Depression is not a color on a mood ring.
"My grandparents didn't take any pills, and they were fine. Just buck up and get over it. Stop being such a fucking pansy." -- Scientologist Bijou Phillips on the subject of anti-depressants to the new issue of Paper magazine
I absolutely hate when people pass judgment on anti-depressants. Depression. is. serious. I understand that everyone is entitled to his or her personal opinion/belief system/etc. But, I can't get on board with this one.
If you can't understand why some people need medication to treat depression -- if you think everyone should be able to "buck up" and just pull themselves out of the"funk" -- then please, consider yourself lucky to never have been through such a painful, sometimes tragic struggle.
I've never taken medication. But I'm not afraid to "admit" I've been through long-term therapy on two separate occasions -- once for severe depression. And I absolutely would not have shied away from medication had that been the course or route my psychologist felt was best for me. The overwhelming, all-consuming, inordinate amount of internal battles with yourself cannot be justifiably described in words. You don't see the light at the end of the tunnel until it's over. There is no end in sight -- nothing to "pull yourself" up to.
I've always been an advocate of people getting help who need it. Maybe because I have been there. Because had my parents not forced me to pick up the phone in college and make the call, I don't know how my life would be different today. That was almost six years ago, and I still sometimes can't remember just exactly how terrified I felt, because it was an unreal haze of a situation. To be out of that torture is life-saving. You don't have to be a wierdo psycho introvert who dresses in black trenchcoats and army boots to be depressed. And you don't have to be one to seek treatment.
Depression is not the same as a bad day. And it scares me when stars and celebrities and friends and parents and brothers and sisters and boyfriends and girlfriends tell someone who truly needs help to "shake it off." Sometimes, it really is much more than that. I just thank God I had a support system that was able to understand that what I was going through was serious -- even if they couldn't always really understand.
I absolutely hate when people pass judgment on anti-depressants. Depression. is. serious. I understand that everyone is entitled to his or her personal opinion/belief system/etc. But, I can't get on board with this one.
If you can't understand why some people need medication to treat depression -- if you think everyone should be able to "buck up" and just pull themselves out of the"funk" -- then please, consider yourself lucky to never have been through such a painful, sometimes tragic struggle.
I've never taken medication. But I'm not afraid to "admit" I've been through long-term therapy on two separate occasions -- once for severe depression. And I absolutely would not have shied away from medication had that been the course or route my psychologist felt was best for me. The overwhelming, all-consuming, inordinate amount of internal battles with yourself cannot be justifiably described in words. You don't see the light at the end of the tunnel until it's over. There is no end in sight -- nothing to "pull yourself" up to.
I've always been an advocate of people getting help who need it. Maybe because I have been there. Because had my parents not forced me to pick up the phone in college and make the call, I don't know how my life would be different today. That was almost six years ago, and I still sometimes can't remember just exactly how terrified I felt, because it was an unreal haze of a situation. To be out of that torture is life-saving. You don't have to be a wierdo psycho introvert who dresses in black trenchcoats and army boots to be depressed. And you don't have to be one to seek treatment.
Depression is not the same as a bad day. And it scares me when stars and celebrities and friends and parents and brothers and sisters and boyfriends and girlfriends tell someone who truly needs help to "shake it off." Sometimes, it really is much more than that. I just thank God I had a support system that was able to understand that what I was going through was serious -- even if they couldn't always really understand.
posted by Sarah @ 10:41 PM
4 Comments:
At January 27, 2009 at 5:07 AM ,
Zach said...
I dig it.
At January 30, 2009 at 9:37 AM ,
Anonymous said...
The whole dressing in black/trenchcoat/emo thing really irritates me. Why do kids pretend to be depressed?
I agree with you, there is, I guess, a stigma, a stereotype associated with depression, and there shouldn't be. It happens to everyone at some point. People shouldn't be embarrassed about it. Without the lows, how would we measure the highs?
However, I think a lot of doctors are too willing to hand out meds for depression, rather than actually look into the problem and find the source.
I've spent a lot of time being 'down'. I was on a LOVELY cocktail of meds this time last year, and when we moved to GA, well, I lost my health insurance and couldn't find a job, and had to wean myself off of them. (Seriously, I was cutting my pills into tiny little quarters.) It was then that I finally realized that my birth control, which I've been on since I was 15 and could also no longer afford, was most likely the root cause of a lot of the anxiety/depression. Hormones, man.
So I guess pills aren't always the answer, as much as we'd like them to be. It totally sucks that it took a drastic situation, and ten years, to figure that out.
At February 1, 2009 at 10:37 PM ,
Sarah said...
Pills aren't always the answer; but no one answer is the same for everyone.
Medication is the answer for some people. Sometimes, that's what it takes. It may not be for everyone, but it most certaintly is a valid and proven form of treatment for some.
I think there is this huge stigma that is associated with being on mediciation. Like, "oh, you couldn't deal with it yourself, so you had to get on medication."
Bottom line for me: it is for some, not for others. And it's not for me to say which route is better for anyone else other than myself. I believe that through and through.
At February 4, 2009 at 12:30 PM ,
Robbery_Joe said...
I don't believe in medicine.
Or germs.
Or moon landings.
But I do believe in God, vampires, magic and am fairly convinced that I have a weak telepathic link with my dog.
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