time to the point where it begins to stick like glue in the heart and mind of that person and gradually depression begins to set in.
If depression was to be a colour, I would say “grey” because it doesn’t look real, but it sure feels real.
A depressed person thinks of death a lot, pictures death in so many ways, even creates scenarios where he/ she dies quite often and trust me, that is not even the scary part. The scary part comes when the person begins to draw out peace from the thoughts of being dead. When a person begins to derive peace, joy, happiness and contentment from the thoughts of being dead, now that’s where the real problem begins.
When it gets to the stage mentioned above, the person needs extreme help, he/she needs love and
support from people around like family, friends etc. Because, it’s not right to derive joy and peace from the thoughts of death and when it already gets to this stage, the thoughts of suicide starts creeping into the mind of such person, the urge to “end it all” begins to take shape and form in his/her mind.
Some depressed people are strong enough to cry out for help but most aren’t. They stay silent and say nothing.
You might ask yourself, what is the cure for depression; being able to accept that you are depressed is the first stage and that’s a huge inner battle and once that has been achieved next is to accept that you need help, thirdly is to speak up let people know what you’re going through and fourthly allow yourself the healing you deserve.
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About The Writer
Elo Andrew studied Mass Communication at the Lagos State Polytechnic. She loves writing and though she is still at the beginning phase of her writing career, she knows that she will accomplish so much as a writer. She also loves learning new things every day.
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