Harsh Truths About Depression

1. You Might Not Know You Have It

Low-grade depression can feel like apathy and numbness. Michael Landsberg (a sportscaster and mental health advocate) described it as an inability to feel joy. In nature and logic, it's hard to prove the absence of something.

2. It Can Be Comfortable

Patton Oswalt described a desire to get off his meds and let his depression run free through his system like a pent-up dog wanting to go for a walk - he'll stay inside and rewatch the Princess Bride 80 times in a row. That might sound not so bad or even like self-care, but we know there's more to life - at least we know it when we're not depressed.

3. It is recursive/self-propagating

Doing things you enjoy, being around other people, getting outside and/or exercising are all ways to stave off or improve depression. And yet, it's hard to do any of those when you are depressed because the numbness and apathy will rob you of any motivation. So you don't do the things, and the depression gets worse. Cue the vicious cycle.

4. It Doesn't Always Garner Sympathy

"What do you have to be depressed about?" or other responses that invalidate the experience of this mental illness won't really help.

5. It Can Kill

When people die by suicide, what are we really talking about? It's mental illness taking its final toll on the individual. Depression will generally be a component of fatal mental illnesses.

6. It Can Go Away and Come Back

If you're able to 'fake it till you make it' and practice the kind of self-care that can bring you out of depression, you're not necessarily cured forever. Whether by external factors or simply dropping the ball on your good habits, your depression can come back and, according to Harsh Truth #1, it will sneak up on you.

7. It Can Disrupt Sleep

Someone who wants to lie around all day must be well-rested, right? Not necessarily - either by disrupting sleep cycles or simply having to hear dark thoughts in the darkness, you can lose sleep to depression, which means...

8. It Can Affect Your Physical Health

Lack of sleep, poor exercise and nutrition habits, plus the stress response can leave you vulnerable to infection, injury or other problems. Now your physical health and mental health have taken a hit - guess what that'll do for depression.

9. Meds

I'm personally skeptical, but I don't have enough information to condemn meds wholesale. I think there are cases where they can help but I can't help but think that some high-profile suicides like Chris Cornell and Chester Bennington were taking meds to treat anxiety and depression...

10. It's Not As Fashionable As Anxiety

I feel like we see a lot more talk among celebrities and influencers about their anxiety and what they do about it. There are support animals for anxiety, are there any for depression?