But you already knew that, because you read this blog. For millions of people in the world, however, depression still isn’t viewed as a “real” health problem. These people think it’s just something you have to “get over.” Some even think you can “catch” depression, like you can catch a cold. The number of misconceptions out there is amazing.
Anchor Magazine recently published an article on this topic, basically reminding us that mental illness is still not as widely accepted as we would like, but how much progress we’ve made in just the past 20 years. It starts by describing the story of Keith Anderson, a Canadian lawyer who grappled with depression:
Anderson’s depression affected every aspect of his life, including his family, his relationships, his self-confidence, and his self-worth. But on top of all the symptoms of depression, Anderson also became the victim of stigmatization from former colleagues, friends, and even neighbors.
“It’s amazing the people who stand by you, and it’s amazing the people who don’t,” he says.
At a time in his life when he was looking for support and acceptance, Anderson faced rejection and isolation from many people.
Every time someone he knew walked by him without saying hello or sharing an embrace, it sent him further into depression.
“It was really troubling, and at the time I was pretty shaky, so when someone snubbed me it threw me for a week. It hurts when you think, ‘Gee, they were people who had had their own troubles personally and professionally who I had helped, and the one time I’m in a situation, they’re long gone.’”
Anderson’s experience is not unique. Thousands of people across North America who suffer from depression also become the victims of stigma and discrimination from those around them.
It’s a good article that gives a broad perspective on how far we’ve come, what efforts are ongoing, and how much further we have to go in destigmatizing mental health concerns.
I’m not a big fan of medicalizing mental illness, but in terms of reducing the stigma, it seems to have helped people understand these are “real” concerns and problems people face. But these simple messages bring their own problems, too. For instance, in simplifying the message, it simplifies the expectations about treatment. I’m not sure that’s a good thing, but I know it is a good thing that more people think of concerns like depression just like other health concerns today.
Read the full article: Learning to accept mental illness in today’s society
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15 Responses to “Depression is Real” (Pingbacks/trackbacks not shown below)
Good article, great blog keep it on 
Wendy Aron at 11:11 am on
July 11th, 2008
Every time I go to an M.D. for a physical problem and have to tell him that I am on medication for depression and anxiety, I wonder and worry about what he thinks of me. And I’m talking about a medical professional! I don’t think anyone has forgotten Nurse Rached and the ring of “medication time” from One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest thirty years ago. The stigma of taking medication for depression is still real and still very apparent.
Wendy Aron, author of Hide & Seek: How I Laughed at Depression, Conquered My Fears and Found Happiness
kim_johnson at 8:36 pm on
July 11th, 2008
I think I hear what you are saying about the medicalization of depression being a mixed blessing. On the one hand it seems to go some way towards reducing stigma, but on the other hand the stigma can come precisely because people think that people with depression have a severe mental disorder. Hard to say.
At the time when psychiatry was born (as a specialist field within medicine) there was a LOT of stigma about mental disorder (where it was thought to run in families and become more severe with each successive generation). That was part of the rationale behind why it was thought to be justified to exterminate infected bloodlines in the Nazi regime. The main ‘treatment’ for psychiatric disorders was hospitalization. This might seem an extreme measure to us today but it is important to note that the concept of mental disorder used to be much narrower than it is today. At the time we had (what have now come to be known as) schizophrenia, catatonic depression, severe bi-polar I, and some others that have since been gifted back to neurology such as severe epilepsy and neurosyphilis.
During that time more and more and more conditions were becoming medicalized as people started to flock to medical doctors instead of seeking out church leaders and social supports. This was due to the success of medicine in dealing with some epidemics (the development of antibiotic, in particular, I think, and pasturization). This left a nieche for the upper middle classes… They wanted their symptoms to be medicalized (because medicine had become a beacon of hope). But they didn’t want to be psychiatrically disordered (because then they would never be able to marry off their well daughters!)
Conditions like obsessions, compulsions, neurotic (non-catatonic depression), anxiety, post traumatic stress etc never used to be regarded as psychiatric. They were regarded as neurological (hence `neurotic’ or `nervous’ disorders). Freud trained as a neurologist and developed his talking psychoanalytic cure to deal with such neurotic complaints. Prescriptions included visits to mineral spas that were thought to have curative properties, bed rest, tobacco, cocaine etc etc etc.
Not quite sure how these paradigmatic ‘nerve disorders’ got to be gifted to psychiatry. I guess they are a mixed blessing… They help reduce stigma of mental disorder (since many of these people are quite functional and challenge the stereotype of severe dysfunction). But then… It becomes less clear how seriously we should take psychiatric disorders when they seem to be luxuries for the ‘worried well’. Hard to say…
Part of the problem is figuring how much stigma there is really… And how much ’seeing stigma’ is all but a symptom of depression (everybody hates me going to the garden to eat worms). Dunno… But then I live in a false / artificial environment, I guess…
kim_johnson at 8:39 pm on
July 11th, 2008
I guess that speel was mostly meant to say: The medicalization of neurotic disorders wasn’t something that was stigmatizing (but then I’m not sure that it was non-stigmatizing either.
