Awareness is key to understanding clinical depression

My best friend and I spent countless hours talking on the phone when she had depression. 

She described feeling like studying was futile — that she wouldn’t derive satisfaction from any grade. Life was a tunnel with no light at the end. The best I could do was comfort her and let her know that she wasn’t alone. According to the National Institute of Mental Health, 30 percent of students report feeling “too depressed to function.” 

Depression isn’t the flu or a broken limb. It’s not an illness that manifests itself through a physical scar or a fever. You can’t go to the student health center and get a note dismissing you from class because your depression hindered you from focusing or you just couldn’t muster the motivation to study. 

But when 30 percent of college students — the equivalent of 5,000 undergraduate students here at Pitt — report experiencing intense depressed thoughts, their peers must make an effort to better understand depression. 

My anecdote about my best friend is allegorical and suggests a much larger theme: Depression — the “common cold” of mental illness — is actually a crippling, debilitating disease that affects a marked number of college students. Unfortunately, the tragic reality of depression is that when people become cognizant of the agony that plagues someone who suffers from depression, it’s often already too late. Because it is so common, we should understand depression just as well as any physical ailment. 

We must debunk the stigmatized misconception our society has created surrounding depression. It’s imperative that we make strides to better understand those who are suffering from clinicial depression through empathy and awareness. It’s essential that people know just how common depression is.

People who have never suffered from depression often tell sufferers to “snap out of it,” something no one would tell a person with a broken arm or mono. But, much like a broken arm, depression can’t magically be healed. 

Depression is organic in nature. It stems from abnormal brain chemistry. According to a study published in 2007 by the International Journal of Clinical Practice, depression is an illness “with significant neurobiological consequences involving structural, functional and molecular alterations in several areas of the brain.” The study also published PET scans of subjects with depression versus control subjects, which show apparent decreased brain activity. 

This is not to say that environmental stressors don’t play a huge role — they absolutely do. Depression can’t be proven through a blood test or an X-ray, so the public generally regards it as benign. It is extremely detrimental to assume that depression is just someone being dramatic, or to ignore that this very real medical condition can be incredibly crippling.

According to Kathryn Roecklein, an abnormal psychology professor at Pitt, “depression can be thought of as a response to stressors that are not expected. If you think about how someone is depressed when their life is so great, that’s when you know it’s really depression — when the negative response goes beyond the response you’d normally have. Depression is very different from [an] everyday negative mood.” 

Depression is often misunderstood or not perceived as a real medical illness because it is such a complex disease, involving physiology and the psyche. “Symptoms such as worthlessness, guilt and suicidal tendencies that aren’t physiological make it a unique clinical syndrome,” Roecklein said. 

People grossly underestimate the anguish a depressed person experiences and how that affects daily life. Simple tasks can be agonizing. Little things that someone else may just shrug off are perturbing. Experiencing intense anxiety over something as small as having someone you know ignore you in public — even unintentionally — is not uncommon. 

Suicide is the third leading cause of death on college campuses, according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness, and depressed students are five times more likely to attempt suicide. Four out of every five students who contemplate suicide show clear warning signs of depression, and even close friends of the victim often report not picking up on them. Many schools experience the tragedy of losing a student to suicide, so understanding that absolutely anyone can have depression — or any mental illness, for that matter — is imperative.

We’re part of an institution where we are surrounded by brilliant minds on a daily basis. Unfortunately, many of these people will suffer from depression, and empathy is greatly needed. Understanding comes from identifying behaviors that raise red flags — such as losing interest in things that used to be pleasurable, sleeping more often than usual and expressing sentiments of self-harm. Accordingly, we should act immediately, whether by letting a friend know you are just a phone call away or contacting outside intervention. 

I spent countless nights on the phone with my best friend, and the pain she experienced was undeniable. I gave her everything I could — my support, my love and my understanding. I would answer a phone call for her regardless of where I was. Recognizing that depression is common is the first step to breaking the stigma and helping those who are suffering. This doesn’t seem like much, but trust me, it makes all the difference. 

If you are experiencing signs of depression, call the University Counseling Center at (412) 648-7930. You don’t have to be alone.

Marlo Safi primarily writes about politics and public policy for The Pitt News. 

Email Marlo at mes260@pitt.edu.