Sadness or Depression?

Self-portrait of and by Jovie Suganob Tuyac

Depression is a common mental illness that affects people of all ages. According to the 2016 fact sheet of WHO, there are around 330 million (mostly women) affected by this globally.

There are many factors surrounding the cause of depression.  To cite an example,childhood experiences can trigger progression of personality disorder. When ignored, a child may find it difficult to develop a certain qualities that would enable him to feel social belongingness and acceptance in the later stage of his life. Isolation may occur that will hamper from building himself with his potentials- this can be a precursor for more psychological complications.

Our mind is connected to our bodies. They work together to create a rhythm in a day to day basis. When mind is impaired, other body parts being dependent to the brain will suffer from disabilities.

Early diagnosis is the key to arresting this problem. Being a person with “not so good” childhood experiences, I believe that the environment is the defining factor for a growing child’s overall health. When a child's exposure to a cruel world (trauma) is severe it can be expected that the life awaits for him in the future can be or most likely the same. This (take note!) does not apply all the time that is why we have psychologists and psychiatrists to help us deal with it.

Parents to be people have to get educated about the importance of living and maintaining an amicable family life. I may have experienced difficulties during my growing up years (having a broken family) but I also believe that nature balanced this by giving me a good ( thank you for survival genes) genetic makeup. When you are aware as a child that there are psychological anomalies trying to take a toll on your development into  functional adult then I could say that you are somewhat intellectually capacitated.

I am not a medical professional to discuss about mental health. As a person who tries to manage depression I know how hard it would be to feel depressed. I had suicidal ideations and some episodes when I tried to create an imaginary world in which I can survive .Substance abuse can be blamed to unmanaged depression.

Again,parents can play an important role for their children by being educated about mental health. To consult a professional is still the best option when the need for intervention arises. We just have to remember that every person in this world feels depressed once in his life, it's just that we don't have uniform coping mechanisms,support system and genetic makeup to make it bearable. Take it into consideration that sadness is just a state of mind, it will only become a serious problem when we allow it to have a grip of our lives.