Depression in Society and the Media

[beataamanda]

Hello everyone,

I am coming out of a 6 month long bout of depression which severely debilitated me in the beginning. One of the avenues that I have chosen to taken on my road to recovery is to write about my experience.

I want to do a little bit of investigative work around how Depression is represented. While we have wonderful and safe places such as these, what are some of the good, the bad, the ugly that we see in the media, in our friends, partners, family or colleagues when it comes to depression.

I will be putting some of my findings in my blog, however I won't be quoting nor will I use personal experiences, it will just be to see if I can find any concensus or trends.

Thank you for your support in this and I look forward to your responses!

Best
Beata Amanda
(Beata derived from the Italian meaning, blessed, lucky, blissful or heavenly.)

[Pip]

My family simply don't talk about it with me.  For many years I was considered moody and over dramatic so I became withdrawn.  Eventually I did get diagnosed with severe depression and when I told my parents I may as well have told them I had flu  .  After that I couldn't be bothered trying to talk to them.  I did eventually let my sister know how severely depressed I had been over the years, my bouts of self harming and suicide attempts.  This was after my mum had died and I asked her not to tell my dad as he is elderly.

The only times I really get frustrated with the way depression being portrayed are when it's to do with post natal depression and with social services.  People, in general, are unsympathetic when it comes to post natal depression.  After my son was born post natal depression was difficult for me to deal with as I was severely depressed anyway and I had gone through extreme coercion into surrendering.  I was expected to carry on as if I hadn't had him.  My sister's eldest daughter is just over 2 months older than my son and I was expected to be understanding.  I was but at the same time I was going through it as well and I wasn't getting any support.  Social services have been known to take children from their mothers / parents because the mother suffers with post natal depression or one of the parents suffers with depression.  As we know depression is treatable and just because a parent suffers with depression doesn't mean they will harm their children.  I'm not saying all social workers are like that and there are the good ones.  I know a couple who are foster parents and for years they cared for two sisters a couple of times a year as their dad suffered with depression.  It stemmed from when his wife died so he also felt reassured that the girls were okay.

My husband suffers with depression so we do empathise with each other.  It can be a bit tricky if we are suffering at the same time but we get through these periods okay.

We are quite fortunate with our friends as they will listen to us even if they don't understand.  They know that by listening they are helping just by doing that.

On a personal level I enjoy writing so it helps to get my thoughts down and I enjoy creative writing as well.

[Beetzart]

I tend to find that people who have never suffered with depression just assume you should 'pull yourself together' and other pointless rhetoric.  I used to get told, by people I worked with, that it was all in my head, and there is nothing wrong with me.  Also one person once told me to stop taking my medication especially mirtazapine as it made me groggy the next morning and he would have to 'carry me'. 

If you (dare) read the Daily Mail they sometimes run stories about how many people are taking anti-depressants.  So?  What does it matter?  They don't run stories on how many people are taking warfarin, or metaformin.  And the comments you read from people on these stories.  Well, they imply that people shouldn't take meds as if they don't need them. 

Depression is an illness and meds are there to help people.  They don't turn you into zombies, and yes they are hit and miss at times.  I've just started on sertreline (about 2 months ago) and I don't feel better yet, in fact I feel awful, but I do know that it takes times to see an improvement. 

Anyway, people don't understand which makes the illness even harder to cope with and more lonely.

[beataamanda]

Thank you for your replies Pip and Beetzart, they were both incredibly insightful and helpful.

I have been quite lucky with my support network and so I don't feel that I can comment accurately about the issues around that without outside advice.
I also thought your point Beetzart about the statistics they run for Anti-Depressants in Newspapers interesting, you're right-  why is it so different then running "reports" on other medications?

Thank you again - I will be completing and posting my blog today :)