Why a Depression Diagnosis Is Not to Be Scared Of

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Apr 21, 2022

✨POV✨: You don't feel very okay, but you don't know if you want to be diagnosed either. You wonder if diagnosing your condition will make it a bigger problem than it is. You might be put into a box or be stereotyped - as being weak, not doing enough, or being someone who blames the world for their problems.

Why a Depression Diagnosis May Be Scary 👻

Because the ideas surrounding depression are, many a time, scary and threatening untruths (remember: what did mental mean in older times?).

Struggling with depression or any other mental illness is not a weakness. No amount of emphasis on this will be enough. It is not our fault if we've been sucked into mental health battles. We try to win as many as we can, silently, hoping no one sees us differently when we feel tired to fight on some days.

This is the ultimate truth of mental health, that it is a part of our body and at times, can suffer from an ailment. That's how we're built - to be struck, to endure, and overcome and not, to be the victim because we chose the attack.

Remember when the pandemic had just hit and healthy people began ostracizing those who were affected by Covid-19? That's the pattern of fear, stigma, and the lack of awareness that we need to break.

And Why It Shouldn’t Be Scary 🛡️

Because depression need not be scary.

And a depression diagnosis gives us direction.

A diagnosis is nothing but a stepping stone that paves the way forward for the right treatment. Without a diagnosis or the opinion of an expert in the field, we are forced to rely on unverified sources on the internet to learn about our depression.

And many times, what we learn is not the whole picture.

Contrary to popular belief, depression is not just experiencing a depressed mood or having symptoms of severe depression (which is a legitimate diagnosis aka major depressive disorder or major depression). Depression can be severe, for sure, but severe symptoms are neither the only type of depression nor the only ones that deserve attention.

Symptoms of depression can be mild (pointing to the diagnosis of persistent depressive disorder). Or they can severe enough to affect all parts of our life. All types of depression that fall in between are as legitimate as any other physical ailment, and each may require a slightly altered treatment method. Some types of depression need only therapy, some need only medication, some a combination of both, and some completely different approaches like electroconvulsive therapy (for Treatment-Resistant Depression).

This sort of detailed, researched and verified information on mental health disorders is so important for us to take steps in the right direction.

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM), authored by the American Psychiatric Association (the global leader on all matters of mental disorders) exists for this reason. It is like a manual for mental troubleshooting - to help mental health professionals navigate the broad spectrum of mental health conditions and to help them help us with the right diagnosis to treat our kind of depression.

Last Word on Mental Health 🤍

We, the torch-bearers of tomorrow, need to unlearn these patterns of fear and stigma. And what better way than to acknowledge things the way they are - diagnosing what needs diagnosis, using the diagnosis to treat depression, and proving to the world that it is a simple matter of problem-solving. Ez.

To recap the truth about depression: Depression symptoms can be experienced by anyone, can be relieved with help, and can vanish in the right amount of time.

Note on Mental Disorders 🚩

Clinical Depression is never clear cut, making it harder to diagnose and treat. It is not unheard of for people with depression to self-harm or have suicidal thoughts. If you have such depressive symptoms, please use the national suicide prevention lifeline or contact a mental health professional to seek treatment options.

Some of the other clinical depression diagnoses are bipolar disorder, premenstrual dysphoric disorder, disruptive mood dysregulation disorder and seasonal affective disorder (aka seasonal depression).