Mental health is preserved wealth

I cannot, for the life of me, understand why the entire topic of mental health is treated like some kind of taboo when it's scientifically included under the medical category!

My interest in the effects of mental illness normalisation and popularisation began in talks with one of my best friends. I had been diagnosed with clinical depression and put on medication during high school.

When my depression was at its worst, I felt what I was experiencing was not the same as the "depression" I was hearing about and seeing among my peers. I noticed that the word was used loosely to describe feelings that did not reflect what I was experiencing. My perception was that many of my peers casually described normal negative emotions as depression. This caused me to feel my struggles with depression were being delegitimized, and this made me want to separate myself from those I felt were misappropriating mental illness.

In hindsight, I admit that my way of judging other's claims to depression was somewhat unfair, but I saw it as part of a movement to normalise mental illness in ways that are creating a new set of challenges for those experiencing severe mental illness. 

Mental illness is complicated; it is not black and white; different levels of severity exist.

Oftentimes people joke about being depressed; even people suffering from severe mental illness joke about depression, perhaps as a way of crying for help. The inability to actually tell if someone who uses the word depression is clinically depressed creates referral dilemmas for professionals, family members, and peers. Ultimately, the situation is worsening as children increasingly are exposed to the misuse of mental health words to an extent that their working definitions for depression, anxiety, etc. are heavily flawed and misleading.

Mental disorders in the media (e.g., movies, television, songs, news reports) often are inaccurately portrayed, overestimated, and even romanticised (Harper, 2005). And as popular presentations increase, so does superficial familiarity and a sense that severe mental illness is commonplace.

Overall, the various media play a role not only in blurring the line between normal emotion and mental illness, but also make some people feel worse by creating situations where negativity begets negativity.

There are more than 10 million depression cases per year in India. It is estimated that 16.2 million adults in the United States, or 6.7 percent of American adults, have had at least one major depression episode in a given year.

Depression has no cure, but it is treatable through a combination of approaches, especially when it is recognised and properly diagnosed. Unfortunately, despite its immense impact on individuals and families, depression is often not taken seriously enough.  

DID YOU KNOW?

If you search 'depression' on Instagram there will be a 'get support' page popping up on your screen where you can get help from friends or talk to a helpline volunteer. 

-DC