Many people still assume that the major symptoms of depression are feeling sad and lying in bed all day, contemplating suicide, and other seemingly obvious hurdles that people face on a daily basis.
This viral Twitter thread, posted by @mollybackes, reminds people that what they think it feels like to live every day with depression might not be quite right. That there are symptoms and barriers to living a “normal” existence that non-depressed people probably don’t realize.
She calls it The Impossible Task.
Depression commercials always talk about sadness but they never mention that sneaky symptom that everyone with depression knows all too well: the Impossible Task. pic.twitter.com/lPix73WO2d
And just like any other mental health condition, it can be tricky to nail down.
Another cool thing about the Impossible Task is that it changes on you. One time it might involve calling someone, but maybe you can work around it by emailing. Another time it’s an email issue. Then when you think you have it pinned down, you suddenly can’t do the dishes.
One of the best ways to empathize with someone is to walk in their shoes, and this entire thread is a great way to begin doing just that if you’re trying to understand the people in your life who are suffering.
Oh, and Molly had one last thing to share.
Last thing: whenever you’re tempted to beat yourself up for being “lazy,” remember that you fought harder to get out of bed & get yourself dressed today than the average person could even imagine. You’re not lazy. Your mountains are just that much steeper. Keep going. pic.twitter.com/W2WaDqR0QC
If you’ve ever suffered from Postpartum Depression, you know the effects can be absolutely crushing. Celebrities are no different from me or you, and these 10 shared their stories dealing with the devastating condition.
1. Sharon Osbourne
“I did suffer from it with one of my pregnancies, but I was suffering from depression anyways.
“The depression is so dark, you feel like you’re in a black fog the whole time and you just cannot cope. And you get to a point where you don’t realise what you’ve got with the baby and you’re just so dark and distraught and alone and it’s the loneliest feeling in the world.”
2. Celine Dion
“Some of the first days after I came home, I was a little outside myself. One moment, tremendous happiness; the next, fatigue sets in, and I cried for no reason.” She added: “Some of the first days after I came home, I was a little outside myself. I had no appetite and that bothered me. My mother remarked that she noticed I had moments of lifelessness but reassured me that this was entirely normal. It’s for things like that after having a baby that mothers really need emotional support.”
3. Drew Barrymore
“I didn’t have postpartum the first time so I didn’t understand it because I was like, ‘I feel great.’
The second time, I was like, ‘Oh, whoa, I see what people talk about now. I understand’. It’s a different type of overwhelming with the second. I really got under the cloud. I just got right on the idea of, ‘Where do I need to be the most?’ Fifty-fifty would be ideal but life doesn’t work like that. Life is messy. It was just really challenging and I felt overwhelmed. I made a lot of decisions and I definitely changed my work life to suit my parenthood.”
4. Chrissy Teigen
“…I was different than before. Getting out of bed to get to set on time was painful. My lower back throbbed; my shoulders—even my wrists—hurt. I didn’t have an appetite. I would go two days without a bite of food, and you know how big of a deal food is for me. One thing that really got me was just how short I was with people.
I would be in my dressing room, sitting in a robe, getting hair and makeup done, and a crew member would knock on the door and ask: “Chrissy, do you know the lyrics to this song?” And I would lose it. Or “Chrissy, do you like these cat ears, or these panda hands?” And I’d be like: “Whatever you want. I don’t care.” They would leave. My eyes would well up and I would burst into tears. My makeup artist would pat them dry and give me a few minutes.
I couldn’t figure out why I was so unhappy. I blamed it on being tired and possibly growing out of the role: “Maybe I’m just not a goofy person anymore. Maybe I’m just supposed to be a mom.”
5. Brooke Shields
6. Cardi B
“I thought I was going to avoid it. When I gave birth, the doctor told me about postpartum, and I was like, ‘Well, I’m doing good right now, I don’t think that’s going to happen.’ But out of nowhere, the world was heavy on my shoulders.
For some reason, I still don’t feel like my body’s the same. I feel like I don’t have my balance right yet. When it comes to heels, I’m not as good at walking anymore. I feel like I’m holding a weight on me … But there’s an energy I haven’t gotten back yet that I had before I was pregnant.”
It’s just the weirdest thing.”
