Silent Killers: Depression & Anxiety

Loads of news about suicide, depression, and anxiety spread over social media. And due to these incidents, awareness about these three were raised, and because these issues are still fresh.

How dangerous depression and anxiety are?

As a girl battling with depression and anxiety, I could not just fathom the idea of those people who said that these two are some kind of a joke. Are you kidding me? Don’t you hear those news and articles that a person dies because of depression? Because of anxiety? How about those who are going though medications? Do you count how much each year dies because of suicide?

Depression is not just ‘gawa-gawa lang’. Depression is real. Depression kills. It is not someone asking for attention. Depression is when you do not really care about anything; it is hearing your favorite song and not singing along; it is staring at a wall for hours, uninterrupted, wondering why you feel the way you do; it is feeling all your emotions slowly slipping away; it is rarely sleeping but always feeling exhausted; it is doing whatever it takes to feel something, trying anything to not feel so numb; it is not having the energy to even talk to the people you love, or do anything actually; and it is wishing that you could at least love yourself, but you cannot, not the way you want to.

Depression is a condition in which a person feels discouraged, sad, hopeless, unmotivated, or disinterested in life in general and when the feelings interfere with daily activities. Major depression is a treatable illness that affects the way a person thinks, feels, behaves, and functions.

Depression can run in families. People with low self-esteem, who are easily overwhelmed by stress, or who are generally pessimistic appear to be more likely to experience depression.

In the other hand, anxiety is when you care too much about everything.

It is a normal part of life to experience occasional anxiety. Everyone gets nervous or anxious from time to time - when speaking in public, for instance, or when going through financial difficulty.

Anxiety is what we feel when we are worried, tense or afraid – particularly about things that are about to happen, or which we think could happen in the future. Anxiety is a natural human response when we perceive that we are under threat. It can be experienced through our thoughts, feelings and physical sensations.

Anxiety feels as if everyone in the world is waiting for me to trip up, so that they can laugh at me. It makes me feel nervous and unsure whether the next step I take is the best way forward.

But when does anxiety become a mental health problem?

Anxiety can become a mental health problem if it impacts on your ability to live your life as fully as you want to. It is when it interferes with your daily activities. You find it hard to go about your everyday life or do things you enjoy. It is when your worries feel very distressing or are hard to control; it is when your feelings of anxiety are very strong or last for a long time; and when your fears or worries are out of proportion to the situation.

Anxiety disorders are real, serious medical conditions - just as real and serious as physical disorders such as heart disease or diabetes.

Having an anxiety is hard that even going out of the house is a challenge. You fear of panicking; you tend to avoid social situations for fear of being judged, embarrassed, our humiliated; you have seemingly out-of-the blue panic attacks and the preoccupation with the fear of having another one; you have irrational fear or avoidance of an object, place, or situation that poses little or no threat of danger; and you have recurring nightmares, flashbacks, or emotional numbing related to a traumatic event that occurred several months or years before.

Depression and anxiety are two different things, but having them both is just like hell.

Depression and anxiety are both silent killers. They are murderers just sitting there silently waiting to be touched, but once touched, even the slightest feeling, it will be like a bomb that just explodes. Depression and anxiety are not just all in the mind and definitely not a choice. Who in the world wanted to have like these? Who wanted to be sad and lonely for the rest of their lives?

These two are not ‘pa-sosyal lang’. It just happens that some have means to go for medications, therapies, and counseling. Some are lucky enough to afford these, but how about those who have nothing? That is why you’ll be surprised that there are some who jumps off the bridge or buildings, drinks poison, hangs themselves, or cut or wound themselves.

People commit suicide not because they want attention, but they commit suicide because they no longer could carry the burdens and problems they have. “They're weak,” you said? No, they aren't. They have been strong for so long but still feel useless that killing thyself is the only way. They don't want to end their lives, they want to end the pain, bullying, hating, suffering, anger, and feeling unloved and unwanted. Who in the world want to commit suicide because of nothing, just some kind of tripping? I hope you won't call them names like ‘weak’ and ‘stupid’ because first of all, you are not in their place. You never know how heavy their problems are.

People who commit suicide just wanted to escape – from everything. They were slowly drowning and just wanted to go with the flow, but in reality, they just want someone to lift up their hands and bring them to the shallow part of the ocean and continue breathing again.

“How about you tell your problems to your friends? To a psychiatrist? Or to someone?” you asked? People with depression tend to keep their problems to themselves because they do not want to be judged. They are afraid people will just laugh at them, saying things like over acting, that they just want attention. Some may even address them as insane. Stop, please. Depression and anxiety may be mental disorders, but we are not crazy.

But despite all of these, people with depression and anxiety tend to make jokes more.

They try to make others smile. They are not attention seekers.

We even smile and laugh more than non-depressed people. We are not faking it.

We tend to go on with our lives like we are not battling with anything. We tend to care more, because we do know how it feels to be ignored and to be left unnoticed, we know how it feels being seenzoned by people we thought would always be there.

Do we still have to wait another innocent person to be killed and murdered by these silent killers – depression and anxiety – before we believe that these are real? It is time to accept it. It is time to do something.

I hope people will take time to check in on the people they love. A simple, “Are you okay?” can mean so much to someone going through a hard time.

So, if you do not have any good to say and just insult people going through with these, better not spill it and just keep silent. And to those who suffers from this, hold on, do not give up. You are bigger than depression and anxiety. Your God is bigger than these two.