Depression: Are You At Risk?

My dog is exhausted. My sister came for a visit and brought her little French bulldog puppy, Vito. He’s an energetic little thing.  He wore the Princess out, as you can see by the picture. She is only three years old, but she’s a grumpy little thing when you mess with her territory. She’s been very finicky about her eating habits, too. I had to pour some beef broth over her dog food to get her to eat it. In fact, I’m rattling a Cheez-It box right now, and she just rolled over and closed her eyes. This is an unnatural phenomenon which doesn’t happens very often at the Jackson household.

How tired are you? How difficult is it for you to just put one foot in front of the other and breathe? What are you gonna do about it?

We all have those days—days when we are mentally, spiritually, emotionally, and physically exhausted. We feel it’s an effort to even move our eyeballs. We get drained and then we get into trouble.  We lay on the couch, nestled down in the Ugliest Afghan In The World, minds blank (or else run amok), and we feel paralyzed. Not even the rattle of a Cheez-It box gets our attention. And if we’re not alert to our bodies and minds telling us something is wrong, depression sets in. Funny thing, depression...it’s an insidious disease. It creeps and slithers into our lives like a venomous reptile swallowing a rat, inch by inch. Then, before we even know it, we’re down the rabbit hole with no Alice for a lifeline. I’m not talking about having a day or two where we’re mentally down, or physically exhausted like Trixie.  We all have those days. I’m talking about something a little more serious and something that needs more attention. I’m talking about real depression.

If you battle depression, let me urge you to get help immediately. Left untreated, it can have dire consequences. I know because I’m a sufferer. I fought it for 10 years. I fought hard. And the reason I fought it alone and didn’t get help was because of one word—STIGMA . I didn’t want people to know I had it and I was ashamed—ashamed because I could not overcome it by just praying more. Or fasting more. Or exercising more. Or eating more. Or “whatever more.”even though I knew the statistics, and I was the first person to tell others to get help, I didn’t get it for myself. I kept thinking it would go away. And it usually did during the spring and summer months. But then fall would come—shorter days and longer nights, the cycle would begin again.

I finally decided enough was enough, and got some real help. I still have a few bad days here and there, but finally getting the help I needed liberated me from the overwhelming cloud that seemed to continually hang over my head. I feel like my old feisty, ornery self. Look out, world...

This blog has taken an unexpected turn, albeit an necessary one. I don’t feel like we address depression in a healthy manner. We don’t think about it at all unless someone famous dies. Then it’s the buzzword for a few months, but we place it quietly back into the closet where we think it belongs. Well...NO! We need to drag it out, look at it, get help for it and stop feeling shame if we have it! There’s no shame in having diabetes, or lupus. Why depression? I am shamed no more. I feel healthy, vibrant, happy and more focused on my goals instead of  the diseased mass of destruction interrupting me every five seconds reminding me how worthless I feel. No good. And no more. No more will it be me.

It’s my desire that this blog will urge someone forward to get the help they need. If you need help with depression, please contact a mental health professional immediately. There’s help and there’s hope. Be blessed, my friends!

The information in the video below was obtained from Web MD.