Hey everyone,
I'm just doing some research into social attitudes toward depression and wondering if you guys could give me some more of an insight by answering a few questions?
(1) How do you feel when people talk about depression around you?
(2) Did the way people talk about depression deter you or affect your decision to seek professional help?
I guess i just want to know how it feels to someone with clinical depression, when someone casually says: "i'm so depressed".
when people say "I'm so depressed" while they just mean that they are just disappointed about something, one part wants to correct them even tho it won't make any difference and another just thinks "lucky you, you have no idea what its like"
the most annoying reaction was that people seem to think I should just get over it and do fun things. especially my mothers attitude of it isn't all that bad didn't help me to get help at all.
(1) How do you feel when people talk about depression around you?
I find that I take more of interest in what people have to say regards to depression. It's really interesting to hear the narrow minded people and people who just don't understand mental health talk about depression. I feel that when people talk wrongly or rudely about I take it more to heart and personally than any other diagnosis I may have.
(2) Did the way people talk about depression deter you or affect your decision to seek professional help?
I think through my actions when I was about 15 led my school to contact my parents to get me intouch with some professional help. Before that I hadn't really thought much about mental health nor about any conditions such as depression or bipolar before in great detail.
I guess i just want to know how it feels to someone with clinical depression, when someone casually says: "i'm so depressed".
I always end up correcting people who may say 'I'm so depressed'. I explain feeling rubbish and low or upset does not equal to depression. So the fact that lots of people say 'I'm depressed' lowers the validity of someone who actually is depressed and saying they are 'depressed'. I think people should be educated what depression is and what feeling low and upset is.
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It depends on what the people are saying about depression as to how I feel about it, but generally I feel a bit embarassed. Depression is a lot more understood and accepted these days I'd like to say, but many people still have some wrong ideas surrounding it which makes me wary. A big chunk of this is to do with how people half-heartedly say they feel 'depressed' without meaning it, and then the attitudes people adopt as a result of that. (For example thinking it must not be 'that bad' and people are just making a big deal out of it.) I'll only really chime in if the things being said are positive.
(2)
I originally sought help for another issue which was causing/contributing to my depression so not really! N/A for this. At some points during my bumpy road of therapy though I did feel like I wasn't being believed or understood, especially by my GP. I feel like this was more to do with the attitudes towards teenage mental health rather than depression itself though.
(3)
When people casually say they're "so depressed" without knowing how bad it really is it angers me to no end. And don't even get me started on when people self-diagnose! I actually did so at one point and now I cringe thinking about it as what I felt back then is nothing compared to now. I will rarely dare correct them unless I'm in a particularly foul mood, but I wish I could show them - just for a minute - what depression is really like so they would saying it so off-handely. It gives other people the wrong idea so that when they meet someone with real problems in that area who don't have the energy to even brush their teeth they think they are exaggerating.
[quote=poisonapple;3640564]Hey everyone,
I'm just doing some research into social attitudes toward depression and wondering if you guys could give me some more of an insight by answering a few questions?
(1) How do you feel when people talk about depression around you?
(2) Did the way people talk about depression deter you or affect your decision to seek professional help?
I guess i just want to know how it feels to someone with clinical depression, when someone casually says: "i'm so depressed".
Thank you!!!
1. It makes me angry when people think depression is something to "snap out of" You can't snap out of an illness. You wouldn't tell someone with a physical illness like the flu to "snap out of it."
2. No because I know they were ignorant or have never experienced how horrible depression can make you feel. I recently went to my GP who suspected I was depressed, and she took me seriously.
3.If someone said "I am so depressed" it wouldn't make me angry. However, I would tell them the difference between normal sadness and depression, and to keep an eye on their mood over the next several weeks, or note if things change. There are lots of types of depression, not all of them on the same level of severity as clinical depression. The point being, you can be depressed and still be able to function relatively well. (Dysthymia is one of these. The person has symptoms of depression but can still work and care for themselves. They just feel like crap the majority of the time.) And normal sadness, depending on the cause, can lead to clinical depression if underlying issues aren't dealt with.
I wouldn't dismiss someone who was just sad rather than clinically depressed, because I feel that validating someone's feelings, whatever they are, makes a difference.
Last edited by Celticroots : 18-08-2013 at 04:29 AM.
(1) How do you feel when people talk about depression around you?
I find it interesting to hear what they have to say about it, but generally do not offer any comment or mention that it affects me personally. If they are saying something degrading about people who suffer from depression or "suck it up" it makes me quite angry and frustrated with them. Especially if they are a close friend, and know that I am struggling to deal with it.
However, I find most people's ignorance of depression frustrating.
(2) Did the way people talk about depression deter you or affect your decision to seek professional help?
The first time, I did not intentionally get help for depression. I was suffering from stomach aches caused by depression (I had no idea depression was the cause) and went for help with that, to learn I was depressed. If I had known I was depressed, I do think that the way many people talk about it, would have made me avoid seeing a doctor. Mainly because many people have the theory that depressed people are "crazy" or it is all "in the mind" and that would have made me uncomfortable and unwilling to go to the doctor for it to be confirmed.
For the most part, when people say "I'm so depressed" it irks me. Mainly because they have no idea what they're talking about. I generally just really want to correct them about what depression really is.
The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.
Just because some people don't cry, doesn't mean they're not suffering.
It doesn't bother me at all when people say "I'm so depressed" or similar in a casual way. It irritates me when people feel the need to correct it. It's generally done in a joking way and I don't think it's meant offensively. 'Depressed' can be a feeling; like, the dictionary gives 'in a state of unhappiness' as well as 'suffering from clinical depression' as a meaning; it's commonly used that way and I don't think that having a certain diagnosis gives one group of people a monopoly on using the word. Similarly it also wouldn't bother me if someone said "today has been manic" and I wouldn't feel a need to educate them about bipolar disorder. Maybe it would bother me if people started saying "omg, I'm so clinically depressed" but I've never heard anyone say that!
