When The Engineer You Work With Has Depression

I have lived with depression for a couple of years already. I was diagnosed five years ago with clinical depression and life has been a series of major ups and downs. The thing about suffering from depression is that nobody really understands it. If you have one, you feel alone in this fight. Your parents don’t understand you, your friends try to but they really just can’t. Even when you seek for help, it never really goes away. Talking about it to a loved one also doesn’t help because they will just dismiss it as something that will pass.

I once believed that it will. But it never went away. For years, I have dealt with this silent oppressor that constantly puts an end to my happiness. I have lost my will to live several times. I have approached different methods and I have found myself frustrated that life is getting harder. I am constantly unhappy, never contented and just tired.

Working as an engineer, the job at hand can be overwhelming. It’s always a struggle to wake up early in the morning, get up and prepare for work. Nothing keeps me happy anymore. I have to deal with different processes inside a processing plant and when things get messy, I find myself crying in the bathroom because I have a hard time dealing with it. This is my story and you may be surprised that there are so many other people out there who deal with this problem as well. Depression is real. We are not just sad. Sad is just fleeting. To be diagnosed with depression is life-threatening yet not everybody understands this condition.

Source: Giphy

if you happen to know someone going through the same thing, please be more understanding of this issue. Nobody wants to have this. We all want to be happy so people ignoring someone’s call for help can be detrimental to one’s mental health. If you happen to notice these things on someone, you may advise this person to seek professional help:

When one tends to eat less or more than the usual
Resorts to alcohol or drugs such as prescription pills
Complains about feeling pain within the body or just really exhausted all the time
No positive outlook in life
Doesn’t care about one’s life in general

It helps to talk to this depressed colleague and let this person know that you are open to listen to his/her condition. It is also advisable to let your superiors at work know about the condition so that the company can offer any assistance to help. Be a positive ball of energy to the people around you. It really helps a lot.

Everyday, millions of people suffer from it yet there’s a stigma surrounding this condition. People have committed suicide yet others do no understand and blame the person for it. Depression is usually caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain or a traumatic event in one’s life. It cannot go away easily so one is advised to proceed to a psychiatrist for guidance and assistance.