As with all my pages, this page also concerns a topic that I feel strongly about.
Depression is a fact of life that many people deal with on a day to day basis. Some of
these sites concern those people. Some of the other sites concern the loved ones who
surround us. If you're looking for a particular kind of information that you don't find
here, please feel free to email me and I'll see what I can find :-)
Down below, I've listed an excerpt from a webpage I found that contains excellent resources.
What Depression Is:-Depression is an illness, in the same
way that diabetes or heart disease are
illnesses.
-Depression is an illness that affects
the entire body, not just the mind.
-Depression is an illness that one in
five people will suffer during their
lifetime.
-Depression is the leading cause of alcoholism, drug abuse and other
addictions.
-Depression is an illness that can be successfully treated in more than
eighty percent of the people who have it.
-Depression is an equal-opportunity illness - it affects all ages, all races, all
economic groups and both genders. Women, however, suffer from
depression twice as much as men do.
-At least half of the people suffering from depression do not get proper
treatment.
-Untreated depression is the number one cause of suicide.
-Depression is second only to heart disease in causing lost work days in
America.
What Depression Is Not:
-Depression is not something to be ashamed of.
-Depression is not the same thing as feeling "blue" or "down."
-Depression is not a character flaw or the sign of a weak personality.
-Depression is not a "mood" someone can "snap out of." (Would you ask
someone to "snap out of" diabetes?)
-Depression is not fully recognized as an illness by most health care
insurance providers. Most will only pay 50% of treatment costs for
out-patient care, as well as limiting the number of visits.