There was no shame in being sick, or in getting a doctor (indeed there was a great deal of pride in getting one who was well regarded). Almost… A status symbol kind of regard…
Jude at 11:35 pm on
July 11th, 2008
I was yelled at by a colleague for being suicidal when her father was struggling to survive cancer, just as though my illness was something I’d decided to suffer from him, unlike his. I learned from that to stop being so darned open about it.
Dick Cavett has blogged twice about depression recently (most recently today). http://cavett.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/07/11/smiling-through-part-2/
Jude at 11:36 pm on
July 11th, 2008
I was yelled at by a colleague for being suicidal when her father was struggling to survive cancer, just as though my illness was something I’d decided to suffer from, unlike his. I learned from that to stop being so darned open about it because people don’t understand.
Dick Cavett has blogged twice about depression recently (most recently and most interestingly today). http://cavett.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/07/11/smiling-through-part-2/
Michel at 9:52 am on
July 12th, 2008
I think you really should take some pills peter.
“It’s amazing the people who stand by you, and it’s amazing the people who don’t,” he says.
I know that well. Yet I continue. It is a mystery. I think it is hard in the professional world. I have learned to not tell anyone who I work with.
Lynda at 4:12 am on
July 17th, 2008
“It’s amazing the people who stand by you, and it’s amazing the people who don’t,” … I know this all too well also. When my mother and father died (2 months apart), my husband of 8 yrs completely ignored me, except for an occasional “snap out of it” or rolling his eyes and walking away. I learned to greive secretly. He finally decided I wasn’t any fun anymore and left. So I then had that greif to deal with too.
Anonymous at 11:38 am on
July 18th, 2008
I believe that most people in this situation don’t stand by you and turn the other way and that most definately makes an impact in the most negative of ways when all that is needed is someone just to be there, sometimes, it is that simple.
I still have real issues with telling people about my condition, people do change how they treat you after you tell them, even if they don’t mean to. In my case, I have just pushed away the one person I trusted enough to talk to about how I feel because it was becoming a burden to him and I didn’t want to bring him down anymore. It was probably the stupidest thing I could’ve done but I honestly felt like I had no choice. I’m reluctant to tell others because I know I’ll just do the same again.
I’m not sure I completely agree with things moving forward here in the UK. Obviously, I can’t compare it to how things are in the US but I feel that the media here aren’t helping to raise awareness in the most suitable way. Recently they have concentrated on the negative aspects of the treatments and I feel that it has caused so much confusion that it has put people off from seeing a medical professional. They need to understand that depression isn’t something that has a right or wrong treatment.
dev at 4:02 am on
July 21st, 2008
Hi All,
I want to discuss the dipression problem
and remedy
There are 5 kind of persons in the world
1. Theoretical/emotional( mostly unbalanced)
Ist child of mother is often theoretical
and mostly vulnerable to depression
2. Practical
IInd child of mother is often practical
3. Balanced( only 2% in the world)
4. Mixture
3rd child of mother is often Mixture and most successful
5. Extraordinary(0.1% in theworld)
Problem of dipression?
1. anger to any one
2. not able to mix with someone
3. friends comments
4. not complete your wish
5. not able to explore yourself, your feelings remain in your heart
Remedy:
1. get love from your mother/girlfriend
sleep in lap of your mother/girlfriend
2. go in the lonely room , close the door
a) weep as much as you can
b) shout and abuse some one who want to hurt you as much as you can
c) take your tounge out and move your head like mad person and shout your feelings out of your body, move your head and shout and do boxing with wall, do all the activities like mad person as your heart says and express your feelings out from your body
d) now you will feel relax and your anger will be cool
Thanks
Dev
add me at orkut at devkakkar@gmail.com
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Good article, great blog keep it on
Every time I go to an M.D. for a physical problem and have to tell him that I am on medication for depression and anxiety, I wonder and worry about what he thinks of me. And I’m talking about a medical professional! I don’t think anyone has forgotten Nurse Rached and the ring of “medication time” from One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest thirty years ago. The stigma of taking medication for depression is still real and still very apparent.
Wendy Aron, author of Hide & Seek: How I Laughed at Depression, Conquered My Fears and Found Happiness
I think I hear what you are saying about the medicalization of depression being a mixed blessing. On the one hand it seems to go some way towards reducing stigma, but on the other hand the stigma can come precisely because people think that people with depression have a severe mental disorder. Hard to say.
At the time when psychiatry was born (as a specialist field within medicine) there was a LOT of stigma about mental disorder (where it was thought to run in families and become more severe with each successive generation). That was part of the rationale behind why it was thought to be justified to exterminate infected bloodlines in the Nazi regime. The main ‘treatment’ for psychiatric disorders was hospitalization. This might seem an extreme measure to us today but it is important to note that the concept of mental disorder used to be much narrower than it is today. At the time we had (what have now come to be known as) schizophrenia, catatonic depression, severe bi-polar I, and some others that have since been gifted back to neurology such as severe epilepsy and neurosyphilis.
