I am not a doctor, a psychologist or psychiatrist, but I have been a patient. What I share is simply one person’s journey with depression.
I do not pretend to be a medical expert or to understand the working of the mind. However, like every other individual, including medical workers themselves, I battle against human frailty of one sort or another. For some people that may mean the limitation of physical weakness, for others it can be emotional or mental hurdles that may seem insurmountable.
I understand depression to be when the inward mental and emotional structure that normally supports our human existence, weakens, crumbles, or becomes distorted. Levels of depression vary from mild mood changes, to clinical depression or bipolar (formerly known as manic depression) with its ‘ups’ and its ‘downs’. Depression can be triggered by a crisis, or develop in the mind of someone who otherwise appears to be well and in control of life. When I was depressed it was hard to remember what it felt like to be well, and now I am well, it is difficult to recall just how it felt to be sick. What I have been through is a terrible experience, but it is nothing compared with that of those who suffer from bipolar.
