1. By Thulisa Sigwabe
Depression... A word tormenting the lives of students, adults and even young children.
The pressures of society have over-whelmed many individuals and have resulted in mass
suicides around the world.
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2. Up to 8 000 South Africans commit suicide annually and the
youngest suicide fatality in 2001 was a 10-year-old, but more fatal
suicides occurred in the ages of 15 - 19 years old. “Depression is one
illness that can lead to death without a person having to think about
it,” Zander says in a concerned manner, manager of Crescent Clinic.
It is a common illness any human being could have. Depression can
vary, although we may all suffer from it in some time in our lives, it
can affect different people in different ways. Depression is common
to patients who are currently sick and are trying to recover from a
disease, an illness, or a disorder etc. who are not getting better and
would rather die than go through the whole process of getting better
when nothing seems to help.
Jane*, 26, struggles to live her life as she has ‘atypical bipolar’
which is not the maniac phase, which is the typical bipolar we
know that causes people to be short tempered and throw tantrums
for no apparent reason since she was 12. Jane has got a degree
in Psychology and journalism and now writes for a magazine. Her
condition can either make her happy or just sad with no reason what
so ever. She does not act like a typical bipolar person where she has
mood swings that can change up to 10-15 times a day and this can
last for days, months or years. These moods are so tense that they
can mess up your ability to function. During the maniac phase a
person might wake up the following day and decide to quit his or her
job in a very vicious manner and spend all their money on random
stuff that they not need and when they ‘’click’’ back to their normal
phase they feel down and depressed about it. Nobody really knows
what causes that but it just happens that they do something which
cannot be explained.
Jane is either in a state of depression or a mixed state which is
characterized extreme anxiety and agitation. It was 6 weeks since
she felt better and well even since her suicide attempt. ‘’I had found
closure in some areas in my life and some old wounds had been
healed. I was beginning to become more conscious of the things I
have to be thankful for,’’ she said assertively. The next morning she
woke up feeling very frustrated and more frustrated than the other
time, it was as if she was a 6 year old trying to put the small puzzle
piece in the spot that is not suppose to go into, yet forcing it. She
started yelling, shouting, after which it looked as if an earthquake
had taken place in her room. As she got to work there were more
frustrations and more anxiety provoking triggers, if a person asked
a normal question she would reply in a cheeky way or in some
defensive manner like she is attacking the person. “I felt angry,
hopeless, anxious and uncertain of how this day would end and
where it would take me.’’
According to an article by Dr Ciaran Mulholland, clinical scientist,
senior lecturer and honorary consultant psychiatrist, people suffering
from depression feel restless, irritable, tense and anxious and often
think about suicide. They feel helpless and hopeless about life that
they feel like they don’t have a purpose in it, as if they are outcasts
and are inadequate to others like some kind of extra luggage that’s
wasting space in the back of the boot.
One day a couple of years ago, Jane drove to work, typed a suicide
letter, then left and checked into a Motel (hotel). There, I swallowed
a bottle of anti-nausea medication, followed by a half-bottle each
of Valium, Tylenol, Motrin and aspirin, and then I slit my wrists. ‘’ I
expected to die immediately since I have always been deadly allergic
to pain killers’’ as she thought to herself. As she laid there on the bed
as her head felt dizzy like she was on some kind of a roller coaster
ride, waiting for the reaper to come get her. The minutes turned into
an hour and hours into minutes. A feeling had kicked in that she was
not going to die so she called in her husband, who then later drove
her into the emergency room.
“I had been considering killing myself for a couple of months.’’ She did
not do it because she wanted attention, nor felt like her family did not
need her and even unloved- even though at times she felt they would
be better off without them. ‘’it was the factors of being stressed of
the issues I had to face in life.’’ It’s as if she had no control of nothing
in her life or herself.
Depression is that it’s treatable. There are many different types
of treatment. These include medication and talking therapies
(psychotherapy). Simply talking to somebody or your doctor
about your problems is a form of psychotherapy and can help
greatly. ‘’It’s far better to talk about your problems than ‘bottling-
up’ your emotions.’’ Zander explains, manager of Cresent Clinic.
‘’Psychotherapies are as effective as medication for the treatment of
mild depression.’’ Patients are also given antidepressants which can
help to lower the mood.
Depending on what type of depression you have your doctor will
choose the best prescription for you and you got to take them
regularly. Depression is a deadly illness amongst most people and
if you are depressed you may feel like you want to kill yourself, or
thinking of committing suicide or even trying to commit suicide. You
may or may not succeed, but even if you don’t that does not mean
that that person won’t try again. Depression is curable and there are
many ways to cure it. People need to be more observant to others
and people who are suffering from other major issues such as bipolar
is at a higher risk of committing suicide than an average person that
is depressed. “Talking is much better than taking the medication
because you feel much better and you feel better when you have
taken a load off your chest,” says Zander.
Even if you are depressed it doesn’t mean you have to be on
medication, you should always keep active because that helps to keep
your mind off of things and helps you to think of something else. You
should write down you thought and feelings down. Try not to lie in
bed the whole day. It is curable but it can take a lot of time.
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