Is It Cool To Be Depressed?!
Get serious! Depression should not be the next fashion accessory argues InSITE reporter Becky Shewell.
Depression and mental illness are some of the most misunderstood medical conditions in our society. It seems like we are so confused about what it means to be depressed that it is now becoming a cool illness, something to brag about with your mates.
Many teenagers completely misunderstand mental illness and as a society we definitely have zero tolerance for such diseases, purely because we don’t know enough about them. Some say that many teenagers play upon conditions like depression to get attention or that it’s just an easy way out for people who are finding life difficult.
Do people who play at depression draw attention away from the true cases of depression, and the serious illness surrounding it?
The current trend among young people of being an “Emo”, often holds connotations to ‘self harm’, ‘alcoholism’ and even ‘suicide.’ It is almost trendy within these social groups to be depressed. Again, this is due to the misconception that depression is just a condition that people can fall into and out of if and when they choose. More and more people are being diagnosed with depression and statistics show that at least 1 in 3 people in the UK will suffer depression at some point in their life. But is this because they are ill, or because they want to be ill?
It seems stupid - nobody wants to be unhappy, do they?! I think the vast majority of young people manipulate depression. Some do it in an attempt to call out for attention or just label regular teenage worries under the depression umbrella. Others are in social groups which revolve around darkness and gloom like Goths and Emos who dress in black all the time. Surely all this encourages “being depressed” to become a popular and cool thing to be labelled as?
But, actually it is not! Depression can cause a complete and utter destruction of a person’s life and personality. According to the NHS Direct website, it can slowly but surely surround a sufferer with a constant gloom and a feeling of guilt that this feeling is their own fault. The most widely known symptoms are crying, thoughts of death and suicide, isolation and unhappiness. But, often the symptoms which are the most serious, the ones that are the more difficult to notice and treat, are lost under this new trend which seems to promote depression. These symptoms are obscure and the most worrying; things like avoiding taking the bus or train/ or a fear of going out in a dread of the ‘worst case scenario’ that a sufferer may envisage. Others include, guilty feelings of even thinking bad thoughts about people and constantly worrying about insignificant things to an extreme point, that haven’t even happened yet. These are the most dangerous and can cause isolation in every aspect of a sufferer’s life.
It is vital that true sufferers of depression get their symptoms recognised and the help that they desperately need and that the illness is acknowledged more widely by society, so to prevent it becoming the next must have fashion accessory among teenagers!
