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Imagine that you are in a group of people having a good time. And then you come to notice the person who laughs the hardest. You sat with that person and talked about stuffs that you share in common. Soon, you find yourself becoming friends with him/her and started being comfortable with each other. Then as you and him/her were talking, he/she began to open up and said that he/she have depression, what yould your first reaction will be? What would your first words will be? Will you take it seriously or just treat it as a joke and be sarcastic about it? That moment when you react and say your first words to him/her will be the deciding factor on how his/her is gonna treat you in the long run.
This is depression and this is a serious situation that everyone thinks it's just a joke.
Defining Depression
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Depression (major depressive disorder) is a common and serious medical illness that negatively affects how you feel, the way you think and how you act. (Source: https://www.psychiatry.org/patients-families/depression/what-is-depression)
This emotion is an extreme one as it goes beyond just sadness. People living with this is really facing a hard time because they take everything into a serious matter even little things. They tend to overthink mistakes and blame it on themselves as if they're the one being the problem. They also think that they're happiness comes with a price and they can never be geniunely happy about it. Having multiple personality can also happen to them as they try to hide every little bit of their illness and pretend that they are really okay when they're not. There are many things I want to say regarding this but I'm afraid I’ll just have to speak of the things I have experienced from a person who do have depression.
My Personal Experience on Depression
Taking on depression is not an easy feat. While everybody thinks that depression is just mere sadness, they think they’re the disappointment and the source of everything bad that happened. It really creeps in their mind and it goes on and on and on and on forever in their heads. When they made mistakes, they think way beyond and blame themselves for it. Every negative feeling will come across their mind and never get out of there. Their happiness is one of their worries as they think that when they're happy, something bad is gonna happen. They will think that being in a state of happiness can lead to something really bad, thus tend to stay sad for the rest of their lives. Depressed people are the best pretenders in the world as they can hide their emotional distress to everyone whether it's family, friend, or workmates. They can put on a happy mask and just blend with the crowd. And for me, the worst that you can encounter with depression is that a person having multiple personality. This one is harder to deal because you don’t really know how are you gonna respond to this. You must be really really careful in every word that you will speak because something might happen if you spoke wrong words. And this is my experience with people having depression.
How I Handled Depression?
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Well, this is not really easy. Trust is something worth mentioning here. If that person who has depression really trust you enough, then that will be you cue in understanding why are they like that and that's the time when they can open up to you and tell you everything.
The one thing that a person can do to a depressed one is to fully understand them not just the stuation but them as well. As the one who experienced what they’ve just shown and spoke, you must act and speak accordingly with gentleness, wisdom and understanding. You can also be a sounding board for their rants, sadness, etc. They just need someone whom they really trust to just listen to everything that they have to say, be a crying shoulder, and be a hug post that they can always hug when they feel lonely and alone.
A QUICK NOTE: Never ever treat their emotions as a joke. Take it seriously and always be aware.
Also, let them know you’re always there for them even you're really busy. When they know you can be there for them is a big relief because they can be satisfied enough that when they need someone to talk to, to cry to or even to complain to, you'll be there.
And that my friend, is what you should be doing for people who do experience depression. I hope you'd be aware about this and never take this lightly. Let's spread awareness regarding this matter. Thank you.