Living with the D word

Depression: it's a social taboo. 

Nobody talks about it, nobody admits to having it.

Why?

Because it's the unknown, people who suffer from it often feel 'adnormal' 'weak' and 'hopeless' and so often wear a mask to hid there true feelings from the world, meaning people don't realise something is wrong. Unlike with a physical illness, where there are physical signs of an illness - mental illnesses have fewer physical signs. And lets be honest, we've all suffered from off days. We've all had days when we have felt 'depressed' but do we really know what depression is?

The 13th-17th May 2013 is Mental Health Awareness Week, whilst the theme of the week is physical health and exercise, I've asked people to write a short piece on there first hand experiences of depression, this maybe through suffering themselves or from supporting a friend. The aim of this blog is to help people understand where friends maybe coming from, to help support people with depression - to help them see they are not alone, other people have been where they've been, because a problem with depression is it makes you feel so isolated. Makes you feel so alone.

Why? Because statistics suggest that depression is a lot more common then you'd think, so the likelihood is you know someone who has depression, and whilst they might tell you, it doesn't mean they aren't suffering.

The blogs you read are all anonymous, stories from people in all areas of my life, I've asked people who I thought were willing to share their story, but if you'd also like share something, it can be any length, feel free to message/email me (jesv@hotmail.co.uk.)

I hope this blog helps you, in various ways

God bless,

Jess

The posts:

• Depression and the Dark Place
• Depression
• Borderline Personality Disorder
• Depression and Perfection
• Friends, Family and Depression
• Depression and Friendship
• Depression and Faith

(Image taken from this website: http://www.actionondepression.org/campaigns)