Some people perceive depression to be nothing other than profound sadness. They associate every element and every symptom of depression to be just another phase or mood when, in fact, it is not what it is perceived to be. Depression is not sadness and certainly not a mood. It is a state of mind, one that is certainly not very pleasant; one that can severely affect life and the ongoing processes of it.
Depression is that stinging bee that does not hum but stays around as long as it wants; as long as you are not fast enough to catch it or move away from it. Trying to get out of depression, the state of mind is a choice but getting in it is never one. Nobody chooses to be sick; sickness comes itself.
It is how the events of our life follow that we become prone to mental illnesses; it is how we take what life throws at us that we become sick, not in our bodies but in our minds. We do not choose to dive into a pit of sadness because it is what we are expected to do when life does not favor us, we do not choose it at all. It is not even exactly a pit of sadness.
Depression is inertia. Depression is constancy. Depression is looking up into the sky and not noticing the disturbance of clouds because you never really look. It is your eyes that are fixed but your brain wanders about places that are empty, where every step you take, every word you utter echoes back to you and where nobody is there to listen and reply to your voices.
Depression is not sadness, but it is sad. It is the name to a feeling that takes away all hope, drains you of aspirations and sucks every inch of life left in you. Meaning from things disappears, smiles are not cheerful because you know what comes after them and every other day is nothing but long hours of contemplating the bewildering purposelessness your life has become. – Continue reading on next page
It can be tricky to detect depression within you, especially with people around you constantly telling you of temporary remedies to be happy, only making you doubtful about your state of mind. Detecting depression can be as confusing as it is necessary. Maybe I’m just overreacting or I just need a day off, that’s it might be the excuses you give to yourself instead of welcoming the idea of depression, because you have been told that depression is a choice. By ignoring it, you will feel as if you have loosened its grip on yourself, that you can leave it behind anytime you want, that it really is a choice.
But you will only be doing harm to yourself. You will spend a day off or maybe even two, but upon nothing changing whatsoever, you will realize that it was never in your hands. Depression is like any other disease there is, you don’t choose to be diagnosed with it and there are cures for it; the only factor that makes it stand out is that it cannot be seen clearly by both the person who has it and the person who wants to cure it.
Treating depression is possible; therapy and medicines help but only when you know it’s actually there.
However difficult it might be to live through it, detect it and try to cure it, depression is definitely not a choice. Who would want to spend every single say of their life away from life? Who would want to experience stinging mental pain doing everything they do? Who would possibly wish to choose something so poisonous for themselves?
Depression is no joke, and it is certainly not sadness. There is no saying for how long can a person be depressed for. People spend their childhoods in depression, not realizing at all until they grow up. Some spend a good part of their youth in depression until they are confronted about their unusual approach in life while some people spend only months.
It is a battle against yourself that you fight every day. Contemplating suicide and thinking of ways to be alone more than you already are, are things that nobody would choose for their enemy, let alone themselves.
To everyone who thinks depression is a choice: It is not. It is a disease, as harmful as any other fatal disease.
The person who has it feels buried under a weight of unanswered questions and needs help. His disease grows every day, the bee circling around him soundlessly gets bigger every day, so unless you try to be the helping hand in clapping the bee dead, do not feed it. Do not tell the person he chose the misery for himself for it will only make it difficult for him to get out of it.
Talk to me
Have you been depressed in your life? How did you come out of it? How are you dealing with it? I’m here to listen, share your thoughts with me in the comments below!
