Sher­ry Jer­im­ie

For many, the stig­ma of de­pres­sion or a men­tal ill­ness is a de­ter­rent to treat­ment; and it is dis­guised as not hav­ing the time or mon­ey to treat this ill­ness, how­ev­er, un­treat­ed de­pres­sion can im­pact more than your men­tal health. There is a high­er like­li­hood of prob­lem drink­ing or sub­stance abuse in in­di­vid­u­als with un­treat­ed de­pres­sion. Ac­cord­ing to the Uni­ver­si­ty of Pitts­burgh, one fifth of heart pa­tients al­so suf­fer from de­pres­sion, and can be a pre­cur­sor to car­diac ill­ness.

Glob­al­ly, as of 2011, over 121 mil­lion peo­ple suf­fer from de­pres­sion. There is on­go­ing re­search to con­tin­u­al­ly find more ef­fec­tive treat­ments for this ill­ness. As a so­ci­ety, de­pres­sion is every­one's prob­lem! The ef­fects of un­treat­ed de­pres­sion are far reach­ing. It re­sults in sub­stance and al­co­hol abuse - and bro­ken fam­i­lies. It per­pet­u­ates gen­er­a­tions of emo­tion­al suf­fer­ing, and in some cas­es sui­cides and loss of the po­ten­tial of these in­di­vid­u­als. Every­one, at some point in their life will be af­fect­ed by de­pres­sion, ei­ther their own or some­one they know; it is pro­ject­ed to be the sec­ond largest killer af­ter heart dis­ease ac­cord­ing to re­search done by Mur­ray and Fort­in­ber­ry.

Cou­ples/Fam­i­ly Ther­a­py

De­pres­sion does not oc­cur in iso­la­tion, it af­fects the en­tire fam­i­ly and so it is help­ful for all af­fect­ed to have the sup­port of cou­ples or fam­i­ly ther­a­py. Sta­tis­ti­cal­ly, a re­la­tion­ship where a part­ner has de­pres­sion is more like­ly to end in sep­a­ra­tion or di­vorce. Cou­ples ther­a­py can as­sist in the restora­tion of com­mu­ni­ca­tion and in­jured feel­ings, which may have oc­curred as a re­sult of de­pres­sion. Psy­chother­a­py can al­so re­as­sure chil­dren that they are not to blame for the de­pres­sion. Ther­a­py can al­so give the chil­dren a fo­rum in which they can speak about their ex­pe­ri­ences. Of­ten par­ents in re­la­tion­ships with men­tal ill­ness are so pre­oc­cu­pied with man­ag­ing the ill­ness they for­get to pay at­ten­tion to the small­est most in­no­cent vic­tims of this dis­ease.

Team Work

The part­ner of some­one suf­fer­ing from de­pres­sion may al­so be strug­gling with the hav­oc de­pres­sion can have on a re­la­tion­ship. As a part­ner, you can seek ther­a­py to ed­u­cate your­self on the ill­ness. You can al­so mon­i­tor med­ica­tion com­pli­ance, and pro­vide en­cour­age­ment when your part­ner is strug­gling to fol­low through with treat­ment, weath­er it is med­ica­tion or ther­a­py or both.

Un­der­stand­ing

As you ed­u­cate your­self about de­pres­sion your in­ter­ac­tion with the de­pressed per­son will be more re­as­sur­ing and sup­port­ive. Let­ting them know that you care about them and that you are in­vest­ed in their men­tal health well­ness and sta­bil­i­ty.

Talk about feel­ings

Des­ig­nate spe­cif­ic times to meet - as a fam­i­ly - to talk about is­sues and emo­tions that may be im­pact­ing the fam­i­ly unit as a whole. Com­mu­ni­ca­tion is es­pe­cial­ly im­por­tant in fam­i­lies with chil­dren, help­ing them un­der­stand - as much as is age ap­pro­pri­ate - what they are ex­pe­ri­enc­ing; it helps to val­i­date their ob­ser­va­tions and feel­ings that some­thing is wrong. Through open hon­est and em­path­ic com­mu­ni­ca­tion, the en­tire fam­i­ly can build on help­ful tools and mod­i­fy those that may not be so help­ful.

In those cas­es where psy­chother­a­py is in­di­cat­ed, it is shown to in­duce and ef­fect struc­tur­al changes in the brain, which may have been ear­li­er ef­fect­ed by child­hood trau­ma. You don't have to live with de­pres­sion, there is help and you are not alone. Re­mem­ber all of us know some­one suf­fer­ing from de­pres­sion.Stay tuned for up­com­ing de­pres­sion ed­u­ca­tion­al work­shops and sup­port groups in June. Please email Sher­ry if you would like fur­ther in­for­ma­tion, or to be emailed with de­pres­sion up­dates.