During that time more and more and more conditions were becoming medicalized as people started to flock to medical doctors instead of seeking out church leaders and social supports. This was due to the success of medicine in dealing with some epidemics (the development of antibiotic, in particular, I think, and pasturization). This left a nieche for the upper middle classes… They wanted their symptoms to be medicalized (because medicine had become a beacon of hope). But they didn’t want to be psychiatrically disordered (because then they would never be able to marry off their well daughters!)
Conditions like obsessions, compulsions, neurotic (non-catatonic depression), anxiety, post traumatic stress etc never used to be regarded as psychiatric. They were regarded as neurological (hence `neurotic’ or `nervous’ disorders). Freud trained as a neurologist and developed his talking psychoanalytic cure to deal with such neurotic complaints. Prescriptions included visits to mineral spas that were thought to have curative properties, bed rest, tobacco, cocaine etc etc etc.
Not quite sure how these paradigmatic ‘nerve disorders’ got to be gifted to psychiatry. I guess they are a mixed blessing… They help reduce stigma of mental disorder (since many of these people are quite functional and challenge the stereotype of severe dysfunction). But then… It becomes less clear how seriously we should take psychiatric disorders when they seem to be luxuries for the ‘worried well’. Hard to say…
Part of the problem is figuring how much stigma there is really… And how much ’seeing stigma’ is all but a symptom of depression (everybody hates me going to the garden to eat worms). Dunno… But then I live in a false / artificial environment, I guess…
I guess that speel was mostly meant to say: The medicalization of neurotic disorders wasn’t something that was stigmatizing (but then I’m not sure that it was non-stigmatizing either.
There was no shame in being sick, or in getting a doctor (indeed there was a great deal of pride in getting one who was well regarded). Almost… A status symbol kind of regard…
I was yelled at by a colleague for being suicidal when her father was struggling to survive cancer, just as though my illness was something I’d decided to suffer from him, unlike his. I learned from that to stop being so darned open about it.
Dick Cavett has blogged twice about depression recently (most recently today). http://cavett.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/07/11/smiling-through-part-2/
I was yelled at by a colleague for being suicidal when her father was struggling to survive cancer, just as though my illness was something I’d decided to suffer from, unlike his. I learned from that to stop being so darned open about it because people don’t understand.
Dick Cavett has blogged twice about depression recently (most recently and most interestingly today). http://cavett.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/07/11/smiling-through-part-2/
I think you really should take some pills peter.
“It’s amazing the people who stand by you, and it’s amazing the people who don’t,” he says.
I know that well. Yet I continue. It is a mystery. I think it is hard in the professional world. I have learned to not tell anyone who I work with.
“It’s amazing the people who stand by you, and it’s amazing the people who don’t,” … I know this all too well also. When my mother and father died (2 months apart), my husband of 8 yrs completely ignored me, except for an occasional “snap out of it” or rolling his eyes and walking away. I learned to greive secretly. He finally decided I wasn’t any fun anymore and left. So I then had that greif to deal with too.
I believe that most people in this situation don’t stand by you and turn the other way and that most definately makes an impact in the most negative of ways when all that is needed is someone just to be there, sometimes, it is that simple.
I still have real issues with telling people about my condition, people do change how they treat you after you tell them, even if they don’t mean to. In my case, I have just pushed away the one person I trusted enough to talk to about how I feel because it was becoming a burden to him and I didn’t want to bring him down anymore. It was probably the stupidest thing I could’ve done but I honestly felt like I had no choice. I’m reluctant to tell others because I know I’ll just do the same again.
I’m not sure I completely agree with things moving forward here in the UK. Obviously, I can’t compare it to how things are in the US but I feel that the media here aren’t helping to raise awareness in the most suitable way. Recently they have concentrated on the negative aspects of the treatments and I feel that it has caused so much confusion that it has put people off from seeing a medical professional. They need to understand that depression isn’t something that has a right or wrong treatment.
Hi All,
I want to discuss the dipression problem
and remedy
There are 5 kind of persons in the world
1. Theoretical/emotional( mostly unbalanced)
Ist child of mother is often theoretical
and mostly vulnerable to depression
2. Practical
IInd child of mother is often practical
3. Balanced( only 2% in the world)
4. Mixture
3rd child of mother is often Mixture and most successful
5. Extraordinary(0.1% in theworld)
Problem of dipression?
1. anger to any one
2. not able to mix with someone
3. friends comments
4. not complete your wish
5. not able to explore yourself, your feelings remain in your heart
Remedy:
1. get love from your mother/girlfriend
sleep in lap of your mother/girlfriend
2. go in the lonely room , close the door
a) weep as much as you can
b) shout and abuse some one who want to hurt you as much as you can
c) take your tounge out and move your head like mad person and shout your feelings out of your body, move your head and shout and do boxing with wall, do all the activities like mad person as your heart says and express your feelings out from your body
d) now you will feel relax and your anger will be cool
Thanks
Dev
add me at orkut at devkakkar@gmail.com
