Depression is rather over-diagnosed as a condition today. That’s not to say it isn’t damaging or dangerous, as it is. What I’m saying is that a lot of doctors and health professionals are more than happy to diagnose depression with minimal information to back it up. Any psychological condition will be treated as depression and everyone just gets the same generic treatment. You can understand it in terms of seeing as many patients as possible but for individual patient wellbeing that’s frightening.
As a condition, depression can be every bit as dangerous as anything else. It affects every single part of your life and unlike most physical conditions it can go totally unnoticed for years, leading to all sorts of complications. Though a lot of the diagnoses of depression are likely unfounded this doesn’t mean the disease is in any way unreal. It’s very real and requires the care, medical attention and support which all other chronic conditions of this severity require.
The difference is that most of us will go through depressing phases of our lives. Life isn’t all sunshine and rainbows for anyone after all. Going through a bad spell is by no means the same as being depressed however. It’s important to remember this as people claiming that they are depressed when they’re just sad has led to depression being seen as less serious than it actually is.
If you think you’ve got depression then make sure you see your doctor as soon as you physically can. When you’re given the option of treatment always pick counselling over drugs, at least at first. If you’ve tried everything else then fair enough but the drugs play with your brain chemistry and shouldn’t be taken lightly. They can change who you are and tend to stop having any effect at all once you stop taking them whereas therapy can help you deal with depression for life.
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