There are no words to express my sadness at the death of Robin Williams. From “Mork and Mindy” to “Dead Poets Society” to Aladdin’s Genie to Comic Relief and everything else in between, his is one of the voices that has permeated the laugh track of my life.
Depression is not something you can just “get over.” If it was a simple matter of choosing to no longer be depressed, I can’t imagine anyone who wouldn’t choose to get rid of this terrible, insidious disease. And it IS a disease. Just because you can’t see it, just because it’s “in your head”, doesn’t mean you’ve made it up, doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. It’s an awful, terrible thing. We stigmatize depression and mental illness far more than we should, and that hurts the people who suffer from them- and the people who love them. There is nothing wrong with needing medication to deal with depression. It is an illness. You wouldn’t think twice about this if someone was diagnosed with cancer or high blood pressure or diabetes; if medication were needed to treat those illnesses no one would bat an eye. So why do people think there’s something wrong with needing medication for depression or mental illness?!?
If you think you are depressed, please, find someone to talk to- whether that is a professional or just a friend you can trust to listen. And if your friends or family say that you should seek professional help, please listen to them. They are not saying that to brush you off; they are saying that you need more support then they are able to provide.
There are many more things I can say about depression, having been treated for it with medication myself, but I’ll just leave it at this. It is an illness. You are sick, not broken, not damaged, not worthless, and deserve to be helped, deserve to get better. The first step, asking for help, is absolutely without question, hard as heck but so very worth it; YOU are worth it, no matter how worth-less you may feel. You are not alone. (Worst case scenario, I am here for you, whether I know you in person, in “real life” or not.)
Crisis call center: 800.273.8255
National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) http://www.nami.org/
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