7. Adele
“My knowledge of postpartum — or post-natal, as we call it in England — is that you don’t want to be with your child; you’re worried you might hurt your child; you’re worried you weren’t doing a good job. But I was obsessed with my child. I felt very inadequate; I felt like I’d made the worst decision of my life. … It can come in many different forms.
“Eventually I just said, I’m going to give myself an afternoon a week, just to do whatever the f**k I want without my baby. A friend of mine said, ‘Really? Don’t you feel bad?’ I said, I do, but not as bad as I’d feel if I didn’t do it. Four of my friends felt the same way I did, and everyone was too embarrassed to talk about it; they thought everyone would think they were a bad mom, and it’s not the case. It makes you a better mom if you give yourself a better time.”
8. Hayden Panettiere
“If you think for one second that a mother wants to feel that way toward her child, you’re outta your mind. It is one of the most debilitating, scary, guilty feelings that you can ever feel. That a mother would not be able to connect with their child, would not be able to get a grip, or would not know what’s going on, for anybody to say that it’s false or created by us, you must have your head examined.”
9. Serena Williams
“Honestly, sometimes I still think I have to deal with it. I think people need to talk about it more because it’s almost like the fourth trimester, it’s part of the pregnancy.”
10. Gwyneth Paltrow
“About four months into it, Chris came to me and said, ‘Something’s wrong. Something’s wrong.’ I kept saying, ‘No, no, I’m fine.’ But Chris identified it, and that sort of burst the bubble.
I thought postpartum depression meant you were sobbing every single day and incapable of looking after a child. But there are different shades of it and depths of it, which is why I think it’s so important for women to talk about it. It was a trying time. I felt like a failure.”
As always, thanks for reading Did You Know. We really appreciate you spending time with us, and we hope you share articles like this with your friends so we can all be part of the conversation.
Vitamin D deficiency is linked with many health disorders, including depression. In a survey of almost 8,000 US residents, it was found that those with lower vitamin D levels “are at a significantly higher risk of showing depression”.
1972 democratic vice presidential candidate Thomas Eagleton was forced to drop out of the race after he was humiliated by the “revelation” that he had been treated for chronic depression.
According to the World Health Organization, over 300 million people worldwide have depression. Sadly, at least in the United States, your health insurance coverage dictates what treatment options (or lack thereof) you’re allowed to get. So what happens if you’re stuck between mental health concerns and financial trouble?
Nicole Vlaming experienced this firsthand. She was having suicidal thoughts. She went to an emergency room for help, which is absolutely the right thing to do – what we’re told to do, in fact.
She posted about her experience, and the resulting bill, in a post that went viral on Facebook.
She starts with explaining her initial treatment in the ER:
It’s time to go public with this shit. Two weeks ago today, I walked into the ER because if I didn’t I was going to kill myself. I was stripped of all my clothes and possessions, given disposable scrubs and put in a room for the next 5 hours. In the US, this costs nearly $3,000.
She owed almost $3,000, which, to be clear, didn’t include any medications or actual care. She continues:
I was then placed in the behavioral health ward until Sunday at noon. Three nights, two and a half days. Because it was a weekend, all therapy was scaled back, both in number of sessions and the quality of sessions. During one we simply played a trivia game. I sat around watching TV all day and chatting with a Vietnam vet. In the US this costs nearly $10,000.
Sure, she was monitored and received some counseling services. But three days of scaled-back care for $10,000? And that’s not even all the charges:
During this stay, I had blood drawn twice. That was another $3,800. Not shown are the “physician charges” that bring my grand total to over $18,000. I saw an MD once and had once daily sessions with a psychiatrist. Those sessions consisted of rating my depression on scale of 1-10 and asking if I want to hurt myself or anyone else. Real stellar care. /s Oh, I almost forgot to point out the $145 for 3 days worth of meds. I normally pay less than $50 for an entire month.
It’s natural to assume that her health insurance would cover these costs. You’d be mistaken.
My employer sponsored insurance does not cover inpatient mental health care in any capacity. I do have a supplemental insurance plan that will hopefully cover $6,000, leaving me on the hook for over $12,000.
You want to know why people don’t seek help? This is why.
