Your Gang Depression

For you & your gang, depression may come once in a while for a variety of reasons, such as losing a loved one, losing a job, failing in school, long term stress or illness that affects one of the family. In most cases if the illness passes, or the stressful situation is resolved and or, mourning reaches a bearable level, the depression will lift of its own accord. However for some, depression may occur more often, or for much longer than one can reasonably expect for a particular event, The reasons too, may not be so obvious. In instances such as this, where depression and its symptoms last more than a month unabated, for no discernable reason and with no noticeable improvement, it is important to recognise that medical advice should be sought for the person being affected.

Your Gang Depression and Understanding:

For those who have never suffered from deep depression or think that they have never suffered this life sucking ailment, it is difficult to understand when either you or one of your gang members suffer from this ailment. From my own experience I can only describe it as a voice choked off and locked inside. All dialogue becomes internal and sometimes incessent. The world and all its wonders are shut out because the person cannot leave the prison of their minds. It is a dark, dark, hole and there is no ladder or light to escape with or to. People who sing become silent. Those who enjoy beauty become blind and those who smile all the time have empty eyes. Your Gang Depression and Symptoms:

Symptoms may vary from person to person, even between family members. However and fortunately there are some signs that are pretty much the same for all of us. Some common symptoms are feelings of weariness and lack of energy, sleeping much longer than normal or an inability to sleep for more than 3-4 weeks. Most notable is that symptoms tend to come in clusters. The depressed person may also stop eating properly or regularly. Some people lose their appetite and for others, appetite increases and they may start eating and snacking all day. Either way is just as bad. Other symptoms you and your partner may look out for are, unusual irritability and agitation, all the time, not just before menstruating for girls, and not just at exam times or the odd days for both sexes. For Women, young girls and some men depression is expressed in weepiness which is not normal behaviour for those persons. It may strike at unexpected moments, like when watching a cutsie ad' on TV, when hearing a sad song, or even just a song that strikes a chord within. (It is worth noting that when depressed, we tend to recall words of new sad songs more easily than joyful songs. For more information on this phenomenon and 'Mood Dependent Memory', look up Bower, G.H. (1981) ) There is also a tendency to pick sad songs to listen to more often than normal, which may perpetuate the vicious cycle. The love lorn are also prone to listening to sad songs. Memory may also be affected due to distraction, hence the glazed look that often accompanies depression. This glazed look is not to be confused with the one you get when trying to get attention from one of your gang watching 'toons' on the TV. BTW this includes Dad.

Your Gang Depression and Changes: Other points of reference for You your gang, are sudden and radical personality changes such as; becoming a lot less sociable for normally sociable persons or the other end of the scale which could indicate Bi-polar disorder, the sudden seeking of company of many people constantly, when normally rated as not really being the over sociable type or shy by people who know them well. Sudden, rash risk taking by persons known for being conservative, fearful personalities suddenly acting fearless and hectic, seemingly ceaseless activity, in someone usually quite calm and relaxed and vice versa for normally outgoing people, disproportionate displays of anger from someone who is usually calm. In fact any radical change should be viewed with caution if it continues for more than a few weeks and particularly if you your, childs' sleeping habits have changed as well. (These changes may also indicate drug taking; sleepy and slovenly can indicate marajuana or heroin and relaxants. Over alertness, agitation and rapid speech along with trembling hands can indicate cocain or MDMA and derivatives. PS. also indicates a host of other illnesses too, so you should always consult your doctor before you panic, self diagnose or accuse anyone.)

The watch word is 'caution', seek help if any or all of these symptoms are on-going for longer than 4-6 weeks!

Your Gang Depression and Other Extreme Behavioural Changes:

Other more extreme symptoms include, avoiding going out for anything but the things that cannot be ignored and in severe cases not even reasons of necessity will do the trick. Things like personal hygene e.g. bathing and changing clothes have little or too much importance for some severely stressed and depressed persons. The house may be left looking like the local tip, or may be clean to the extreme, the person whips the cups away for washing whilst friends are still drinking their tea. These symptoms are more important when they are foreign to the person you know, so they should not be dismissed as being either a slob, or a clean freak.

Your Gang Depression and Self Harming:

Self harming is another symptom of extreme distress and probable depression. It may also indicate a crisis in the life of the person self harming or personalising a crisis in the family. Self harming is not always an actual attempt at suicide although it cannot be ruled out for anyone even if there is a history of self harming alone, as this can change at any time. Cutting is a form of release for some who are in a difficult situation or crisis state and for those who have no way of telling anyone, or the words to express the problem. Quite often the persons themselves have no understanding of why they self harm, only that it helps them to cope with their particular situation. The fact is that pain creates a mind shift which is enhanced by the bodies own chemical reaction to pain. It efectively relaxes hyped up nerves and gives some sweet relief to anguish if only for a short period. Either way it should never be ignored as attention seeking. A crisis state may occur before exams, or coming upon a cross roads that means having to make radical decisions, or make drastic changes for themselves and people they love. It can be about something they have done or are still doing and feel ashamed over, or even something that was done to them that they feel ashamed about. Anyone who behaves in this manner should seek help and if we know about this we need to help them to get the help they need, preferably from a source that is non judgemental.

Your Gang Depression and Shame?

There is nothing shameful about any of this. Life is so fast and changes in life-style can occur so rapidly, e.g. tweenies to teenagers, happy families to broken homes, wealth to bankruptcy, year beginning to year end!, and of course life and death. It is an absolute wonder that any of us make it through life in one piece, let alone in one 'calm peace'.

Your Gang Depression and Talking:

Many problems can be eased by talking and helping the person find the words to express their fears, which by the way, may not even be obvious to the person in crisis in the first place. Chances are, the more available we/you make y/ourselves, and the more approachable we are, the more likely it is that we will notice changes and signs of distress, and the more likely it is that we will be first port of call when our children get themselves into situations that they are unable to deal with. Note however that this is not always the case and you should not bludgeon yourself if some of the signs were missed. Some children and grownups too, are pretty good at hiding problems!

Depression in Childhood webmd

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