Get the help you need.

While reading in the blogging world last night, I came across a blog talking about self-harm. The author had recently openly discussed her depression and self-harm issues and was replying to the thousands of comments and emails she received telling her that they had been through the same thing or that they had needed to hear someone else admit what they were keeping a secret. 

In our society, we are all so judgmental of each other, comparing ourselves to everyone; when we know that we are all so very different. As different as we appear from each other on the outside, our minds and chemical make ups are just as different. Our experiences, culture, family, values are all different from other people. And that's okay, it just means that some people deal with things differently. They make decisions differently based on a different mental/emotional framework than our own. 

We see mental illnesses as something dirty, something not to be discussed, when in reality many more of us deal with anxiety, depression, compulsions, personality disorders (I could go on and on) than the outside world will ever know. 

This excerpt came from that blog, and I love it. 

Last night an email came in from a woman whose twin daughters had both committed suicide because of depression.  One had died only a few weeks ago and her mother made sure her obituary explained that depression had taken her child’s life, because she wanted people to know that it was okay to talk about it…because the more we admit these things the less we hide them away from the help we need.

It is so true and so necessary that it not be considered bad or swept under the rug. If the depression driving suicide wasn't considered to be such a taboo thing to talk about, if depression was really out in the open (meaning, considered to be real by all people-an actual issue, accepted that it's a common thing, appropriate ways of dealing with depression were openly talked about we would be in a much better place. Our world would probably still have just as much mental illness, but it would be addressed, people could get the help they need; and maybe there wouldn't be as many suicide cases. 

If you are reading this and suffering from untreated depression (or you're unsure) know that you aren't alone. Those feelings you have are extremely common, but they aren't necessarily normal. You don't have to deal with them unrelieved. There is some help out there. That doesn't mean you are broken, it just means you're different. And that's ok. At least in my book it is.

Source: The Bloggess