Background
After a recent, major depressive episode, with red splotchy cheeks, I asked by the husband: "Why doesn't anybody talk about the color yellow."
I have depression. I was diagnosed when I was 14 years old and I had been experiencing symptoms since I was about 12 or 13. I also have anxiety and began to experience symptoms when I was around 14 or 15 years old. I currently take medication and see a therapist frequently.
The reason why nobody talks about the color yellow is that it is always there. Much like the rest of the colors, you can find it everywhere. But much like the color yellow, depression and anxiety are always there too. Depression looks like crying in between the school's library shelves at 3 pm on a Tuesday. It looks like someone staring into the mirror wishing they could end it all. It is when you stare into a physician's or loved one's eyes and silently cry out the words "help me".
What is it?
Now, I am not here to tell you a sob story. But I am here to make you aware of these conditions. Depression, anxiety, ADHD, OCD, bipolar disorder, and many others are what we call mental illnesses. (Highlight on the word illness).
One of the first things I learned at college was that health is composed of 3 aspects: physical, social, and mental. When we think of health we often think of going to the gym and eating an excess amount of kale and protein powder. But really health is a balance of these 3 aspects, that we need to care for in our lives.
Let me just clear the air here, brush it wide open for you all! MENTAL ILLNESSES ARE ILLNESSES LIKE ANY OTHER. When you have appendicitis, hypertension, or atherosclerosis you will see a doctor as well as make lifestyle modifications like improving your diet and exercise more consistently. The same goes for mental illnesses. Proceed with caution, exercise more, seek counsel from trusted loved ones, and talk to a physician. When you are experiencing a mental illness, you are experiencing illness of the brain or a hormone imbalance. According to Harvard Medical publishing: "Research suggests that depression doesn't spring from simply having too much or too little of certain brain chemicals. Rather, there are many possible causes of depression, including faulty mood regulation by the brain, genetic vulnerability, stressful life events, medications, and medical problems. It's believed that several of these forces interact to bring on depression."(1) As you can see, this illness is very complex and requires medical attention."With this level of complexity, you can see how two people might have similar symptoms of depression, but the problem on the inside, and therefore what treatments will work best, may be entirely different."(1)
Sources:
1-https://www.health.harvard.edu/mind-and-mood/what-causes-depression
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