“I didn’t want to wake up. I was having a much better time asleep. And that’s really sad. It was almost like a reverse nightmare, like when you wake up from a nightmare you’re so relieved. I woke up into a nightmare.”
– Ned Vizzini, It’s Kind Of A Funny Story
A day -That sinking feeling kept returning. She felt like she was trapped inside a tightly shut box that she could not snap out of; a dark infinite black hole which choked her. The simplest exercise was hard to do.
Another day – It was like being stuck under a sheet of glass, screeching, shouting and banging, to try and get noticed by the world around her. The outside world goes about their respective lives. She felt a painful feeling overshadowing her when nobody could hear or noticed her situation.
“It was very hard for me. I cannot describe it accurately with words,” says Avni (name changed), a college student from Bangalore. Avni, now 22 years old, suffered from depression for approximately 4 years. She did not realize it until one of her friends suggested counseling.
“My parents were unaware and passed off my gloomy stance as academic pressure. In fact, even I could not understand the reason behind the unending empty feeling.” She sought the help of a counselor which helped her overcome the dreadful disorder.
This disorder does not know age groups. From an adolescent to a sexagenarian, depression can consume anybody from within. According to the National Crime Records Bureau, at least 35 in every 100,000 people in Bangalore commit suicide, out of which the most important cause is depression. The students are not the only target.
A study conducted by The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India states that nearly 42.5% private sector employees in India suffer from depression or general anxiety disorder because of pressurizing and trying schedules and sky-high levels of stress.
There are a lot of contributing factors and causes which result in depression.
Pressure from the workplace and the metro’s jam-packed traffic leads to growing stress among Bangalore residents. Additional reasons could be the inability of the youth working in the industries, or college students staying away for home to find time for their family.
There are various kinds of depression, the most common and harder to recognize is mild or moderate depression.
Mild depression is mostly stimulated by a stress and tension filled incident of life or certain situations, like exam stress, a sour break-up of a relationship or monetary troubles, though it is hard to pinpoint the causes. The symptoms usually comprise persistent feelings and emotions of gloominess, lacking motivation, self-esteem and experiencing fatigue. It is not impossible to resume with routine life normally, but it feels outlandish and hard to derive pleasure from it.
Occasionally, if these feelings continue, it might lead to major/clinical depression. The severities of this type are definitely much higher, and have a damaging effect on studying and maintaining relationships. This can persist for prolonged periods if professional help is not provided.
Mrs. Ramaa Raju, the college counselor and HoD Psychology of Jyoti Nivas Degree College said it is hard to detect depression in students. She had her own perception about this disorder. “When moods are mildly negative we start believing its fine due to normal situation…we believe that our moods will be positive after a period of time. We believe that we have the ability to manage all these stressors.”
The reasons for this negativity are because of endogenous factors, which means, it can be hereditary. “Many people are not aware of that. They think they would be able to manage by themselves, which is wrong. It is important to get help”.
There maybe two kinds of people with this respect – Firstly, moods cannot decide the state of mind i.e., we may be considered weak mentally or emotionally but it is natural to break. Statistics indicate that men find it harder to talk about it due to larger responsibilities. Women can cry and express. Mostly, men bottle it up within themselves. A lot of times depression in men goes unnoticed as it takes the form of anger. Secondly, there are people who call themselves depressed at the slightest frustration and start consuming anti depressants. “Especially college students”, Mrs. Raju said.
According to a new study by National Institute of Mental Health & Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS), Bangalore, and University of Queensland, Australia (2013), 18% school students (out of 800 surveyed) in Bangalore suffer from subclinical depression, which
indicates that the symptoms for depression is above average. In that study, 7% of the fragment were found to meet the criteria of “much above average” and “very much above average”.
In an interview with NDTV, Deepika Padukone, spoke openly about her depression. “I had won all my awards and you know all the appreciation for 2013, everything had happened and it was a great time and obviously at once one will think like why is she depressed, she has everything going for her. But, I woke up one morning just feeling empty you know like this pittish feeling in my stomach that I was telling them that I get this pittish feeling in my stomach. I woke up feeling directionless, I didn't know where to go, I didn't know what to do and I had these bouts of feeling so low that I would just start crying at the drop of a hat.”
If the history of depression is traced, in 1621, Robert Burton, an English Scholar at the Oxford University produced “Anatomy of Melancholy”, wherein he explained the social, psychological and mental reasons that lead to this dreadful disorder. In this comprehensive and thorough work, he proposed sustenance and diet, proper workout and exercise, travelling, purgatives, bloodletting, natural medicines and getting married as solutions to cure depression. But do these solutions really make a difference in today’s day and age?
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