‘Anita, get up! It’s late! You’ll be late for college,’ Anita’s mother called out. Anita rolled over in bed. She did not feel like getting up. She had not slept till 2 am in the morning. Anita had been worrying about all the things going wrong in her life. Her friend was acting funny, not calling her up or wanting to eat lunch with her. Lately, she had been thinking that her classmates were laughing at her because she did not look dress as nicely as them. ‘Yes, I’m too fat. Look at all the marks on my face. I’ll never get a boyfriend’, she thought to herself, her eyes filling with tears.

Her grades were also falling and her teachers were pointing out that in order to get admission in a good college for M.Sc. she would have to get high scores. ‘I am such a failure. All my friends will get into good colleges and I may not even get admission. I wish I could die ‘.

 ‘Anita’, called her mother again. ‘Why can’t she stop bothering me.’, thought Anita irritated. ‘Why can’t she understand how tired I feel. I don’t feel interested in anything….’

These are the typical thoughts and feelings of someone with depression. Depression can be caused by life stresses, crises in one’s life or losses. There are feelings of sadness or depression; the person feels tired and has low energy. There is a lack of interest in activities that they used to like. Negative self-esteem leads them to devalue themselves and feel that others are putting them down. There is a lack of hope about the future and they may even feel that life is not worth living.  Such people with mild to moderate depression can learn to cope by talking with a counsellor about their issues. They can successfully come out of their challenges and feel good about themselves again.  For some people medication may also help.

Seek help from a counsellor at Salvecare if you are going through such challenges.

Author: Dr. Veena Easvaradoss Ph.D.