Dr. Rajesh Bhola
India
Jul 26, 2013
Dr. Rajesh Bhola
is President of Spastic Society of Gurgaon and is working for the cause
of children with autism, cerebral palsy, mental retardation and
multiple disabilities for more than 20 years
India
Jul 26, 2013
When
we experience trouble, it can go either way with us. We may become
alienated and isolated, or we may grow as people. Experience should
broaden us; difficult experiences should challenge us. The victory is in
our being enlightened, rather than defeated by the various situations
of life. All of us will assuredly meet with pain, failure and affliction.
Everyday
I see special children toiling very hard in moving on the ramp, inch by
inch, for attending their special education classes. Some children take
about 30 minutes to reach the first floor, due to the unco-ordinated
movement of their limbs. When some children were taken for a picnic
to the nearby resort on NH 8, a spastic child confided in me, through
fumbling words and a melancholy face, that he did not like going to
public places as the people around just stare at him. He added, “There are very few who come close to me, to try and feel the pain and anguish I am going through. Till
this age of 14 I have not known how to stand independently, how to eat
with my hands and how to clap. The moment I feel like shouting in
excitement my neck goes one way and my arms and legs go the other way.”
Many children like this child face great hardships in their lives. Of
course the most difficult afflictions to bear are often psychological
and social, rather than physical.
We
all meet with setbacks that can throw us into a state of depression.
The down periods can be brought on by a change of weather, a broken
heart, a fever - or even for no particular reason. We mope around,
listen to sad music and feel sorry for ourselves. A black mood starts to
hang over us. Thankfully, these moods normally go away within a couple
of days. However, some do fall prey to a serious kind of depression,
which is called clinical depression. It is a serious condition, an
illness – and is comparable to a ‘down mood’ as much as a sneeze is
comparable to pneumonia. It can affect appetite, sleep patterns and
powers of concentration - and even slow down movement and speech.
While the predominant feeling a depression brings is often sadness or a
blue mood, it can also be a numb, empty feeling, fuelling anxiety,
hopelessness and loss of self-esteem – or even an inability to take
decisions. Unlike a passing mood, clinical depression dominates a
person’s life and brings it to a screeching halt. The number one cause of suicide is untreated depression.
People with chronic depression need treatment. Unfortunately, such
people at times do not visit a doctor; probably because they are told so
by society, well-meaning family and friends; they also have their own misconceptions of mental illness - that depression is just a mood that they should be able to control.
They do not believe that this is a life-threatening illness, and
believe that it can be managed by happy talk and an upbeat demeanour. People
try for years to defeat their undiagnosed depression by ‘reasoning it
out’. It is like trying to treat diabetes by skipping dessert. It
does not work, and it is dangerous for health. Depression can be caused
by an undiagnosed illness such as heart disease, thyroid dysfunction,
cancer, infectious diseases and immune/autoimmune disorders. Depression
can even be brought on by vitamin or mineral deficiencies, or
prescription and over-the-counter drugs. If you do not treat depression
as an illness and get yourself checked out by a physician or
psychiatrist, you run the risk of leaving a serious illness undiagnosed.
If you are experiencing any of the symptoms of depression, make an
appointment to see a doctor. If you know someone who seems to be showing
the symptoms, encourage him or her to see a doctor. Do not believe the
myth that we can handle depression on our own.
Depression is an illness that attacks mind, body and spirit. In order to fight depression you need to heal the whole person.
Your doctor can help you fight depression with medication. Your
therapist can help you by offering empathy and new ways of thinking
about old problems. What can you do to help yourself? You may
believe that you are powerless to fight depression. You are not. There
are people who have struggled with depression for most of their lives.
Doctors and therapists have been essential allies, but all the pills and
all of the talk in the world would not have been enough if they had not
done their part. They had to learn how to fight depression day by day. Good nutrition is essential. This is tricky, since depression tends to disrupt the appetite.
In order to fight depression, you need to take in enough calories and
nutrients to give strength to your body and mind. Fight depression by
eating healthy, appealing foods that require little or no preparation:
like soups, fruit, string cheese, yoghurt and whole-grain cereal.
Sleep
provides you the armour to fight depression. Without adequate sleep you
are more susceptible to negative messages swirling around in your mind.
If you are struggling with insomnia, make sure your bedroom is designed
as a place for rest, not stimulation. If you keep a TV or computer
in your bedroom, move it somewhere else. Fight depression by making the
hours before sleep as peaceful as possible. Do your best to block all
light sources; the goal is to create a space of total darkness.
It is hard enough for most of us to exercise regularly; it is really hard when you are trying to fight depression.
Depression steals energy, so it may be hard to imagine how you will
ever drag yourself to the gym, let alone work out once you get there. Remember that exercise provides your brain with a natural high and releases the stress that otherwise stays coiled in your body. Exercise is like a magic anti-depressant that works immediately. Consider it your knock-out punch as you fight depression.
Lastly,
anyone with depression could get better just by being more positive. We
all need to have some spiritual training to prepare ourselves for
eventualities of this kind. Spiritualism does not teach us that we will
never be depressed; it teaches us not to be defeated by it. It does not
teach us how to avoid suffering; it teaches us to meet suffering and
live nobly, so that suffering is not unnecessarily multiplied and the
depression does not steal away the precious moments of our lives.
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