It's Mines

When I accepted the assignment of writing a column I had no idea it would become as important to me as it has, because when I began this column I told myself I would not make this a frivolous blurb about nothingness.

Though I have to admit I have had a few that I feel are just that, frivolous blurbs of nothingness.

I can honestly say that was due to avoiding columns like the next few I will have, because I had to figure out how to say what I needed to in order to help someone else.

I want to help by letting you (my reader) know you’re not alone and – possibly - even giving you a new perspective that will help you grow and understand – if not yourself then maybe others.

Of all the advancements we have made as a people I have a hard time understanding why we have yet to understand that depression is not something to be embarrassed by or kept a secret.

It seems to me the attitude still carried by society toward this particular illness is more harmful than not and quite frankly an example of how much further our technology has advanced than people.

After all, we have the ability to help those who are depressed through medication and therapy or both, but yet when a person seeks either there is a shame that touches them. This is due to the current (and past) attitudes towards mental illnesses.

Examples of this attitude can be seen in everyday life, just turn on the news where more often than not tragedies involving the taking of life is blamed on a “mental illness” instead of a choice the person made or maybe just maybe that is who that person was, a killer.

It is not a wonder why quite often people who are battling depression feel alone and ostracized by a society that still feels the need to hide them away, when in fact every living breathing human being will at one time in their life, even if just for a short time, experience depression.

Depression will touch everyone’s life and not just as the bystander but as the one who is depressed – and if right now you are saying I have not, please don’t.

Depression will affect more people than any other one illness a person can name.

Yet to say ‘I have or suffer from depression’ or ‘I have had or battled depression’ is comparable to how it was “coming out of the closet” 20 years ago for homosexual people.

It is obvious I have some very strong thoughts about this subject, and for good reason, I have battled depression for the majority of my life, since I was an adolescent.

I have come to that point in my life that I don’t feel people like myself should be embarrassed or looked down upon because of depression.

I feel as if people like myself should stand up and take charge of the world around them – which I know when in the mists of the battle is easier said than done.

I am going to dedicate my next several columns to us sharing what I have learned on my long journey to being strong enough to say, I have stood up and found a way to have control over my depression instead of it controlling me.

I have found a way to shorten the dark periods and create more time in between them.

I have found a way to not just understand the signs and become proactive, but to know everything will be okay, no matter what my thoughts may say.

I want to help by sharing what I have come to understand with the intent to help someone else, if anything, know they are not alone.

I won’t lie it is a journey, often a long journey, but as my favorite teacher said, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step,” ~ Lao Tzu.

Until next week, may you all be blessed and know somewhere in the world several someones know exactly how you feel – no matter who you are or what you feel.

Contact Tina Mines at [email protected].