NAMI Mercer County

Families Meeting the Challenge of Mental Illness

MDD

Managing MDD

By

Angelina Villalva, NAMI Intern

Two weeks ago on June 12, my grandmother passed away. Although everything had changed, in some ways, it felt like she wasn’t really gone. The sun kept coming, I still had to go to work, and my family kept moving forward as usual. For days, this normalcy left me with a bit of silent hope. I kept waiting for my cell phone to buzz, thinking it was my dad sending me a text that she was coming home, that somehow the hospital had gotten it wrong, and everything was going to be okay. It breaks my heart to say that text never came, and it hurts even more to say that time kept moving, and the days kept passing by. 

Some days I had trouble sleeping. Other days I felt nothing at all. Presently, I’m happy to say that I am in a much better place, and it’s thanks to my amazing support system that got me through this tough period. Family members who shared stories of my grandmother and friends that were willing to listen to my rollercoaster of thoughts allowed me to not just grieve, but remember to love, and how to pick myself up. Without my village of people, I might’ve had a harder time coming out of a depression. And for those who unfortunately don’t have such support, they often experience a harder time recovering from depression. 

Something that binds us all together in the human experience of life is going through loss and hardship. To have meaning is to find an end, and sometimes it comes sooner than we’d like. It’s not uncommon for those undergoing loss and hardship to be experiencing depression, but this is different from clinical depression, also known as major depressive disorder (MDD). 

While losing a loved one is a cause of MDD, other causes include (but are not limited to): 

  • Reduction in size of brain regions that regulate mood and cognition 
  • Neurotransmitter imbalance of serotonin, norepinephrine, and dopamine
  • Genetics; individuals with family members diagnosed with MDD are 3x as likely to develop it as well compared to someone without a family history of the condition
  • Adverse childhood experiences (such as abuse/trauma) 
  • Other stressful life events (trauma, divorce, isolation, lack of support) 

According to the DSM-5 (the standard classification of mental disorders), to be diagnosed with MDD an individual must have 5 or more symptoms to be present during a 2-week period. These symptoms must have significant distress or impairment as a result and must not be attributable to substance use or other medical conditions. In other words, multiple of these symptoms must be present in a single episode, not recurrent. The possible symptoms are as follows: 

  • Depressed mood (subjective/observed) 
  • Loss of interest or pleasure
  • Change in weight of appetite
  • Insomnia or hypersomnia
  • Psychomotor retardation or agitation (observed) 
  • Loss of energy or fatigue
  • Worthlessness or guilt
  • Impaired concentration or indecisiveness
  • Thoughts of death, suicidal ideation, or suicide attempt 

The treatments available for MDD include medication and psychotherapy. However, it is worth noting that while both separately prove to be effective, combining both of these treatments yield the highest positive results. In some further severe cases, individuals with MDD have limited responses to medication. In this event, other treatments such as electroconvulsive therapy are used in place. 

Aside from medication and therapy, John Hopkins Medicine highlights some important reminders on how to better address your depression: 

  • Break large tasks into small ones
  • Confide in the people around you
  • Do something nice for others 
  • Work in regular exercise
  • Eat health, well-balanced meals
  • Stay away from alcohol and other drugs

Something that brought me comfort during my time grieving my grandmother was the phrase, “Grief is love with nowhere to go.” Whether you’re grieving family or a friend, someone you used to know or even the person you used to be, that is all love you have inside of you. I’m not saying depression is cured from something as simple as feeling the love inside of yourself, but it is a nice place to start.

I leave you with a quote from a character from one of my favorite childhood comfort shows, Avatar: the Last Airbender. 

“Sometimes life is like this dark tunnel. You can’t always see light at the end of the tunnel, but if you just keep moving
you will come to a better place.” – Iroh

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