How People Perceive Depression

Depression is caused by stress, anxiety, etc….etc…etc….

These are the words which almost everyone uses to describe it. While some take it nonchalantly as if it’s not a ‘real thing’ like the concept of ghosts or Santa Claus there is another set of class who take it very seriously. Like literally. And then there’s another class which I’ll describe later in the article so that you keep reading.

While the first category of people described above are those who think that they can’t afford it, financially and otherwise; The words like Depression are barely used as they might not be aware about it or might be a forbidden word in their linguistics. They believe in the concept of ‘ignorance is a bliss’ or avoiding certain concepts might be, well, easier and best for them.’We do not have any disorders, nor did our parents, or their grandparents used to have any’. ‘You’re just feeling sad right now. Sleep over it. Move on’. we might have heard it all and still the list goes on.

The second category talks about it with some knowledge they’ve got and takes it very seriously on a personal level and incorporates it as their agenda to share their wisdom. They might be vocal and allow discussions within the family walls but with a wrong interpretation. Basically they do a mashup of sadness, anger and other emotions and replace them with the depression.

The last category is about those who knows what it is, can accept it if someone says that they’re depressed (like a famous celebrity/ social media influencer), tells everyone that they’re with the depressed, post stories, comments; and think that their duty ends there.

There might be several other categories who are missed or not mentioned above. Either ways, what these people lack in general are empowerment, empathy and inability to understand the actual sense in words that are used. Look, I know that these are the lingo which seem like they’ve emerged all of a sudden and comprehending all of them might seem like a herculean task. (I personally get confused with some of the terms at times.) But the only secret to it is to dig deeper and know it completely before making any statements/conclusions. Our friends, family, surrounding neighbours, social media, internet websites, what we see, read, our intellectual capacity to intake information also plays a huge role in this regard. They can influence us in either way to make us believe what we are today. We have to process such matter and absorb what is the authenticated information. It doesn’t seem like a lot, does it?