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With the passing this week of Robin Williams, I find myself asking, “Do we always see or seek out help when we need it.”
We all face depression at least once in our lifetime (if we’re luck), but it’s not a sign of weakness, nor is it a sign of being a failure to seek out help when going through those times.
- When I was a kid, I learned that when I hurt myself, I needed to suck it up, “rub some dirt on it and get back in there”. I was told that showing signs of pain, or discomfort, was a sign of weakness.
- Most of us were brought up this way. We were taught to “just pull ourselves by those boot straps and go on”–that it was more important to just power through it.
- Asking for help was (of course) said to be a sign of weakness, a sign of that we are not strong enough. We are not a man, if we ask for help (or need it).
- Boy, was that WAY off with that type of learning and thinking. I can think of a few other terms too: idiotic, dumbass, stupid… all the words we tell our children not to use.
- Our parents were bad teachers, but we can’t really fault them, because they were taught to think that way.
I chose to break this cycle of shortsightedness. I chose to break these chains of nonsense.
Depression is not a journey that you can travel on your own. It isn’t something that “rubbing dirty on it” can fix. We can’t just pull ourselves up by our bootstraps and power through it. When you’re in the depths of depression, doubt is your bunkmate (it is every-present).
People will ask, “Didn’t he/she have a lot of people around them who showed love and affection.” And, yes, most of the time, that is true. But depression won’t allow us to see that. It’s greatest tool is Doubt. Depression causes us to Doubt ourselves, the ones we love, and even how they feel about us.
Doubt is one of Depression’s greatest weapons. And, oh, the pain it causes in us! It takes the joy out of everything we do (or did).
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