Bro. Success

This will be a long post, But this will be the best post you will read today and it may save your life... From a medical perspective; There are clear signs of depression: Persistent low mood. Persistent sense of worthlessness. Persistent feeling of hopelessness. Persistent thoughts that life is not worth living and nothing is worth living for. Persistent loss of interest in things they used to enjoy like food, sex, socialising, football, etc. This tends to go on for many weeks and many months, rather than just a few days or few hours. Most clinicians will say the diagnosis is made after having at least 2weeks of almost daily feeling of those symptoms above on a persistent basis. Infact, most depression patients will tell you it in-fact goes on for many months before they seek any help. Sometimes when the depression gets too severe, the person may start hallucinating by hearing voices that are not there, imagining things that are implausible and seeing things/people that are not real but they are convinced it is real. They may also feel/claim these imaginary voices are talking to them/talking about them and they may say these imaginary voices/people are telling them to harm themselves or kill themselves. These are signs of very severe depression. Remember I used the word “persistent” to describe the symptoms of depression. I will tell you why. The word “persistent” is significant and compulsory in describing the symptoms used in diagnosing depression because as human beings we may all go through some rough patches in life where we may feel low for a few days or lose interest in things we used to enjoy but we bounce back mostly within a few days. This is why a good caveat to add is that: Merely having low mood and feeling sad because you put your salary in sportybet and lost money is not automatically equivalent to depression. That’s a normal human feeling of grief in reaction to financial loss. Waking up this morning to temporarily lose interest in football because you are a Liverpool fan and your team just got whipped by psg yesterday night is not equal to depression. That’s a normal human reaction to loss. It is human and normal to feel grief after losing a loved one to death or having a relationship end traumatically. This is normal bereavement and grief reaction. This should not be confused for a diagnosis of clinical depression. What is NOT normal is if after many weeks and months of that event, you remain persistently low in mood, feeling worthless, not interested in living life and even start to consider harming yourself/ending your life. Now at that stage, that is depression, I hope this clarification is clear. Now the depressed person may not speak to anyone, but if they summon the courage to speak, these are many of the signs they will tell you. Also while it is not always possible to know for sure if someone around you is depressed because depression is not always obvious to an untrained eye, however if you know the signs to watch out for and you watch/observe closely and pay attention to someone’s actions, words and behaviour changes, you may be able to tell if they are showing signs of depression. This is the reason I have written this post because I’m sure even reading this, you will already know if some or all of what I have written here applies to you or someone around you. So what can you do if you or your loved one is suffering from depression: Two things can be done. 1. Counselling/Therapy 2. Medications (antidepressants). For most people, a combination of counselling and medications provides the best outcome. For counselling, If you are in Nigeria, pls ring 112. Pls contact @MentallyAwareNG, They are very helpful. They can help you get a therapist. Or you can get a therapist yourself. If you are in uk, ring 111; If you are in usa/canada, ring 988. For antidepressants, Speak to your family doctor or arrange to see a psychiatrist. Please share this post everywhere. Help save someone’s life.