Depression and Anxiety

Depression and anxiety are garden-variety mental illnesses that almost everybody has had at one point or another. Anxiety is a perfectly treatable disorder of modern times. Anxiety comes from feeling like something bad is going to happen, a strong and stirring feeling of eternal doom that might approach you. Anxiety gets stirred up. Do not stir the pot and you don’t have to deal with so much anxiety. News fasting is an excellent way of ratcheting down anxiety about global events. Coping with anxiety involves confronting the fear head-on and then doing what you are afraid of doing anyway.

Anxiety eventually goes away when you are staring at your fear in the face. Anxiety is a modern illness since we are no longer running away from predatory animals like in ancient times. We have evolved to be anxious people. Anxiety, in part, is caused by low-levels of serotonin in the brain. Depression is a part of anxiety in that depression results from feeling like you can’t do anything about what is making you anxious. Depression comes on from feeling helpless. Anxiety is what happens when you feel swirls of pent up emotion. Anxiety can, in fact, drive you crazy if you let it.

No loss there. Depression and anxiety are strange bedfellows. You can’t have one without the other. To consistently do the things you fear can calm your anxiety. Facing the fear instead of running from it does help. Anxiety need not take over your life. In fact, the more you confront your anxiety, the more it goes away. It can feel like anxiety is taking over your life. It can literally feel like it is eating your brain. But every time you confront fear, you build fear muscles. These muscles help you kick anxiety out of your headspace.

Depression is a miserable feeling that many more people live with than those who care to admit to this weakness. In our culture, many people do not think taking medication can help them so that’s why medication taking is not trendy. Maybe there will be a time when taking medication is not so stigmatizing. Taking medication doesn’t make you weak. If somebody expresses their prejudices, it is time to remind them that they are being weird. Some people need their medication. Don’t give these people unnecessary drama. I can’t stand people who talk badly about those who use medication. I have dumped people like these.

Anxiety has many treatments in the modern age. It is a good time to have it. There are plenty of treatments for many types of mental illness. Taking medication need not be stigmatized anymore. Some people who need treatment can afford to get treatment now. Anxiety causes a lot of pain since it is anticipatory and constantly lurking in the background. If medication does help, then go ahead, take it. Detractors of mental health treatment need to learn to keep their mouths shut. Some of those jerks should not be opening their mouths at all. Anybody who does talk like that should shut up. Anti-medication morons need not say anything to those of us who opt for treatment.

Medication is a useful tool that makes symptoms go away. Symptoms go away and you can function. That is the bottom-line of using any medication for any mental illness. To shame people on medication when you need it yourself is really dumb. I can’t stand people who talk like this. I get them to shut up quickly. Take your stigma and shove it. I do not want to hear your stigma a second more. It is unnecessary and you need to learn to keep your mouth shut.