Acknowledge Your Depression

Depression is an illness and should be acknowledged as such. It isn't a reason to be ashamed. The reason so many people fail to look for help for their depression is that they are ashamed. Unfortunately, this is one of the feelings associated with depression anyway. Because of this, it makes it difficult to acknowledge your depression.

If you're continuously feeling principally low, well-meaning friends may tell you to "snap out of it" or even start to get irritated by your mood.  Your depression will feed off this negativity and you will start wondering why you can't just "snap out of it".  You then start to feel that there's something wrong happening to you for the reason that it must be so easy and it's only "not right" that you feel so bad constantly.  Well, this is not right and there is something wrong with you.  You have a medical condition and you deserve treatment in the same way as any other patient.  This is why acknowledging your depression is so important.  Consider the following example:  If you had a cold for six months would you ignore it and hope it would pass?  No, you would dose yourself up with anything you can find and maybe see a doctor to find out if there's an underlying motive for it to last so long. 

Depression is sadness that lasts too long.  Everyone feels sad at some point in their lives but depression is more than that.  It is a feeling that you can't bring yourself up from the bottom.  After a while you give up trying.  People start staying away from you.  You feel worse.  You need to find external help to treat depression in the same way as you would if you had a long lasting cold.  You can try herbal remedies for depression - there are some in your pharmacy - or you can see your physician.  There might be an underlying physical cause for your depression. 

If your doctor can’t help you they may refer you for professional counseling.  Don't be embarrassed to go for counseling but do make sure you feel comfortable with your counselor.  If not, then another counselor.  Counselling should not be discounted just for the reason that you don't feel comfortable with your first choice of practitioner.  In standard of living you will naturally find that you get on with some people and clash with others.  However, you should not have a personality clash with your counselor.  Alternatively you must be sure that it is a personality clash and not just that you don't agree with what they're saying.  The best thing is to follow your instincts.  If you like the individual and appeared to get on well in the first couple of sessions then stick with it since they may only have touched on the root cause of your problem. 

In some cases, acknowledging depression might be difficult because you have lived with it so long that you may not know whether it is depression or not.  If you have grown up with depression it is possible not to realize that you are actually depressed because you have no perception of how normal people should feel.  You might feel angry always or you may even feel like going to the middle of an empty field and just screaming.  You may feel anxious, have trouble sleeping or even sleep a lot.  At times you might think that your family would be better off without you (and actually believe that to be right) and might have thought about running away or suicide.  You might worry about death all the time (either yours or someone else's) and not let yourself be happy just in case…. (or even "I should enjoy this now in case....").  If you are feeling any or all of the mentioned symptoms then you need to think about talking to somebody.  Even if it is just a friend or family member to begin with, they might be able to advise you and encourage you to look for professional help. 

When you have acknowledged that you have depression please remember that it is a medical condition and can be cured.  You should not have to feel this way for ever.  Nobody actually thinks negatively of you the way you think they do.  Talk to someone.  Seek and accept help and you will discover that there is a different, better way of seeing life.