ALANA HUCKABAY

Depression is often treated as an emotional problem and swept under the rug — but this is partially because it is often disguised by those struggling with it. It is easier to think of depression as an emotional problem when the sufferer is not obviously distressed, because other people can then ignore it as well.

However if a person is truly clinically depressed, they can be struggling — even if it isn’t obvious. The imbalance of brain chemicals in a person with depression is a real health issue that most people don’t like to acknowledge because dealing with it is difficult.

The age range for the onset of depression is late adolescence and young adulthood. Since depression can start at this crucial time in life, it needs to be approached seriously because treating depression as an emotional phase is both problematic and dangerous.

Physical health issues are easier to address because all one has to do is prescribe an appropriate prescription after diagnosing the problem. The event that triggered the depression to begin with is likely to be very difficult and painful to work through. Antidepressants can help with some of the symptoms, but they cannot fix the emotional problems that caused it.

If someone has a chronic illness like asthma, no one thinks it’s something that you can just get over, so to say asthma is not considered to be “all in your head.” Recovering from or managing physical problems can be much easier than managing depression and the fact that this isn’t widely recognized is a cause for concern. Depression is a common mental illness and the fact that people aren’t taught how to manage it when it strikes is something that should be remedied.

Most people have busy schedules nowadays and do not often take time to think about their life or why they do what they do. Thinking too much about life in general can trigger depression, but a healthy amount of time spent processing can help people understand, if not solve, why they are struggling in life.

Mental health also has an impact on physical health, whether people like to acknowledge it or not — which makes it even more important to address. Along with emotional symptoms, depression also causes physical problems. However if people only attempt to solve one of the two, then they have only solved half the problem.

Depression can cause headaches, back and joint pain, fatigue, insomnia and overeating or undereating. If someone is experiencing these symptoms and they have an otherwise clean bill of health, it can be quite confusing for them. Worse still, if someone continues having these symptoms they could be labelled as a hypochondriac, which also doesn’t help.

If physical concerns are not taken seriously, a person might give up seeking help in finding out what is wrong with them. This causes those with depression to suffer in silence, which leads to a rapid downhill spiral. Emotional pain is much easier to disguise than physical pain, which is why mental health takes a backseat to physical issues — even though emotional pain can wreak the same amount of havoc in a person’s life.

Depression being treated as simply an emotional problem that will eventually pass is something that needs to change. When someone’s brain is sick, it is not something that will go away on its own. Stigma hurts more than it helps, as people can and will walk around carrying a lot of hidden emotional pain.

Social support is important for someone with depression, although they may be reluctant to seek it out, especially when their symptoms are hitting them hard. While antidepressants can provide relief, they are not a complete solution. Therapy can help, as long as the person is willing to put the work into changing their lifestyle and thinking habits. The bottom line is that a person with depression is truly sick and should not be labelled as anything less because of it.