Everyone feels sad or down from time to time, but these feelings usually go away in a short time. However, the depression It is a persistent sign of sadness, which gradually worsens and about which a psychiatrist dared to speak, to the point of going viral.
The depressionalso called “clinical depression” or “major depressive disorder” is different. Depression can cause serious symptoms that affect how someone feels, thinks, and coordinates daily activities like sleeping, eating, or working. It is a disease that can affect anyone.regardless of age, race, income, culture, or educational level.
Depression can co-occur with other mental disorders and other illnesses such as diabetes, cancer, heart disease, and chronic pain. Depression can make these health problems worse and vice versa. Medications taken for these illnesses sometimes cause side effects that contribute to symptoms of depression.
Depression can happen to people of all ages:
- Adults
- Teenagers
- Older adults
What not to say to someone with depression?
Now, only a mental health professional can help someone with their depression. However, if you want to say something, consider the things you should NEVER say to someone with depression.
1. “Cheer up”, “Be happy” or “Enjoy life”
The person who is depressed is not able to enjoy, be “happy” or cheer up in those moments. To someone who is not able to get up, for example, due to a physical problem, you do not tell him to get up because you know that he will not be able to. You help him and provide him with the support so that he can do it.
The same idea is valid for depression. The person does not decide to feel “happy” or “unhappy”, nor does he decide to get discouraged or stop enjoying things. It is not as easy as changing the “chip” and feeling good again. Motivate and support him so that he can gradually return to the life he had before.
2. “You don’t look depressed” or “You don’t look sad”
Many people who are unwell, either because of depression or anxietyThey try to put on a good face and make a great effort so that others do not notice. This does not mean that they are not feeling bad emotionally. It may be an invisible discomfort for you or for other people, but that discomfort exists inside.
Why would someone with depression want to hide their condition?you will ask yourself. The answer may be that he is afraid of being misunderstood by others, that you feel ashamed or guilty, that you are worried about the possibility that others will see you as incompetent (at work, in life in general…) or because close people (friends, partner, co-workers…) they can reject for being like this.
3. “It could be worse…”
A situation or problem may seem like a small thing to you, but to a person with depression it can be a huge mountain to overcome. When depression lurks, one is not able to face the situations or problems that appear in the same way that you could do it or in the same way that the same person did it before.
4. “You’re like this because you want to”, “You have no reason to be depressed” or “If you have everything, why are you like this?”
Depression is not chosen. You don’t choose to feel this way. It is a condition that without treatment will not improve. There are a number of factors that cause a person to end up suffering from depression: genetic or biological (a predisposition that together with vital experiences can trigger its appearance) and environmental (events or situations in life, such as the loss of a loved one).
At a given moment, if a person has a biological predisposition to suffer from depression, something can happen in life (financial problems, job loss, traumatic situations…) that can cause the appearance of depressive symptoms. We have seen, for example, how with the COVID-19 pandemic (an environmental factor) depression has increased.
5. “We all have problems” or “You think about yourself too much”
Sometimes it can seem that a person with depression is very aware of their thoughts and worries a lot about their life. Although it seems so and gives the feeling that he does not care about others, nothing is further from reality. The person continues to worry about other people, but feels bad, without strength and without motivation. Saying these kinds of things to him will increase his guilt and shame and he will feel like you are minimizing his pain.
6. “You will get over it” or “It will pass”
These types of phrases or comments do not help a person who is depressed, since they pretend to give an optimistic vision but this is not the case in reality. The person feels that he is overwhelmed by the present and his perception of the future is dark. It is also not so simple if the person has lost a loved one or has experienced a traumatic situation. It will not “happen” as if nothing and it will not be easy to overcome it. It is possible to do it, but psychological help is needed to achieve it.
7. “Everyone gets depressed sometimes”
No, people don’t get depressed sometimes. We can all be sad or unmotivated at some point, but it is not the same as being depressed. LDepression is something much more serious and encompasses more symptoms, like the ones we have already listed, than pure sadness.
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