Caption : When you're depressed, it's easy to forget about those around you who are willing to help
Photographer : Bee |
Feeling blue, and orange, and green: Living with bipolar and depression
Let me be straight with you here: I have bipolar. No, I’m not crazy, I’m not stupid, I’m not any less of a person than anyone else I go to uni with. I wake up, I have a couple of apples and some Weetbix porridge for breakfast, I take my prozac. Sure, I’m on a bit of a high after I take my meds, but the important part is that I don’t crash back down on my face. The only thing that separates me from many other people is the neurons in my brain.
I also have chronic depression, stemming from the sequential suicides of 6 of my friends over 7 years, as well as being in a negative, abusive environment at school in which most of my other friends were either depressed or suicidal, some of who were in and out of hospital at least once a month.
The mood swings, lethargy and memory stemming from my bipolar and depression are relatively under control now, thanks to talking about my problems with my friends, family and counsellor, and medication.
The problem is, living in a relatively close-knit community, I see many other people who show symptoms like mine, especially depressive symptoms, however after prompting a few about their thoughts on depression and bipolar, I realised that hardly anyone really knew what depression or bipolar were, nor what they could do if they or someone else had either of these conditions. Medication was an especially delicate issue, because I knew of some of my friends who were so embarrassed about their depression, some of whom were on prescribed medication for their conditions, that when some of us went out to bars, they would still drink relatively large amounts of alcohol (did you know that medication- whether it be prescribed or common cold medicines- can triple, even quadruple, the effects of alcohol?)
After a brief proposal to the Head and Dean of my college, they promptly agreed to let me host a Depression Awareness Night. I asked the local on campus counselling centre to come and talk, as well as getting into contact with Reach Out and Beyond Blue who found us two awesome ambassadors (whom also live at college) to come and give presentations on behalf of their foundations. In addition, one other uni student and I gave our own personal stories of depression and depressive illnesses in those around us, how our lives have changed, and what we learnt from the experiences.
There were around 45 fellow collegiates at the seminar, many of whom approached the guest speakers and I to thank us for being brave enough to share our own stories, and speak up about depression. One international student from Sri Lanka approached me and said “Thank you for talking about suicide so openly- I got shivers down my body, because I had a friend who committed suicide back home, but It’s so swept under the rug there that no one has ever talked about it since.”
At any one time, 1 in 5 people will be depressed. I in 3 Australians is, will be, or has been depressed at some point in their lives. Think about your school, your work environment, your family, or your uni: those are pretty big figures when you think about it. It’s unrealistic to think we can suddenly wipe depressive illnesses off the face of the earth at once, but little by little, we can certainly help reduce the number of Australians suffering from depression by raising awareness so that people don’t feel so afraid to TALK ABOUT IT.
Affected by this issue yourself or know someone who is? Check out our sister site http://www.reachout.com.au/>
