Mental Illness and depressions, what is it?

I suffer from a form of it, mine is depression, so I would like to try and explain it in my own words in the hope that others can understand it better.

OK, so it sounds really bad in terms of society. “Mental illness” it makes you think that a person is ‘not quite the ticket’ you know a bit dumb or a schizophrenic maybe?

Well there is a myriad of mental illnesses and we all have some kind whether we know it or not,

Yes! Even Religion is a form of mental illness as is hoarding or OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder),

So what is depression?

How about if you flip the words and say instead ‘An illness in the mind’ ok this sound better to me because it conjures up a normal everyday person that just has something not working quite right and what ever it is, it might actually be un-noticeable in everyday society. Depression falls closer to this side of an illness than those others more serious brain disorders that can exist.

Depression is just something going on in the brain that makes you feel down all the time, but when I say down I mean total despair not momentarily depressed.

We all get depressed it’s part of the chemical working of the brain. You have happy times and you have sad times, it’s normal for your brain to fire off positive and negative charges depending on its chemical balance and the input it’s getting from the outside world. Your brain will process this information and derives your mental state at that time, look at it like this: –

Your going on holiday and you have just won one million pounds (1.5 million dollars) now take a moment to think about what I just said and ask yourself, how do you feel ?

You already have the sparks firing in your mind and it’s all positive. A nice holiday, no money worries?
Your reading this right now and processing the words and your mind just starts to make you feel good, you might even be grinning right now just thinking about it. (See, got you! lol)

See how simple it is, just reading that sentence, how your mind started to go up in a positive way, those words alone made you process a positive out come. Our brains are very complex and when all is running fine you will have good and bad days and that is just how things are in life as your brain works out it’s surroundings and processes the information to create an outcome as to how you feel and so, how to react.

Sadly this process happens if someone you love dies, but in a negative way. It’s all still just a chemical reaction in the brain using the information it receives from the world around you.

You brain processes the information and create an out come using chemicals but the information of a death brings a negative feeling due to the sadness of the news this chemical reaction controls our emotions. In a normal person you can feel ups and downs many times a day, good news or bad news, something it won’t have any effect in your busy daily life. A momentary low or feeling a bit depressed is not depression as you can get depressed and everyone does, but the only similarity with feeling depressed and actual depression is the word.

Depressed vs Depression

They are so different, as when you feel depressed you have the chemicals in you brain to change that feeling like, booking a holiday or winning a million pounds, the other (depression) can not be changed by these things because the chemicals needed are not being produced by the brain.

Depression is a chemical problem in the brain those that suffer are exactly the same normal people you might chat to in the street and you might not realise that they are any different from you but they can not produce the chemical in the brain needed to spark towards happiness, they can not get out of the despair because they are not producing the chemical needed to feel positive.

Hope

There is hope for this chemical imbalance, there is medication that can provide the chemicals needed to trigger the spark needed to start the positive chain reaction and bring back positivity and it can actually, over time kick start the brain into producing these chemical again on their own, so it’s just a matter of accepting the cause and treating it,

Not so simple

Magic pill? This is not as easy as it sound for someone suffering from depression, and it takes time and I mean years of time, as well as support from those that care about you. The feeling of despair is the “end of the road” feeling; the point of life question will always derive at the same answer, which is not a good one for the sufferers.

How can you convince someone that life is good and there is a meaning, when they have no positive sparking in the brain and all they see around them seems pointless, full of sadness, trapped with no way out no hope. That’s some of the feelings of depression.

My Realisation

For me it was a realisation that no matter what I do, I cannot change anything, I am just a microbe on a rock in a vast universe and this rock we know as earth is full of hate and intolerance. It’s not a nice feeling and it’s all backed up by my brains clear ability to reason out the logic, as the person suffering believes they are thinking clearly but they are lacking the positive chemicals to balance their rational, so always coming up with the same conclusions of no point (and this is because they can not put any positive spin into their thoughts).

How do you convince someone who is totally in control of his reasoning but all calculations lead to a negative answer?

it’s like the film (war games) where the war computer computes that no matter how it plays the game the end is always the same “if everyone dies then War is pointless” well substitute the word ‘war’ for ‘life’ and you have the logical reasoning of a manic depressive.

There are many people suffering from depression as it is not one clear state of doom and gloom all of the time. Not all are fully lacking the positive chemicals some are just not producing enough to stay fully balanced, some produce it in an erratic manor, you can not put all depression into one simple state.
Many people are on tablets and so they act differently depending on which tablets they might be on, there is not one magic pill there are many variants so you have to find one that works for you and those on tablets can be sporadic in their ups and downs due to the tablets working or not quite working or having an adverse reaction causing other issues.

how do you explain to someone that has given up on life to carry on with life?
Give them a million pound? It won’t matter, a holiday in the sun? It won’t matter, their mind can not jump start into a positive feeling as the chemicals are not there to start the positive ignition.