It’s really sad. She did exactly what she should have done. She sought help when she needed it, and now she has a crippling amount of medical debt to contend with. As a country, we can do better. In fact, we have to do better – for her and other vulnerable populations.
It’s a pretty commonly held belief that if you’re stressed out after a tough day, a drink (or two) can help you wind down and relax. This belief is bolstered by the fact that a glass of wine in the evening has become a crucial ritual for many a stressed parent trying to relax.
Luckily, for us, it’s not an unsubstantiated practice. Believe it or not, studies have shown that certain types of wine can have legitimate health benefits beyond the mental stress relief.
Alcohol quickly boosts our serotonin levels, which results in an elevated or euphoric improvement to our mood. Serotonin is a neurotransmitter (a biological chemical, basically), and it’s a key player in our happiness and mood. People who experience anxiety and depression often have lower than average levels of serotonin in their gut, blood and central nervous system.
The problem is, after that initial boost in serotonin brought on by a couple of drinks, serotonin levels fall down even lower than they were prior to your drinking. So if you drink habitually, it means that you’re regularly lowering your serotonin levels to below what is considered average, and that can eventually rewire your brain.
If you’re someone who doesn’t struggle with depression and anxiety, then you may not have anything to worry about – but if you do, having a drink or two every day might be something you want to rethink.
I was visiting a friend recently, and all she could rave about was the weighted blanket she’d just bought. She admitted that she was basically obsessed with her new purchase. Frankly, up until she went on a 15-minute rant about these blankets, I had no idea these even existed. So, I went home, fired up Google, and did a little research.
These products are all the rage because they’re helpful for people who have anxiety, are stressed out, or just want to get a really good night’s sleep. But the big drawback has always been that they’re pretty expensive.
While they’re less expensive, they are also a little lighter than standard weighted blankets – often it’s recommended that weighted blankets weigh about 10% of the user’s body weight. Though maybe that’s just Big Blanket…
I haven’t actually tried one of these babies out yet, but all I’ve heard are glowing reviews from friends and reviews online. And they’ve been scientifically proven to relieve stress and anxiety. So grab them up while you can! Perhaps as a Christmas gift?
Depression comes with a wide variety of symptoms. Normally, people just think of sadness, but people may also lose interest in hobbies, experience decreases in energy, and have trouble sleeping among other symptoms.
Living with depression may also mean everyday tasks feel too difficult to do. Dishes will pile in the sink as laundry overflows onto the floor. People suffering with depression often find keeping their living spaces tidy takes too much energy.
The OP is triumphant, saying, “You can finally see that I have a floor! Say hi to my teddy Nalle on the bed! I know its not a big victory, but for me it means the world to just be able to have my door open if people come over. I feel so at peace right now, just wanted to share with all of you…”
The striking before and after images were viewed over 390,000 times, and many people reached out with encouragement.
If you look to history (which you always should), you’ll find plenty of anecdotal evidence that creatives tend to lose their minds at a higher rate than the average population. Famous people, too – van Gogh, Beethoven, Plath, Hemingway…the list of creators with mental illness is as long as my arm and yours put together.
Though previous studies attempting to link the two have been small and varied, a recent study in The British Journal of Psychiatry found that people with “artsy” degrees are 90% more likely to be diagnosed with schizophrenia, 62% more likely to suffer from bipolar disorder, and 39% more likely to struggle with depression.
This new study is in line with brain scans published in 2010 that revealed similarities between neural pathways of schizophrenics and creative people. In 2015, a different study also found a raised risk of both schizophrenia and bipolar disorder in creatives – though a 2012 study found that only writers fell into the higher risk category.
The reason behind the growing links remains a mystery, with some believing that a tendency to think more deeply can cause emotional instability and depression. Artists also tend to create in spurts, and bouts of productivity and high energy are also linked to bipolar disorder. Genetics could, of course, also influence both mental health and a creative nature.
“Creativity often involves linking ideas or concepts in ways that other people wouldn’t think of, but that’s similar to how delusions work – for example, seeing a connection between the color of someone’s clothes and being partof an MI5 conspiracy.”
If you work in a creative field, it’s important to be mindful of your own mental health. That said, the incidents of schizophrenia in the world as a whole are still small, so your chances of being diagnosed remain slim.
pic.twitter.com/W2WaDqR0QC
