Challenges and Victories the top 5 of each #hawmc

The top 5 challenges:

5) Some people do not believe that it is a continuous illness. That once one is happy again they will never get it again and forget that it can be a pattern for many more episodes.

4) There are people who have depression that don't take care of themselves by seeking help or taking medication. I feel like I am the sane one in a sea of crazy people because I am getting help and they are not and take their own lives or kill people because some thing snapped in their brains.

3) Trial and error of medication. Some times for depression you have to take 4 or 5 different medications before one or two take hold. The side effects can harm the person taking them or do nothing.

2) Some people feel that its a shameful, horrid thing that is not talked about in families and you are an outsider if you talk about it with anyone.

1) People with depression "look normal" because there is no limp, wheel chair, walking device or physical sign of depression. I think more people take other disabilities more seriously because there is a physical element to their disability. Since depression is a mental illness its hard for other people to "see" that you are not "normal".


The top 5 victories:

5) More research is being done to prove it has a genetic link for having depression. I know my mother was depressed (and came from a long line of depressive personalities) and my father and his father were Bi-polar/Manic, so when I heard that there were studies being done to see what the genetic link could be I jumped at the chance. So if and when my daughters have any type of depression, they can get medication tailored to them. They don't have to have bad side effects or harsh medication in their systems to try to see if it works.

4) It's being accepted as a disability, yes I know I stated in my number 1 challenge that its hard to see physically, however there are more medical studies, medical doctors out side the psychiatric community that can spot the early signs of depression or "blues", because some times it can cause physical illness that can be seen.

3) More Social Media Exposure. Blogs, Twitter and Facebook, just to name a few, have groups that people can connect with talk about their experiences, help guide other people just starting to find out information of the new diagnosis they recived and having community established. One such community is #ppdchat on Twitter.

2) Family acceptance. Here I go again stating a contradiction to the number 2 challenge, however if one person in the family becomes aware of the diagnosis, they can ask about other links to the past. Maybe an aunt that drank to be happy, an uncle that took illegal drugs to stop the talking in his head. By talking to my family members, I found out a wealth of information about different people I never met, but genetically linked that had some type of depression. Most of them drank alcohol as medication, more socially accepted then depression.

And the number one victory?

1) Myself. over my 32 years of life, I know how my body works. What can trigger my depression, what I can do to help me manage depression. It's not a 100% system. A new situation occurs, a bill that's not paid or my youngest screaming in the car for 20-30 minutes straight can be a very bad situation, however I have built a good support network, my husband knows and does help when its needed so I don't crawl into a hole, like the underside of the house and only come out on leap years (that would be awkward for the people that bought our home after my husband and daughters moved out?).