The jargon behind the trend of “Feeling Depressed”

What would happen if you are asked to see everything through a dark black lens? Predictably everything would seem gloomy and colourless right. This is exactly the plight of millions of people suffering from the dreaded monster of depression which crawls its way not only into mood but thinking, decision making process and happiness of the sufferer. No one chooses to suffer from depression, its time you realise that like any other medical condition Depression is a disorder of Brain.

Lately on various social media forums the word depression is heavily trending. People knowing nothing about this neuro-bio-psychological problem have started to claim being experts and counsellors However in spite of all the hype around this word nobody understands the real burden this disorder as an illness is creating in the society. Usually, understanding depression becomes a priority only on international health & wellness days, to promote Yoga and meditation as a treatment for any problem and post suicides of important people and celebrities. The rest of the days of year Depression and its million sufferers are looked down upon by the society as mentally weak people who have decided to not stay happy wilfully.

Even the very curious and open minded Generation Z has started using Depression as a slang word simply for having a bad day. No they are different. Depression is not simply about having a bad moment, a bad day or bad experience but it is a complex interplay from dysregulation of brain chemicals or Neurotransmitters like Serotonin, Dopamine and Nor epinephrine to changes in Neuroplasticity of brain. The whole cognitive process of logical thinking, problem solving and reasoning are affected in depression which makes an individual feel helpless and hopeless. Depression can only be diagnosed by a registered medical practitioner, a mental health expert and specifically a psychiatrist and the minimum duration of illness has to be 2 weeks as per the defined criteria on severity.

Next time when someone says “I am Depressed” don’t judge them, don’t advise them and for god’s sake don’t you ever with your half-baked knowledge start counselling them. More cases of depression worsen due to lack of timely medical care and wrong intervention in the form of advises of the self-made counsellors. Did you realize that you are not scared to accept if you or any family member has diabetes, blood pressure and even COVID 19. But when it comes to accepting mental illness we all are scared to be labelled as a “crazy person”. It’s time we beat the stigma against mental health problems the primary of them being depression and start finding right treatment for depression from qualified medical Doctors in this case psychiatrists. In future blogs we will talk more about who can be depressed, why does depression occur what are the best treatment for depression, is yoga helpful in depression and so on & on I know there are more questions in your mind right now then the stars in the sky. Well that’s why I decided to connect with you by my blogs. We will catch up soon. Stay mentally healthy till then.

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You don’t have to succumb to a life of negative thinking. With some basic countering techniques, you can learn to get rid of negative thoughts by intercepting them before they become all-consuming. The key is to practice countering exercises every time you have a negative thought, and not to give up if you have a blip.