Depression...

I have seen a lot of posts about Depression. I have also heard a lot of people say they have it. When I hear someone say they have depression I ask, "Did a current situation cause your depression?"
Generally, they say, "Yes."
Then they ask me, "Why do you ask?"

Well here is why I ask that question. There is a huge difference between being depressed and having depression. Situations can make you sad and you are depressed, but it is not depression. Depression is much more than being sad over something that has occurred. Depression takes no situation to hit. I spent a large part of my life being told to stop wallowing in self-pity and to get over things. The problem with that statement is, there wasn't anything to get over. I couldn't explain why I didn't want to get out of bed, or leave the house, or have conversations with people. All I knew was I wanted to disappear, be invisible or in some cases, the darkness was so suffocating I just didn't want to be at all.

I spent almost an entire year of my life not knowing what was going on with me. As a whole my life was good, I had made a moved, I had started a new job, things were going well. However, I felt like I was falling apart, I would cry on a dime. I would shut down or I would blow up for no obvious given reason. The worst part I had no control over any of my emotions. I was told it was a hormonal imbalance at first and placed on birth control pills. Now that was a complete laugh to me cause I hadn't been on them in years, but hey the doc said it would help. Well, guess what, it didn't it only made it worse when the spells would happen. I truly thought I was going crazy or possibly bi-polar, that scared me more than anything. So, I go back to the doc and the plan is put me on an antidepressant. Well, the first medication made me to complacent and I hated the feeling, most of the time I just didn't care about anything and felt numb to everything. Long story short I changed doctors and was finally diagnosed correctly with depression. The relief of hearing that I was not losing my mind and that my emotional rollercoaster wasn't my fault.
I have since learned how to recognize the signals and learned how to deal with them without medication. I was fortunate that my depression was not as severe as some.