subject: Living the Unending Cycle of Depression [print this page] Living the Unending Cycle of Depression Living the Unending Cycle of Depression
As a thinking and feeling being, man naturally gets depressed once in a while. However, when the feeling of drowning, sadness and bitterness goes on for more than a week or a month, this is already an indication or a warning sign that something is wrong.
Knowing that you might be prone to depression is tricky. Sometimes others may already have depression but still do not know it. This can become dangerous or health-hazardous. I should know because I nearly ended my life just because I did not fully understand what was going on with me. The worse is, I would feel that I was in control and keep myself in a cycle of denial that I was getting better and better and that I could over come it. I was wrong.
The biggest mistake of people with depression is denial. As I have mentioned earlier, when you have this nagging feeling that you are always down, like someone has died on a daily basis, even when there are occasions that would call for celebration, enjoyment or happiness, one usually shrugs this off. Until it is usually too late and one is already caught deep within the cycle of depression that never ends.
The usual signs that a person is having depression are easily the following:
A person who just lost interest in life everything about going through daily living, like eating, sleeping, talking to people, socializing, working and doing usual hobbies;
An unusual change in sleeping patterns others find it hard to sleep and keep tossing and turning; or like me, others would tend to sleep most of the time, even when my head would ache from all the sleeping, I would not have any motivation to get up from bed. I would rather find solace in escaping into the darkness of sleep
An immense feeling of worthlessness or uselessness and that life is not worth living anymore for no apparent reason. I used to feel unwanted. When people talk to me I would think that they hate me or don't want me around them. It is pretty weird, but I would think that I am the loneliest person there is in the planet;
Unusual occurrence of aches and pains in the body and inability to focus on work at hand or a particular topic (for students). Since I was oversleeping, and mostly I would force myself to work and get through the day, I would be lethargic and I would not be able to concentrate on anything at all.
The common signs associated with depression seem natural that a normal person would go through. This is the reason why it is oftentimes hard to detect people with depression unless they really share their feelings.
Usually people with depression think that they can get out of the cycle. Then most often these people just force themselves into activities that they thought would help alleviate the feeling of depression, only to realize in the end that these activities clubbing, drinking, too-much socializing, spending time out of work and having more vacation time, etc. would make them even sinker deeper into the depression pit.
The results of these efforts to temporarily alleviate depression poor work or study performance, low energy levels, suspensions or ultimately loss of work due to poor output only push depressed persons farther into the cycle. I lost my job because I would find more comfort in escaping responsibilities and the possibility that I would get reprimanded for poor work output or late work submission. Memos kept piling up my desk until I was asked to find another work.
Others would resort to what they think as the ultimate solution ending their lives. I used to always feel that too. I felt that it would not matter if I killed myself since the world has no use for me anyway.
People suffering from depression and suicidal tendencies need people to talk to. I find relief in talking to my friends. Their patience and encouragement give me the strength I need to keep trying and to follow intervention activities so that I may finally be free of this cycle.
