Let Us Catch You This Fall...

Although an estimated 18.3% of the adult population in the US may experience a major depressive episode at any given time, most people do not receive adequate treatment. There is more than enough blame for this to go around. 

Some of us are given prescriptions for antidepressant medications only to stop taking them as prescribed because we never received an explanation for their purpose, their side effects, or careful instructions about how to take them properly. Oftentimes we aren't given an opportunity to set our expectations based on what a mental health or medical professional took the time and opportunity to tell us about the type of improvement(s) we should see and when. 

Many of us seek relief from our mood problems from any and everyone else other than a physician and this needs to stop. 

Our depression is a medical illness - not a "phase of life" or "something we can talk ourselves or snap out of". 

Our depression is a serious medical illness that can cost us time, money, and at its worst, our lives. 

• Suicide is the first leading cause of death for people 85+
• Suicide is the second leading cause of death for ages 10-14 and 25-34
• Suicide is the fourth leading cause of death for ages 35-44

We have to normalize not just self-acceptance but our need and right to adequate care. There may be a stigma but that doesn't mean we have to feed into it with our shame, silence, secrecy, or energy. One person may live with diabetes, another with hypertension, another with heart disease, and another with depression - all medical illnesses that can kill us if left untreated. We need treatment and, more importantly, we need each other. We need to continue to work together to cultivate spaces for our collective journey with depression to be taken one step and one day at a time - without shame or the pressures associated with bias and stigma. 

Join the Steel Daisies this month as we celebrate the wonderful resources available to us all for understanding and raising awareness about our depression. If you are in the Columbus area, and would like to join our Depression Support group, please click the button above for a calendar of upcoming group meeting dates and other local events held for mental health in Central Ohio.