Dennis
How has your family responded?
Before our wedding, my family kept my condition a secret. They pretended
that they didn't know and I pretended that I didn't have it.
Then, a former minister that I work with at the MDDA
support group married us. Out of 100 people, 25 were friends from MDDA.
The minister announced to the entire congregation that we had depression.
It eliminated the pressure on pretense. If there was someone in the
family that didn't know about my condition, they knew it at the
wedding.
What misunderstandings
do people have?
Many people don't realize that depression is episodic and you can be perfectly
normal in between episodes. There are times when everything is working and
you're as normal as the next person. We're nothing to be feared.
What advice do you have?
First, stay on your medication regime; if you start feeling well it is because
of the medication. Don't give up; sometimes every day is such a battle.
The difficult part of this illness is that your thought processes are incorrect,
they seem real to you. You really do feel worthless, it does seem that you'll
never get out of this, and that the only way out is to kill yourself. But
this comes from faulty thinking from the illness. It seems real to the depressed
person, but it is not reality. At all costs, try to hang on and believe that
you can get well.
