"Sometimes it feels like being locked and stranded in a lonely dark room while there is a roaring party next door" a patient says as they wait outside of the therapist’s office. “Clinical depression is a very serious illness that affects approximately 14.8 million American adults, or about 6.7 percent of total U.S population aged 18 and older in a given year” (“Numbers Count”). Yet this topic is very seldom spoken about and generally is taken lightly. Despair can affect people of all ages and is currently at an all-time record high. Depression often blurs natural thinking processes and negatively affects people's judgments. During the most disconsolate state, people have tendencies to become an opposite of themselves. Persistent feelings of deep dejection and sorrow are very overpowering and can cause a great deal of anger, fear and frustration. It is very important to raise awareness about depression because the mental ailment can lead to physical harm, disorganized thinking and relationship problems.
A major contributing factor to physical harm is depression. Karen Conterio explains that “more than two million people annually intentionally injure themselves in some way”. Generally, when one is clinically depressed, they become concerned with their feelings much more than their physical wellbeing and aesthetic appearance. Those who attempt self-harm are looking for different ways to transpose their mental pain to other places in the body. Physical harm comes in various forms, such as obesity, drug abuse or cutting. People that perform self-harm are putting their lives at stake for a temporary “fix” that will only cause more problems in the future. For example; those who displace their pain by over eating and excessively indulging on unhealthy sweets or fatty “comfort” foods are only setting themselves up for much higher risks of chronic disorders such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, and diabetes (“WebMd”). Chronic disorders are very dangerous and will only add more anxiety and complications for a depressed person in the long run.
Depression also inhibits a brain’s normal functioning. In other terms, the disorder can make people do and say things that should not be said or done. “About one in three depressed people are also openly hostile” (Udesky). Unfortunately, evidence of depression linked disorganized thinking has been shown all throughout news and media. For example, the horrific Columbine High School massacre in 1998 that resulted in the deaths of many innocent people. The unfortunate event led to the death of twelve students and a teacher. FBI investigations revealed the organizers of the massacre Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris were both considerably morose before the incident. Eric Harris especially had been prescribed two anti-depressant medications due to the severity of his condition According to various sources, the two high school seniors seemed “nothing more than a pair of average teenagers” (Rosenberg). Their journals however, revealed truths. Before the massacre both Harris and Klebold had mentioned in their writings their immense hate for others in their school, their problems with “fitting in” and other miscellaneous things that frustrated and angered them. The combination of anger, frustration and dispiritedness led to planning the massacre. Disorganized thinking essentially impaired the pair’s moral judgment and reasoning. Therefore, depression can be a very perilous disorder for those who have it and even people around them.
Constant dullness and gloominess is bound to affect relationships. Many marriage counselors and therapists suggest that communication and bonding are key aspects to healthy, lasting relationships. Living in constant misery leads people to become isolated from others who love and care about them. Dreariness is one of the greatest causes of divorce amongst married couples asides from abuse and infidelity. Theoretically, depression is not necessarily the exact correlation to divorce. The corollary of leaving it unresolved and unevaluated is what leads to divorce or failed relationships (“WebMd”). Mortified people have tendencies to isolate themselves physically and mentally from society and family. A person who is very morose and down in the dumps may choose to sleep in for long periods of the day which essentially creates an even more distant relationship amongst couples. Despondent people also would much rather spend life home than spend time out in the weekends. This lifestyle generally becomes bland and affects the relationship and/or family at large.
Depression is becoming a major rising problem and it should be a moral obligation to reach out to as many people about the effects. Gloominess affects millions of live and generally many people are left undiagnosed. Raising awareness of clinical depression will help substantially reduce distress linked self-harm injuries, relationship problems and melancholy induced tragedies.