Depression and mental illness: all in your head or in all our heads?             

 

 

Last night I read a beautifully touching piece by a friend of mine, about the devastating loss of his sister. When I first read it I thought thank god I’ve never gone through that. I was thankful that I have never lost anyone that close, which is quite remarkable in its self, considering I am in my 40’s.

When I read it a second time I felt quite sad that I had never experienced the kind of happiness and closeness that my friend spoke of. The unspoken connection between him and his sister, the fond memories that linger today, faded but not forgotten, made me think that while it is obviously important to mourn the loss of loved ones it is vital that we also celebrate them.

 In my limited experience, I have known the catastrophic effect that losing someone can have on individuals and families, sometimes shaping the rest of the life of the surviving members. I have witnessed the complete transformation of a happy loving carefree loyal friend, who following the death of her beloved father completely lost her self and became a self-obsessed bitter sad individual, dependant on medication to function on day to day basis.

I have wanted to write about mental health for some time but the subject is so enormous and so sensitive that I simply didn’t know where to start.

On reading the text of the eulogy my friend shared led me to wonder how someone can experience such joy and closeness, then have it taken away, without suffering some kind of damage. Depression and stress are still rather taboo topics in this country, but I wonder is the potential to suffer these diseases in all of us.

I think it has never been, and possibly never can be determined which event is the trigger and which is the symptom?

I, in the past have suffered depression and stress and I have blamed the excesses of alcohol. There was a period in my late teens when I would drink 8 or 9 pints at lunch time, sometimes more, eventually resulting in me suffering a fit, when I got blazing drunk when I had measles.  The alcohol fuelled the fever to the point where, were it not for the assistance of others I could easily have died. Following the seizure I went to hospital where I was told to my dismay, that if I continued to abuse my body in such a way, that I would be dead in three years.

That was the wake-up call I needed to reign in the drinking, but have still suffered bouts of real anxiousness, deep depression and self-destructiveness even when sober. This leads me to question whether the booze and behaviour were the cause or just a symptom. Indeed often I can find no cause or trigger, which tends to exasperate the situation in my frustration.

Although I feel no shame for these bouts in times of clarity, during the darkness I have no desire to share my feelings and rarely discuss it even now. I have learnt to recognise the onset and on the whole have managed to pull back from the abyss, but not everyone is so lucky and I am in no way naïve enough to believe that I am now immune.

 I am fortunate to have only experienced relatively mild forms of the disease and suffered little or no detriment as a consequence. Others have more severe, more dramatic break downs and lose their jobs, their homes and their family. Some lose their own life.

England cricketer Jonathan Trott made the brave decision to fly home from the ashes in Australia, due to a long standing, stress related condition. It was brave because he faced a backlash from ignorant people who either don’t understand the illness or simply don’t believe in it.

Some unfortunate comments were made publicly, but on the whole Trott has receives widespread support. There is a growing wave of support for sportsmen and women who suffer from mental illness, thanks in no short measure to high profile spokesman such as footballer Clarke Carlisle, in TV documentaries. Some politicians have publicly admitted to suffering from the potentially crippling effects of mental health issues but still there is not enough awareness. Who knows how many people in the country suffer from such illnesses? Due to the very nature of it, there is still a reluctance to admit to it so there can be no accurate measure of just how many people suffer in silence.

I have in the past been a little unsympathetic to homeless people, believing that they largely choose to be homeless; that may be the case, but how many of them are actually making a rational decision? Surely no one in their right mind would opt out of society and resort to begging in the street, but not in ones right mind it is easy for situations to quickly escalate before one has no choice. The effect of the illness could theoretically be costing millions of pounds each year to just repair the damage rather than treating the causes.

Hopefully, as more prominent celebrities and high profile sportsmen speak out and more people have the courage to discuss mental health issues on social network sites and other media, eventually there will be a realisation that any of us can be hit by depression and stress and that there does need to be help and that mental health issues are not all in your head.


http://jamestringham.wordpress.com/

http://www.bipolaruk.org.uk/bipolar-uk-news/2013/11/29/finding-serenity/