“UGH, they ran out of my favourtite sandwhich so I had to buy this ugly thing… how depressing!”

“Look at this weather, its so wet and miserable. So depressing. “

In everyday conversation depression is commonly misused to describe the sadness we all experience from time to time. Its part of the human experience and usually doesn’t last very long and doesn’t impact the persons ability to function day to day.

Major depressive disorder or ‘depression’, however is a completely different kettle of fish. It robs people of their energy, ability to sleep, focus, memory, sex drive, social life, even their ability to feel pleasure. It actually lights up the brains pain circuitry, bringing a feeling of torment. Because its an invisible illness, its very difficult to explain and get support from people around them.

According to the world health organisation, clinical depression is now the worlds single leading cause of disability.

We live in a world that we are not designed for. The constant stress of deadlines, social, work and financial pressures, its all too much. Our flight or fight response is really rough on the body, but for our ancestors this was necessary but after they had escaped the stressful situation they were able to turn it off. Today, surrounded by smart phones which are designed to keep us ‘connected’ and ‘on’ at all times. This causes us to constantly be in a fight or flight mode, and the chemicals involved in this process actually become toxic, which in turn causes millions of hormones and neurotransmitters to become out of balance.

THIS is depression.

And its only a very short intro to what depression is. Many people are much more equipped to answer this so I will be trying to get some guest bloggers from different perspectives to answer what they think depression is. My aim is to try to make people aware that it is not a ‘made up’ illness that lazy people get because they just can’t be bothered to get up anymore… its much more serious.