Depression Is A Disorder Harder Than Any Metaphor
Depression is one of the most attractive mental disorders for metaphors. It seems that sadness inevitably takes us, and sadness to a sea. Rather, to a deep and dark well in which the exit becomes distant or non-existent. Depression alludes to a kind of somewhat tricky invisible chains.
They are so because they gag with weight and not with tension, because they are greased with melancholy and not with oil. Its power is to make us believe that we are small, clumsy and unskilled. Losers in this game, which some on a whim, call life.
Depression from outside
Those who see the person with depression from the outside come to think that they understand. Yes, they think they do. They affirm that they too have felt sad and have gone through times where they have seen no way out. From that memory they had the feeling that patience is a weapon of which we always underestimate its worth, that time sadly continues to run, although everything around it seems immobile and unimportant, so that when we open our eyes they subtract everything together .
That is why those who think they understand it do not hesitate to encourage the depressed person, because on their face they see a pattern similar to the one they went through. However, depression is more than a week of sadness or a grief that gets deep inside us. Depression is a disorder that in reality few metaphors reflect its harshness and that requires the intervention of a professional.
It’s not just a dark, dead-end tunnel. It is also a tunnel in which you lack air and cannot breathe. A space in which the person cannot move and feels guilty about it. It is a situation in which the impotence of wanting and not being able reigns. A place where questions bite and everything outside the question is constituted as a threat.
A place where courage is clouded and the eyes protected by a glass of tears that do not always come out. A crystal that magnifies the negative and becomes opaque to opportunities. In the end we talk about a place for which encouragement is necessary, but tools and emotional skills are even more so.
Depression makes victims guilty
A person with depression is not only a sad person. Rather, it does not always seem sad, and although this is the emotion that is most prominent in the stereotype, it is not always the one that predominates. In fact, many times and especially in children, something happens that few know, and that is that sadness turns into anger. In adults it also happens because, despite having more emotional regulation tools, deep down there is a struggle and a feeling of frustration because there are no results.
Yes, anger. An anger that is usually transferred to the people in the environment who are trying to help, anesthetizing empathy. This face of depression, not so recognizable, alienates those who want to help, tired of giving advice, easy and useful solutions for them, but that the other does not follow.
It is then that the person with depression can stop being a victim and become guilty. Thus, although he continues to suffer, others can understand that the position he is in is very comfortable: he does not work, he does not help at home and he spends the day resting. Rested from what? If you do nothing …
As we have seen, depression is a much more complex disorder than an emotion. It is a profound damage for which all the support in the world is necessary, but well-directed support, with intelligence. Otherwise, the force of this support may end up sinking the person even more.
Hence the need for good professionals, for friends to be necessary, but not enough, to give the feeling that the person with depression is an empty bag for advice. If we want to help, let’s not underestimate this disorder, let’s not make metaphors of it because we run the great risk of being incomplete and this is transferred to our way of helping, regardless of whether we have the best intention in the world.
