5 Facts About Depression

5 Facts About Depression

As an over-thinker, I tend to get too in-depth inside my mind, my own thoughts, trying to unravel my emotions, and because  of this, I start disassociating fiction from reality. Because of that, I wanted to shine some light on depression and how it can severely affect how you portray the world and what’s around you. These 5 facts about depression have been carefully selected to fully piece the information found from research towards the actual feelings of a depressed person.

Fact 1: Eating Chocolate Reduces Stress

To be more precise, cocoa polyphenols has been stated that it has a huge potential for stress reduction management.

Stress can be portrayed as “the non-specific reaction of the body to any requirement that involves change.”

It has been said that consuming around 40g of dark and milk chocolate on a daily basis for around two weeks approximately can potentially reduce stress; specifically in women.

Fact 2:: “Don’t Feel Sad Over Someone Who Gave Up On You, Feel Sorry For Them Because They Gave Up On Someone Who Would Have Never Given Up On Them.”

This may sound cliché but if we think about it, does it make sense? Of course.

Dealing with a mental illness is difficult as it is, but having to constantly deal with the reminder that depression has been one of your closest companionships can be rough as well. Depressed people are often vulnerable – vulnerability should never be a bad thing; it just shows how strong you are as a person regardless of how hard life can be.

Being vulnerable oftentimes leads us to be too kindhearted; which is not a bad thing either. We just need to understand where lines should be crossed so we don’t get taken advantage of. Depression can put us in a fragile and desperate way of wanting to fit in, not wanting to be surrounded by others, having intrusive thoughts, etc. What people don’t understand is that as much damaged as we may be, we still feel and care, so because of that, we don’t want to abandon others and let them down, even if they don’t need you. It’s not your loss, it’s theirs for letting go of someone as beautiful and kindhearted as you.

Fact 3: “Depression Is The Most Common Disability In Women – About 25% Of All Women Will Experience Severe Depression At Some Point In Their Lives.”

A sad reality that women have to deal with on a daily basis. Depression isn’t just “I feel sad. It must be the depression”, “today didn’t go as planned; I’m depressed”, or any other excuse you may have heard before. While sure, these could be causes of depression, but when I read that statement and saw those statistics I immediately thought about how hard life is for every woman regardless of age, sexuality, religion, ethnicity, etc.

Women are more vulnerable and high targets for sexism, sexual harassment/abuse, hate due to how we look, how we speak, what we wear…there’s just so many things that society expects from women that it gets overwhelming very easily.

Domestic violence is another factor regarding the high percentage of women that are emotionally unstable and depressed. This is an issue that keeps getting thrown under the rug when in reality it should be spoken about more often.

Fact 4: “Only 10% Of Our Mind Is Conscious. Meanwhile, The Subconscious Doubts, Fears, & Desires Come Out In The Form Of Your Dreams. Dream Analysis Is Helpful To Find The True Meaning Of Your Dreams.”

Sigmund Freud’s (the father of psychoanalysis) theory of dreams theorizes that dreams illustrate unconscious desires, thoughts, wishful satisfaction, and impulse. Freud defined between both the description of a dream (what the dreamer recognizes) and its latent content, the symbolic meaning of a dream (i.e., the underlying wish). The manifest content is sometimes centered on the events of the day.

Fact 5: “Emotional Pain Is Remembered More Than Physical Pain And Has More Effect On Your Behavior That Causes Depression In Most Cases.”

We already know the feeling of what physical pain is. When we were kids we used to get hurt a lot of the times; whether it was playing rough with other kids, falling out of swing sets, etc. We would tend to end up with scratches or cuts; sometimes even worse and deeper damage. Sure, the pain was there at the moment. If we had a cut we knew that if it took more time to heal than what it was supposed to, then we needed to go get it checked out to prevent or ease any infections and prevent any further damage. Now, when we talk about emotional pain, what comes to mind?

For me, having a parent that made you feel like you’re worthless, with no capacity of doing things on your own, or being useless for their selfish needs, cuts deeper than any physical injury I’ve ever had.

Words and actions carry so much weight in a person’s life. Sure, physical injuries heal with time, and even though they can leave long-lasting scars to remind us of what happened in that specific moment, we often just look past it and continue with our lives.

With emotional pain, the damage can be life-long reminders of those who hurt our trust, who tainted our vulnerability, those who carved words in our brains that no one could ever take them out; no matter how much they try it was just impossible. The scars are not visible, but they’re there.

Facts taken from the Psychology Facts App.