I think it is actually quite arrogant to assume that just because someone uses the term 'depressed' casually they "have no idea what it's like" - how do you know they don't? How do you know they're not trying to introduce just how bad they actually feel, but don't know how to go about it? Or perhaps they do actually have experience of depression but just don't get as zealous as some about how people use the word. Perhaps my opinion doesn't count as I am not depressed, but I have a history of mental health issues and have been treated for depression in the past; I am also very involved in mental health promotion at my university, and I have been known to say "oh, I'm so depressed," jokingly, or when I do not mean that I'm suffering from clinical depression. I would find it quite amusing if someone assumed from this that I had no idea what it meant and felt the need to educate me.
I'm not saying that attitudes towards depression, or mental health in general, are always great, because they're not. But I do think they are gradually improving. Though it's important to get information out there and reduce the stigma that there still is, I don't particularly think the most effective way to do that is by getting worked up about how a single word is used (a word which has never been a purely medical or diagnostic term; I may feel differently if people started saying they felt a little schizophrenic today). I also don't see anything wrong with having a sense of humour about it.
"I know you're sad, so I won't tell you to have a good day. Instead, I advise you to simply have a day.
Stay alive, feed yourself well, wear comfortable clothes, and don't give up on yourself just yet.
It'll get better. Until then, have a day."
(1) How do you feel when people talk about depression around you?
It depends on what exactly they're saying. If they're talking about their own experiences of depression, I tend to feel pretty sympathetic. If people talk about it in a disparaging way (e.g. calling it laziness, or not being a 'real illness') I feel more frustrated but also see it as an opportunity to educate them.
(2) Did the way people talk about depression deter you or affect your decision to seek professional help?
It didn't deter me; it probably encouraged me. Knowing that it was an illness and that there was support available meant that there was the option of professional help. Had I not heard it discussed in this way I might have thought that my symptoms were just my personality.
I guess i just want to know how it feels to someone with clinical depression, when someone casually says: "i'm so depressed".
Personally, it doesn't bother me at all. The meaning in that context is that their mood is low - and 'depressed' is a synonym for feeling sad. I'd be more concerned if someone said "I have depression" without formally being diagnosed.
(1) I don't mind people talking about depression, so long as they don't dramatise it, and treat it just as serious as any other illness.
(2) No the way people talk about depression didn't deter me or affect my decision to seek professional help, in fact quite the opposite, it motivated me to go and get the help I needed.
It feels annoying & upsetting when someone casually says: "i'm so depressed",
I tend to feel confused as to why they'd say that when their clearly not depressed, I guess it's because their ignorant as to what depression is really like, until they've experienced it then obviously they are not going to understand, although it's annoying I don't take it to heart, I just think of them as being un-educated
1) The first time I told my close friend she said 'everyone's got depression'. For those who have never had it they find it very hard to comprehend the difference between being down and a bit low and being depressed. This is recurrent in all my social groups, and I find people tend to be quite flippant because they don't understand.
2) Not at all, only affected my decision to tell people about it. I just don't now.
Take too many pictures, laugh too much and love like you've never been hurt because every 60seconds you spend upset is a minute of happiness you'll never get back
...don't be afraid your life will end, be afraid that it will never begin.
Just realised i totally didn't answer the question! I feel like a bit of an outsider when people talk about it, and I tend not to contribute because I feel like I might 'give away' that I have a depression diagnosis.
Take too many pictures, laugh too much and love like you've never been hurt because every 60seconds you spend upset is a minute of happiness you'll never get back
...don't be afraid your life will end, be afraid that it will never begin.
It doesn't bother me at all when people say "I'm so depressed" or similar in a casual way. It irritates me when people feel the need to correct it. It's generally done in a joking way and I don't think it's meant offensively. 'Depressed' can be a feeling; like, the dictionary gives 'in a state of unhappiness' as well as 'suffering from clinical depression' as a meaning; it's commonly used that way and I don't think that having a certain diagnosis gives one group of people a monopoly on using the word. Similarly it also wouldn't bother me if someone said "today has been manic" and I wouldn't feel a need to educate them about bipolar disorder. Maybe it would bother me if people started saying "omg, I'm so clinically depressed" but I've never heard anyone say that!
I think it is actually quite arrogant to assume that just because someone uses the term 'depressed' casually they "have no idea what it's like" - how do you know they don't? How do you know they're not trying to introduce just how bad they actually feel, but don't know how to go about it? Or perhaps they do actually have experience of depression but just don't get as zealous as some about how people use the word. Perhaps my opinion doesn't count as I am not depressed, but I have a history of mental health issues and have been treated for depression in the past; I am also very involved in mental health promotion at my university, and I have been known to say "oh, I'm so depressed," jokingly, or when I do not mean that I'm suffering from clinical depression. I would find it quite amusing if someone assumed from this that I had no idea what it meant and felt the need to educate me.
I'm not saying that attitudes towards depression, or mental health in general, are always great, because they're not. But I do think they are gradually improving. Though it's important to get information out there and reduce the stigma that there still is, I don't particularly think the most effective way to do that is by getting worked up about how a single word is used (a word which has never been a purely medical or diagnostic term; I may feel differently if people started saying they felt a little schizophrenic today). I also don't see anything wrong with having a sense of humour about it.
From the opinion of someone who has been given a depression diagnosis I agree wholeheartedly.
Last edited by Celticroots : 23-08-2013 at 10:13 PM.
