Let's talk, without any shame, about depression
Let’s talk, without attaching a sense of shame, on the WHO and PM Narendra Modi’s initiative of de-stigmatising a malady that’s slowly turning pandemic. WHO findings say that in the past 20 years depression cases have increased by 50 per cent, thus affecting 10 per cent of the world’s population, and now a leading cause of suicide among young Indians.
If unattended, it shaves off 10 per cent of one’s peak productive years and happiness quotient, depriving one of achieving a life in full-bloom.
Dignity
The big "D" is not a character flaw, and mental-shaming is as personal an attack on the sufferer’s dignity as is bodyshaming. Let’s not castigate failure. It’s alright to cry. It’s okay to fail. Sadness is a momentary psychological state, while clinical depression is symptomised as a prolonged phase of weepiness, a loss of interest in ambient surroundings and disconnect with the real world.
However, like the viral cold attacks a weak immune system, depression strikes a weak mind, immobilising one’s capacity to grow, think or act, as the victim feels muzzled by self-imposed shame, guilt and heightened anxiety. It took me two decades to come out of denial and admit to an inner demon chipping away at every layer of selfesteem, till my "tears had learned the language of smiles".
Simply because 20 years ago, one didn’t know what name to attach to the syndrome, other than "melancholy". How can one prescribe pill for sadness? And, visiting a shrink was an admission of defeat.
Today much more is known about the causes which could be genetic (due to a hormonal imbalance), or an unresolved emotional crisis. A depressive is underskilled in processing emotional stimuli, so even happy situations make him/her recede to a "set-point" low, were there an emotional thermometer to gauge mood-swings.
Acceptance is the first step to recovery, and consenting to therapy is half the battle won. The brain has a vast data bank of emotional memory saved in its amygdala section responsible for perception of fear, with minute imprints that accumulate over the years. The events may have been crisis-neutral, but the brain records the experiences as a "fight or flight" stuff crucial to survival, releasing excessive cortisol in response to stress, because depressives have an exaggerated view of normal occurrences.
Family support and social empathy are vital lifelines, before the condition leads to secondary ailments like BP, blood sugar or coronary attacks. Godmen and yogis view depression less compassionately than the scientific world, dismissing it as a modern-day malaise of the narcissist, a disease of the rich and the self-indulgent. Their therapy is meditation, scientifically proven to increase neuronal regeneration and alter the neuro-pathways of brain circuitry, to shift fixated thought-patterns.
Isolation
Contemporary triggers to depression are deeper and more layered today, because competition starts early in school; college cut-offs are high; jobs are scarce since the economic downturn of 2008; the incidence of failed relationships have increased; income is dwindling, and life expectancy is increasing.
Social media has increased the feeling of isolation, as online relationships substitute for offline social encounters. Humans are wired for social interface, so while technology makes us more informed and efficient, an overload is making us more lonely and stupid by inhabiting the cold world.
Human body is the only machine that produces endorphins, a chemical released by the brain which inhibits pain signals within the body. Aerobic activity, sex and laughter stimulate endorphin production naturally, while prescription drugs only supplement the hormonal deficit of serotonin, so medication is not the end solution.
Advancement in research through a finger-prick "biomarker" blood test matches the C-reactive protein in the body to the antidepressant that will work best, improving the success rate of treatment.
Ambition
We need to downsize material needs, get realistic about ambition, and stop being hard on ourselves, or being on social overdrive. FOMO, or "fear of missing out", is a new age offshoot of depression afflicting millennials. When people see friends on Facebook in glamourous settings, partying or vacationing in exotic locales, they may post a "like" on your site, but secretly a state of envy is building up, which is a pitfall of social voyeurism.
Actor Deepika Padukone’s "Live, Love, Laugh" initiative, or celebrity dialogues in talk shows by Karan Johar, as also Prince William’s candour after the death of his mother, Princess Diana, and Lady Gaga’s openness about depression — these moves exhort victims to speak out to liberate themselves from silent sufferance. If one can cry, one can resurrect too, because depressives being highly sensitive are also known to be the most creative, having produced profound art, literature and poetry born of pain. All scriptures speak of the transience of joy and sorrow.
So I say to anyone who is afflicted: Take heart, for this too shall pass: “Khudi ko kar buland itna, ki har taqder se pehle; Khuda bande se khud puche: bata teri raza kya hai? (Make your will so strong, that before issuing every decree, God ascertains from you: ‘Tell me, what is your wish?’)”.
(Courtesy of Mail Today.)