When we think of depression it is usually in the context of the negative views held by people, specifically other people, about mental illness. Yet perhaps one of the most corrosive forms of depression can be seen when our own views prevent us seeking help for our own poor health.
Thankfully this is improving but it remains a real barrier to patients receiving the care they need. In a Guardian article from 2006 one woman talks of her own experiences.
“I was nearly 20 before I understood that there was a name for what sometimes happened to me. Later, I learned that it has gone by many names – the black dog, the bell jar, the noonday demon, darkness visible, malignant sadness – but in my teens I’d just assumed that my fierce highs and days of disproportionate, isolating despair were part of every teenager’s repertoire – how else would Morrissey have sold so many records? These pitches in mood were something I didn’t speak about to anyone, because I was afraid of two things – either that it was nothing serious, and I would be told to pull myself together, or that it was serious, and I would be told that, yes, I was a mental case.
This is why work such as the “Time to Change” project has such importance in addressing the needs of people with mental illnesses.