Question of the Week

By Judy Tuesday, October 04, 2011

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Hi, everybody! Merely Me is away until tomorrow, so she asked me to post her Question of the Week today.

I think most of us have had times when we’ve felt that no one understands what we’re going through or that there’s no way to explain how we feel to someone else.Or we may be afraid to talk about how we feel because the other person might think less of us or not love us.And there certainly are many stories out there about experiences of stigma in the workplace or misconceptions that many people have about those who suffer from any kind of mental illness or disorder. So, the question for you is:

What is it that you most wish other people (such as family, friends or the general public) understood about depression?

I’ll start out by saying that I wish people would try to learn more about depression and how it affects us so that they would be less afraid to talk about it or would be less judgmental of those of us who are struggling with it. Then they would know how hard we try to be “normal,” to perform our jobs or take care of our families, because we don’t want to be a burden. There are a lot more things I wish people understood about it, but I will leave it to other members here to continue the list.Please let us know what you think – we can all learn from each other! Let's give Merely Me something to read when she gets back.

A Piece of the Puzzle

Comments (5) | Add comment

aml0017

10/ 4/11 4:17pm

I just wish they believed it was a real thing, not just "having the blues" and not just a personal weakness. We can't expect others to understand what they have never experienced, but you never see anyone telling someone with cancer to just "pull yourself up by the bootstraps".

Kyle

10/ 4/11 10:18pm

I wish they just understood that it's there and it exists. That it's real and it will totally mess you up. Some people mistake it for weakness or fear. Well fear may go hand in hand with it. Of course you're afraid of when you're next anxiety attack will happen. Or what people are gonna think of you.

Anyway. I wish they understood the authenticity behind it. But I have a feeling they never will.

Merely Me, Health Guide

10/ 5/11 6:26pm

Hey Miss Judy

Thanks so much for doing the question of the week. I hope we get some more comments on this. I think it is good for loved ones and the general public to hear about the experience of depression from the people who have it. The more we talk about this openly...perhaps the more people will "get" depression. I do think it is sometimes difficult for those who do not suffer from depression to understand the pain of it and how disabling it can be.

I am back!

I am slowly working through the posts. I hope everyone is having a decent week so far.

JAMAL

10/ 6/11 1:21am

i want all of them to know that...

depression is not my fault , i didnt make somthing wrong to become deprseesd

Shayluna

10/ 7/11 9:02pm

I have a few things I wish people would take the time to understand about depresson. The big one for me is how I really wish people would stop saying "just get over it". If we could do that, I'm sure most of us would. I have also been told that it's a way of getting attention and making others feel sorry for me. That comment hurt so bad, especially since the only thing I did was come clean about my diagnosis. I wish that people would not assume that depression is strictly caused by life events. I am one of those people who have depression that is mostly caused by genetics. Some life events didn't help me, but are not the sole cause of it. Another one that really gets me is how some assume that depressed people are "crazy". I bet they would freak out if they knew how many of us lead seemingly normal lives, or how many depressed people they interact with on a a daily basis without knowing it. Those are just the big ones that irritate me. It would be so nice if depression didn't carry the social stigma that it does. People living without depression should be willing to educate themselves before making such boneheaded comments.

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