Unknown to many youths, including adolescents and adults, they are going through episodes of depression which is a very serious mental illness. “Depression, reports WHO is now “the predominant cause of illness especially among teenagers.” And I’m afraid, in the years to come, depression may become an invisible form of disability, given its significant propensity to lead to a pervasive mental imbalance in depressed persons.
Life is harsh. I have had my own share of depression that incapacitated me from for a good number of years. But there’s this individual’s personal story that’s strikingly more stirring than mine. shortly after Olaide got into the premier university, she began to experience increased feelings of depression and anxiety over a family issue that had long taken place when she was just a kid (how surreal). With an accompanied feeling of worthlessness, low self-esteem and lack of enthusiasm, Olaide became worried, anxious, and down. She would cry and sleep for hours and hope it was never sunrise again- waking up had become very scary. Soon after, Olaide began to nurse suicide ideation and thought about killing herself just to end it all. Perhaps, by sheer acts of coincidence or some fateful force acting on the girl, the poor teenager would often come across the word “depression” almost every single day!
Despite all the help and support that she could get, including her own mother literally crying with her during the course of the trauma, Olaide would lose total interest in life, as well as in daily activities that usually dominate a typical teenager’s life. The used-to-be fashion freak suddenly became anti-fashion, losing interest in her hobby, lacking excitement for books from where she usually got inspiration. And lo and behold, Olaide, lost in the thick fog of her own dark world, lost considerable weight, and her beautiful face became aged.
Unable to decide to see a doctor or a clinical therapist, Olaide resorted to prayer. “I prayed, and a lot of people stood by me.” She said. Shortly after, she had enough courage to take up books and read up on literature regarding depression and healing. Then, not long after, Olaide’s shaken world began to resume as normal, and she began to forget those “things”. She began to move on and to be happy, again.
Today, Olaide is very fine and doing great. In fact, the experience made her a more resilient, and a more empathetic person. Thanks to the trauma, Olaide has developed a thicker skin that’s impervious to even the harshest of external stimulus that may be thrown at her. The beautiful young woman encounters a problem, and she just chuckles. Olaide sees a victim of child abuse or domestic violence, or trauma, she understands what it’s like and wants to help. Since she shared her story with me, Olaide and I have become very good friends, and the lessons of her story have become a fine source of strength and inspiration to me.
But I hope the lessons can help you and multitude of others to find strength when the sun overhead becomes dim, when the cloud rages, or as is oftentimes the case, when the circumstances of our birth, our history, our family context, or family dynamic somehow dictate the trajectory of our life.
TAlk to you again soon.