Argumentative Essay: Depression For The Nondepressed

Depression for the Nondepressed

We know that depression is a chemical imbalance in the brain, specifically a lack of the neurotransmitters serotonin and dopamine. This chemical imbalance can occur as a result of a traumatic event, stressful situations (e.g. illness, abuse, or conflict), medications, or genetic predispositions, and new contributing factors are being discovered every day. Because our brain dictates the way we perceive things, these chemical imbalances make the seemingly insignificant, significant; the obvious, hidden; the easy tasks, like running marathons in the middle of summer in a desert. Environmental factors affect the brain’s chemistry, and certain triggers can cause a wave of depression to hit you out of nowhere.

Sometimes you can’t. To imagine depression, imagine being buried alive. You wake up in the dark. Confused, you feel the walls around you realizing you are in a tight space. You begin to struggle, heart rate and breathing picking up, pushing with all your strength, but the walls won’t budge. Your mind races. You are trapped. There’s no way out. The walls feel as though they are closing in. “Why am I here? How do I get out? What if I can’t get out? What if this is forever? Will I die here? What if I yell out? Will anybody hear me? Does anybody know I am here?” You try to slow yourself down and hold on to the hope that motivates you to take another breath. “Someone will find me. This is not forever. I can do this.” You can’t do anything in this tight space. There is just you and your thoughts. As time passes doubt creeps in and those bright, hopeful thoughts become dimmer and dimmer. You are tired of pushing, tired of thinking, frustrated. With hope burned out, exhaustion takes over; every breath makes you feel heavier and heavier and heavier, until breathing is too much. You no longer move. You think, “no one is coming.” You think, “there is no way out.” You think, “I don’t have to suffer any more. It would be so easy to just stop breathing. I

It could be a completely normal day, and then the power goes out. You press on pretending you are okay because you have no answer to “Are you okay?”, “What’s wrong?”, “Depressed? What do you have to be depressed about?”. You feel almost guilty for feeling down because so many people have the right to be sad in their situation, but you don’t. Because you really don’t know why you feel this way. Because nobody understands. That’s how it feels anyways. Well intentioned individuals offer up kind words to “cheer us up”, but these words either carry no power or make the guilt worse. “There is always hope.” ‘Where? How can I find it? Show me the way, PLEASE. I know that there is hope, but if I can’t feel it, then what?’ “It will get better.” ‘When?!?! How do you know it will get better? If you can see into the future please just tell me how much longer because I can’t see the light. Just show me where it went and I can hold on.’ These things you so desperately want to be true contradict the evidence. Your brain won’t let you believe them. All you feel is a heavy guilt for not being able to believe those who really care and genuinely thank them. We so desperately want to be happy, but we can’t. Pity is the last thing we want. We are human beings of the same worth as you. Pity only increases our lack of self worth. If you look down on us it only makes us feel that much smaller, that much