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Depression affects the lives of millions of people in the US each year to varying degrees. Some people suffer from depressions that are seasonal, others from chronic depression that can last months without any end in sight. The causes of depression are many but the process is far form understood by science or theology.
Fortunately, depression is beginning to gain acceptance by the general population as an illness similar to any virus or infection that can occur. There is not so much shame associated with depression as in previous decades and people no longer keep depression as a deep, dark secret to be hid from everyone. As people begin to discuss depression in earnest, one thing has stood out above all else, depression hurts in many ways.
Depression Hurts Physically
Even though depression is a mental illness, it can have physical manifestations in the body just like many of the physical illnesses that exist.
You may not experience sneezing or fever with depression but you may experience things like chronic pain without an injury to blame, insomnia (the inability to sleep), hypersomnia (sleeping too much), fatigue, paralyzing energy loss, unexplained aches, joint pain, digestive malfunctions (diarrhea or constipation), changes in eating habits (eating more or less than usual) which results in weight changes (excessive weight gain or loss) among other physical symptoms that show depression hurts. Unfortunately, many doctors do not recognize such physical problems as being tied to depression and either dismiss the unexplained problems or try to treat them as another illness.
What doctors are finding out even more than the fact that there are physical manifestations in feeling in the body is that there are internal manifestations as well. They have not yet found the reasons for it but they have found that depression increases the risk factors for things like heart disease and stroke and actually magnifies existing heart troubles. In addition, circulatory malfunctions like irregular blood clotting (resulting from changes in the platelets) occurs and even changes in bone mass which lead to osteoporosis are being found to occur at an increased level in depression patients.
Depression Hurts Emotionally
Depression can cause so many changes in your mind and body that you do not recognize the havoc that is being wrought on your life. In being depressed you may have withdrawn from people who care about you to the point of not communicating with them at all.
You may have dropped out of events and hobbies that you enjoy and things that you have worked hard on go to waste. You may have lashed out one too many times at people who were trying to help you and they have given up on you because you made no effort to benefit from assistance.
Many depressed people do not realize just how much depression hurts until they have lost a significant amount of what is important to them. That can be in the form of loved ones, friends, social contacts and colleagues. These are only some of the many reasons that people who are depressed need to get help as soon as possible, whether on their own or with some form of intervention.
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