Some people really do seem fine and you might never see them looking down and being introvert, while others are at the point of suicide or become reclusive. Many suffer from anxiety I do, mainly for fear or falling into depression, the fear of interaction with others that might trigger the despair, fear of seeing more sadness. Fear of another religious nut job who is on a mission to kill. Most people are just trying to do the best for their families and don’t need these mad people shooting up the place. The world is mad and we allow it to be like this!

The upside :). Yes there is one

It can be fixed if they get the chemicals they need and the time to recover will slowly get themselves out of the pit of despair, but none will ever be exactly as they were before, when you have fallen so deep down that very dark hole, many will not be able to forget how hard it was getting out and where it was taking them. You become aware of your need to avoid negativity as that hole of despair might grab you again so you just have to avoid getting near it, You have to be careful not to get too ‘depressed’ or be around bad or negative things or people who get you down, even bad new on the TV can make you feel too close to that hole and no one want to fall down it once they have almost got out of it. Life can become kind of like spinning plates you have to work at keeping them all up (happy).

But we all have to do that we all want to live happy and safe lives for ourselves, our friends and families so we are all trying to find that happy place.

So what can you do to help?

Support and kindness and get them on the medication. The rest is about them finding a reason to climb out of the hole, and they can do it, they just need time and a reason to counter their logic of despair.

What triggers depression?

Is it all chemical our can it be outside influences also.

We can all suffer trauma by the things we see or things that happen to us, we all carry mental scares, which we try to lock away. Any number of things can stop the mind producing the right balance of chemicals as the human experience is a combination of the sensory (what we see, feel, taste, hear etc.) and the mental (how we process this information and the chemicals needed to make the brain work smoothly) along with the food we eat, as our bodes create chemicals using food to power us, so any number of factor can play in the imbalance that causes depression. A good diet is essential to staying healthy, and being around positive people can definitely make getting depression harder for some people.

Burnt out

Sometimes its the realisation that you are totally burnt out and the floodgates will then open and swallow you up all those things in your life can flood in, It can be the loss of a loved one or a sudden and deeply upsetting situation, it can be financial or just a realisation of everything accumulating, but remember that there are multi millionaires that live dream lifestyles yet suffer from depression as depression is a state of mind which money has no power to fix, some might think it can fix their depression but it would only be a patch fix as it’s a chemical issue as, although money can be one of the many causes that can start the cycle of despair, it’s in reality anything can start the cycle downward, as depression can be triggered by so many factors. Anyone who says money can buy happiness is wrong, at least for someone suffering from depression.

It’s like falling down a well with no way to get out and you can fall down it in so many different ways that anyone might be susceptible to doing it. For me it was a combination of things, I have been very successful in my music but it comes with expectations on me I can not deal with and also having done so much, I became lost as to what to do next, what happened at 9/11 shook me to the core, it made me realise how hateful religion could be and how humans for centuries have used beliefs in invisible gods to kill and control others. My music is all about escaping into a place of unity for all and bringing everyone together and suddenly my reason seemed pointless as people don’t want to love each other, too many haters.you can see where I’m going here the spiral is downward, towards no hope for mankind and no point.

Anyone can spiral and yes some are more susceptible than others but the good news is it can be fixed with the right medication and support but it’s not a short-term issue.

I find happiness in music and I make it to spread happiness so my affliction has an upside to the meaning of who I am.
See I find a positive in my work for others and it helps me escape the mad world I live in. My tablets are working 😉

I hope I have opened your view in a positive way on the subject of depression as the stigma some people have with it (due to it’s generalisation as a mental illness) is not really a fair representation of what it is. We are the same as everyday people in society, all you religious nuts who believe in invisible beings or you obsessive cleaners it’s all a form of mental illness weather you want to except it or not. We are all a bit mad and I accept my madness and I’m working to fix it as best as I can.

If I could invent the tablet that stopped all religion (un educated superstition) I could make the whole world unite in peace and unity.
See I can even laugh and joke about how sad the world is.

My tables are that positive spark and through my music I can try and make a positive escape, if only for a small moment you can be lost in my happy and united universe that is in my music and if you find that place, then it’s still worth me staying around.

For more information on depression contact.

www.about.com
www.healingwell.com
http://www.depression.org.nz/depression