6 Truly Painful Ways Major Depression Affect Your Life
Depression is one of the most common and unfortunately, most painful mental health problems in the world today. It is more than simply feeling unhappy. Often, the symptoms are so severe that they affect most areas of your life, particularly your social relationships, work, finances, health and so on. It impacts your friends and family, and anyone close to you. It’s really sad that some people still think that depression is trivial and not a genuine health condition. They’re wrong. Depression is a real illness with real symptoms. It isn’t something you can just snap out of by pulling yourself together. Not a good night sleep, a funny joke, or a hug can get you out of depression easily once you’ve gotten it.
Whether you are living with depression, someone you love is, or you simply want to know how painful this illness is, a good way to start is to know how major depression could affect your life.
Alcohol and Substance Abuse
Substance abuse is common among people with depression as they may ‘self-medicate’ to feel better. To try to temporarily ease the pain, they smoke, drink alcohol, do drugs, and the like. Sometimes though, the main disorder is substance abuse and depression just follows. However, there’s great evidence that substance use only worsens depression.
Problems at Work and School
Depression makes it hard for a person to stay productive and deal with work issues. It can also cause sleeping problems, particularly insomnia. And if you can’t sleep, you will feel sluggish the next day. Major depression is among the leading causes of productivity loss. And because not everyone understands this illness, sometimes, people will think that a person suffering from depression is just making ‘excuses’ to get absent at work, or that they are being lazy, disorganised and the like. If you are having depression, it is important that you inform your boss about your condition. Pressure at work could make things worse for you.
Severe Loneliness
When you’re dealing with depression, the things you used to enjoy before don’t feel enjoyable anymore. There’s basically this general loss of interest in life. You’re likely to turn down invites from friends and family, and choose to sit at home and isolate yourself in the room. When there’s loneliness, there’s often hopelessness. You may feel helpless and deserted. And the feeling that ‘you are alone’ gets more intense. Social support makes a very good addition to the standard treatments for depression because it helps ward of loneliness. Joining support groups, for instance, takes away the idea that you’re the only person in this world that’s going through such a difficult battle.
Thoughts of Self-harm and Suicide
People with depression may feel like there’s a dark cloud hanging over their head. You may feel like there’s ‘no way out’ of this black hole and the only way to end the suffering is to stop breathing. At first, you may think of harming yourself, up to the point of committing suicide. It is important to discuss with your doctor or therapist on what to do when self-harm thoughts occur.
Family Issues
Depression changes a person’s way of thinking. And because of that, it changes their behaviour too. You may constantly feel negative about yourself, get irritable and impatient, and take other people’s comments negatively. What makes things worse is that often, family members don’t understand what’s going on. They may give insensitive comments like “What’s wrong with you?" or “Snap out of it!” which increase feelings of worthlessness and sadness. Letting your family and friends know that you have a depression is crucial to the success of your treatment and recovery. If you are a relative or friend of a person dealing with this mental illness, it is also important that you also learn about it. Consider reading books about depression, or asking a health professional about it.
Relationship Problems
Major depression can cause havoc in your romantic relationship. Your partner may start asking what’s wrong and might blame himself/herself for your behaviour. You may also experience loss of sex drive, which fuel more relationship issues. Relationship problems only lead to more depression, and it becomes a vicious cycle.
Whilst depression can really be tormenting and all, you can overcome it. Many people with major depression benefit from making lifestyle changes such as getting more exercise, cutting down on alcohol and eating more healthily. Meanwhile, self-help measures such as joining a support group are also worthwhile. Most importantly, seeking help from a professional therapist is essential to overcoming depression.
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