[Note: at points throughout the article, I’ve used the first person singular, rather than the objective outside perspective of most Rotation articles, because throughout I share my own experiences].
According to a 2023 Gallup poll, 29% of people in the US (close to 1 in 3) report battling depression in their lifetime, and 18% ( close to 1 in 5) report current treatment for depression (Witters, 2023). Anecdotally, the number may be much higher. But despite the commonality of depression, those suffering it can often feel uniquely alone. October’s Depression Awareness Month – designated by the National Institute of Mental Health in 1994 – is an opportunity to learn about the illness, share your story to reduce stigma, or a chance to reach out to someone you know or suspect is suffering.
Education:
One of the best ways to observe Depression Awareness Month is to read about it. I recommend Andrew Solomon’s The Noonday Demon: an Atlas of Depression, which remains unparalleled in its depth of insight and reporting from the frontlines of the disorder.
Depression is always a subjective, personal experience – in part because pain isolates us (we feel our own pain immediately and others remotely), in part because pain shrinks horizons until we cannot see anything else. For this reason, the deeply personal accounts in The Noonday Demon go farther, education wise, than the anodyne, clinical tone of a psychiatric journal. For sufferers of depression, Solomon’s work – which includes his own experience and many interviews with others – can broaden our perspective and maybe even ease our sense of being alone. For relatives, friends, or coworkers of someone with depression, The Noonday Demon yields a rich and harrowing insight into the chasms of pain that can exist in a normal human lifespan.
Fortunately, while The Noonday Demon is a book of 500+ pages, Andrew Solomon has made excerpts, including the 1998 New Yorker article that started the book, freely available.
- The Longest Night (excerpt from The Noonday Demon)
- The Dying of the Light (excerpt from The Noonday Demon)
- Living with Depression (excerpt from The Noonday Demon)
- I’m not Mad. Or Am I? (excerpt from The Noonday Demon)
- Unbearable: the Secret Sadness of Pregnancy with Depression (excerpt from The Noonday Demon)
For a quick read into the experience of antidepressants, I recommend a short story by David Foster Wallace called “The Planet Trillaphon as it Stands in Relation to the Bad Thing,” which compares using antidepressants to being on another planet.
Sharing Your Story:
Another way to honor Depression Awareness Month is to share your story (to whatever degree you feel comfortable with, most likely with a trusted friend). Discussing mental health can reduce the stigma around it and maybe give better expression to something very difficult to express. Talking can also reveal a two-way communication of tips and insights that might not otherwise have happened.
For example, some things that have worked for me:
- Running: an umbrella review published in British Journal of Sports Medicine analyzed 100 meta-reviews of controlled trials comparing exercise to medicine or talk therapy and concluded that exercise was 1.5x effective as either (Singh et al., 2023). Anecdotally speaking, running (in particular) greatly ameliorated my mental state, both by giving me a tangible goal to work towards but also in relief from stress. I lived for a couple years in Germany, for example, and training for a half marathon gave me consistency and dignity amidst the uncertainty and unfamiliarity.
- Health Maintenance: just like the earth is an ecosystem with the surface affecting the atmosphere and vice versa, our bodies affect our minds, and our minds affect our bodies. I find it easy to overly philosophize depression, but often, the solution might be as simple as hydrating, sleeping enough, and exercising. If I’m not addressing these bodily concerns, then I personally don’t want to assume too much beyond what I’m feeling.
- Addressing Stressors: similarly, while severe depression may persist despite the circumstances, anxiety and depression can often be triggered by stress events. In some cases, anxiety and depression might be the alarm-bells for the problem, not the problem itself. Sitting with a never-ending alarm might ruin someone’s sanity, but if the alarm is responding to a problem, then the alarm is actually useful.
- Artistic expression: much of art comes from pain; pain can be the roots that cause us to dig deeper for nutrients. Art can help transfigure directionlessness or pain. Personally, I write fiction and poetry. One of my poems, Circles Around My Circles (published in Ghost City Review), is an example of this transfiguration.
- Rest and Meditation: I often find that I’m not truly resting; I organize my free time into personal tasks that need accomplishing, or I’ll succumb to mindless scrolling. But we need mental rest. Sports can be healing because they provide socialization, exercise, and an absorbing task. Meditation can help activate the parasympathetic nervous system and refresh us for our tasks at hand. I particularly find time in nature refreshing, like when I kayak.
Reach Out:
Lastly, there’s no better way to observe Depression Awareness Month than by reaching out to someone struggling, not necessarily to talk about mental health but just to connect. We are social beings. Left alone, we all go insane. Reaching out might do more good than you’d ever know.
Resources:
- Mental Health Screening from Mental Health America
- SAMHSA’s national helpline
- GW Counseling Services
- Meditation at GW
References:
Singh B, Olds T, Curtis R, et al. Effectiveness of physical activity interventions for improving depression, anxiety and distress: an overview of systematic reviews. British Journal of Sports Medicine 2023; 57: 1203-1209. https://bjsm.bmj.com/content/57/18/1203
Witters, D (2023). U.S. Depression Rates Reach New Highs. Gallup. https://news.gallup.com/poll/505745/depression-rates-reach-new-highs.aspx
