I find that other people (therapists, uni disability people) refer to it as an illness, and/or encourage me to do the same. When I told my counsellor that I felt I was stretching the truth by excusing my long abscence/odd behaviour to my friends as "I've been ill", she likened depression to diabeties and said it, as she sees it, saying I'm ill *is* the truth.

But, I dunno, I feel that calling it an illness is somehow abdicating responsibility for feeling this way, and for fighting it. I feel like I'm copping out by describing it as an illness, because people are usually nice and helpful when I do, whereas they wouldn't be if they knew it was "just" depression.

I guess I partly feel like I want someone to call me on it. To stand there and yell at me, to tell me to snap out of it. Sympathy and helpfullness unnerve me a little, because I don't feel I deserve it... after all, I'm depressed. I can't even manage to do my laundry or get out of bed before noon - why would I deserve sympathy for something that's a symptom of my current failure to control my feelings and past failure to selfmonitor so that I would have known I was relapsing?

Does anyone else feel this way? Sorry if this doesn't make much sense, it's not a terribly well planned post.

I think its hard for some people to realize depression as an illness. Much like alcohoism. If you can't SEE it than it must not be that bad. Totally wrong! You know how you feel inside and you described it perfectly in your paragraph about not being able to get out of bed, etc. Depression can many times even be a fatal illness. Please don't feel inadequate about yourself. Your depression is just as real as a person with a phycisal ailment.

How would you trully feel if someone did walk up to you and told you to "snap out of it?" I know I would be tremendously hurt and run home crying for the next week or the anger side of me would, well, I probably shouldn't go there...


Warmest Wishes,
Lost in the Past

Hi Chouette,

I feel much the same as you do. I find it hard to accept this because you can't see it and so I think people might think I'm taking the I normally just tell people that I've been ill but don't ever tell them what with and again I also think if they knew it was just depression they wouldn't be as nice to me because it doesn't seem real. I know we can't help feeling this way and that it is an illness but I just can't tell myself that. People that don't have the illness also don't understand it and can't possibly know how bad it can make you feel and how it can interfere with the smallest things. I can't get out of bed before noon and I haven't been to work in since Xmas because I just feel like there's no point in doing anything. It can take me ages to just get up and shower, it feels like I have to climb a mountain every single day to do just the basics to get through it and yet it seems so easy to other people.

Just wanted you to know that you're not alone.

Take Care
Claire

Hi Chouette,

Yours is a common misconception about MH illnesses. But I dare you to 'snap out of it', I doubt that you can. Depression (most) is a physiological disease, in essence a dysfunction of the neurotransmitters in the brain. These NTs are not only responsible for thinking, but also feelings of well being. Usually this has to do with the time that NTs are available at the synapse level. If it is too short, we feel depressed.

Clinical Psychologist have shown via PET scans (much like a CAT scan of the brain) that in depressed people there is a lower level of functioning in certain areas of the brain. So there is an actual picture of what depression looks like, much like a fracture shows up in an X-ray.

So, you must not feel guilty for saying you have 'been ill', you have been. Sometimes depression can be cyclic, seasonal or a part of Manic Depression. In either of these cases there are times when we feel OK and other times that we can not get out of bed. This is not to negate what is called Situational Depression, this happens when a life event makes us very sad or down, but people usually get better with time. Depression is often a life long illness.

Give yourself a break, the stigma attached to MH issues is bad enough. When we stigmatize ourselves, it is truly tragic. Your counselor is right, it is not unlike having diabetes, a lack of insulin. Meds are designed to return the brain to normal levels of our neurotransmitters.

Peace and Love... wayne

Depression IS an illness. It debilitates us just as a severe flu does. Your counselor is correct in telling you that it is an illness. You've recognized it and have sought help-just as you would if you were suffering from the flu. You've made a step towards recovery.

Believe me, if I could just "snap out of it", I would. Being told that is a great affront to me and makes me feel worse. No one likes to be depresssed. I tell my friends I've been ill and let it drop. If they push for more info, I let them know I've been to the doctor's and being treated, etc. My closest friends do know I suffer with depression and I tell them.

Are you on any AD's? They can help lift mood so you can function at a higher level. They're not a cure by any means, but an aid.
Sheepwoman

Hi wayne,

I was just interested as to whether it's been determined that they are the cause, rather than a symptom of depression? Undoubtedly, the are many physiological effects associated with depression but has it been proved that they are the cause? This isn't a loaded question, I'm just a student and I'm really interested in finding out.

