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Be aware. Be educated.
Kristine Solano
Depression is highly stigmatized today. Society looks at depression or any mental health disorder as "attention seekers" or "melodramatic people". It should not be seen that way, awareness is what we need right now.
As mental health is one of the concerning issues in our society nowadays, people keep on arguing on what's the real meaning of depression, which resulted, that most of us knew depression but don't really have a clear meaning of depression.
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It's not about having a bad day. It's not about getting dumped by you crush or getting low grades in school. It's not about being lazy. It's not about merely feeling sad. It's a phase where we are all maturing or growing up. Definitely, it is not and it was more than that.
Recently, a comedian/host of a noon time show made a statement about depression during one of their segments which blasted comments and arguments in social media. The host said that depression is "gawa-gawa lang ng tao". It was criticized by netizens for being insensitive and harsh to people who are suffering from mental depression. People demanded for a public apology that he did the day after and claimed that he didn't know what really depression is.
This clearly showed that not all of us are aware with mental depression. It is real, it affects how you feel, think, and handle daily activities. Depression is like a very deep wound that would heal for a longer time. The confusion we have now to what's the real meaning of depression is because we are not educated enough. People described it as simply having stress, but it's not because it is a life threatening disorder. Numbers of people who has depression are getting higher. Some survived. Some died.
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With that, education towards the continuous rising issues of mental health is the key. We should all be awake as we cannot know when depression will happen to us, or even to the people we love. As long as we ignore and do not discuss this kind of issue in our society, more and more people who are suffering from depression will not share their dilemma and still refuse to get help. It's time to be aware. It's time to be educated.
Depression is not a trend. This just means that anyone can go through it, anyone can be a victim of depression. Ignorance will worsen our current state, it should be debated, something we should all talk about and find a solution to help people who badly needed.
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