Q: My wife wants me to go to our family doctor to talk about being depressed.
She says that she has noticed it coming on for the past few weeks.
I know that I am discouraged and frustrated this year. Who wouldn’t be with the kind of spring that we have had around here? But I am not sure that I am depressed.
I don’t want to go over there and waste our good doctor’s time just because I am a little down.
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Is there any way that we can figure this thing out ourselves?
A: Your wife is right. You should talk to your doctor about it. Depression is a medical condition and one that can be handled with professional resources.
If you are depressed, your physician can start you on some useful medications and refer you to your mental health services for counselling. The depression is not going to go away in a hurry, but with the proper support, you can deal with it so it doesn’t interfere with your daily responsibilities.
Depression does not come out of nowhere. It is a disturbance that gradually works on you over time until one day you notice that you are not able to do things as readily as you usually do.
There are signs of depression for which you might watch within yourself.
One of them is a loss of interest. If you find yourself not enjoying life around the farm the same as you usually do, or if you are just not interested in whatever is going on, you could be on the road to depression.
Another signal is feeling tired or lacking energy.
Depression might affect your appetite, so that you are either eating far more than you previously did or you find yourself barely eating at all.
The same is true for sleeping. People who are depressed either cannot get enough sleep, so that they are dozing most of the time, or they cannot get to sleep, and toss and turn their nights away.
Depressed people struggle when they try to concentrate. They cannot read the newspaper, watch television or pay attention to what is going on.
The big symptom is that people who are depressed do not appreciate themselves as individuals with merit. Some have such low self esteem that they wonder if they should continue living.
Depression is more than an inconvenience or a nuisance in your daily living. It is dangerous.
If you are depressed and aren’t concentrating when working on heavy machinery or tending to livestock, you could seriously hurt yourself or someone else. You need to deal with it.
Whether or not you are depressed, talking to your doctor about it is not a waste of time. She can reassure you if you are not clinically depressed and help you if you are.
The sad news is that men are not as willing to go for help when they are depressed as are women. They seem to think depression is something they can handle by themselves.
They can’t and the more everyone understands that it is all right to reach out for assistance, the safer all of us will become.
Jacklin Andrews is a family counsellor from Saskatchewan who has taught social work at two universities. Mail correspondence in care of Western Producer, Box 2500, Saskatoon, Sask., S7K 2C4 or e-mail jandrews@producer.com.