To Chouette:
It is most definitely an illness, but I feel with you on this one. It does feel like abrogating responsibility, and I think that can be a very dangerous thing to do. I myself feel that it's crucial to recognize our own destructive behavior and stop it before it occurs, as well as recognizing the physiological factors. Although it's incredibly hard to do, it can become easier with ignorant social help (by this I mean they help without you asking/telling them the problem). This way you are assured it is because of genuine fondness/emotion rather than simple 'duty' after telling people you're depressed.
Hope that made sense.. :P

No, I'm not... partly because I took the Pill for several years, but found that once I moved to uni, because I no longer had a set schedule, I lost the knack of remembering to take it at a specfic time of day, and really screwed up my cycle - I'm hence very wary of taking drugs at this time of my life... and partly because I'm wary of taking ADs at all, really, because I'm starting to come out of it now, and want to carry on managing it the way I did before I had this "ooops" - managed fine for 5 years, it seems to have mostly been a series of very sudden changes this summer that set this off.

I've only recently started counselling, because my uni seemed to think it might help... I'm dubious, but I figure they should have some idea, so I'm giving it a whirl anyways. It's just talk therapy, I think, and it unnerves me Though I've only had the one session, so we'll see.

It took me forever to accept the fact that I had a mental illness, and at first I did feel that it was a cop out. But as I adjusted to my new way of thinking, I realized that I was better able to forgive myself, let go of guilt, and move on. My new perspective of depression as a real disease has also helped me to treat it. If I were still in denial about my condition, I doubt I'd be in remission today.

I've never had to deal with denial, but guiltiness is part of my life, i'm really affected by guilty conscience for whatever in my life went and goes wrong...

I still believe that I can be the person I used to..., even my family speaks about this illness as if it were some kind of a temporary one in which you should do this and that (sports, chating etc)...and then you're not ill anymore :no: . I'm puzzled whenever I read things like ,,most of depression cases can be completely cured". Is this a form of denial?

I found out depression was an illness when I was on anti-depressants which really worked. I thought I could come off them and still feel as happy mentally, and of course what happened within a couple of months? I crashed and burned.

Now I know this demon very well and have more tools to battle it.

Whoops! Looks like there are two very similar threads going at once (with very similar names).

I just posted something that might be of value for addressing the "just snap out of it" school on depression. It's a quote from an interview today with a leading brain-neurology researcher, who explains that depressed people CANNOT just snap out of it.

I won't repeat it here, so those interested should look at the thread, "Accepting Depression As An illness...and that you have it."

This post has been edited by MichaelBlue: Jan 20 2008, 02:08 PM

Depression IS an illness, for many a chronic illness. For me the "snap out of it" way of thinking is just part of my depression. Its part of the guilt trip negative thinking trap that I find myself in during a "flare".

Yes, we are responsible for ourselves and for treating our illness. There are many things we can do to help ourselves. Just as a person with a chronic physical illness must take responsibility for themselves and there illness, so must we. Your counselor's diabetic analogy is a good one. A diabetic has to take their disease seriously and treat their disease accordingly or risk getting sicker. They must take their medicine, avoid sugar, eat a well balanced diet etc.

In the same vein there are many ways a person with depression can take responsibility and take care of themselves. You are doing one of those by trying counseling. Hopefully your counselor will help you find other ways to help yourself with you depression.

I had to be convinced that I will ill with depression. And like another person mentioned here, I knew I had a depressive illness when I finally found a medication that worked several years later. I was amazed and humbled. I finally knew that my depression began when I was a child. Colors were colorful and I felt happy and relaxed for the first time ever. It was an incredible thing to feel that way and also made me wonder who I would be today if I had had that help starting when I was little. I could be the poster child for celexa....only thing was it ran out of steam as the AD's sometimes do......still the experience let's me know that I do not want to feel less than wonderful ever again.

Calling depression an illness is an oversimplification of a very complex phenomenon. I have struggled day in and day out with defining it. But ultimately have come to the conclusion that anyone who tells you that it is a disease is miscontstruing depression, and that anyone that tells you to snap out of it doesn't know what they're talking about.
I have come to see depression intimately connected with Oppression.

Not oppression in the extreme sense of slavery, but in the sense that the power structures that be function to remove power from the people. It is a recurring pattern throughout history. But I strongly believe that people who grow up with strong power structures around them end up finding themselves weak - either objectively, or just compared to the power structure that they have been around. And by power structures i mean parents, schools, media, etc. If a parent (for example) has too much power, they create a world which a child perceives as unchangeable and thus the child perceives himself/herself as powerless. And once you're powerless, you become depressed. What is the point of life if you are just passing by rather than actively engaging your existence?

Feeling powerless may CREATE the certain brain patterns observed on CATscans. But I would be loathe to believe that there is brain circuitry that we are born with that creates depression. Nothing happens without a context. So don't ever let anyone tell you you have an unavoidable genetic disease. Life can ALWAYS change.