Student Life October 2019
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DOWN IN THE DUMPS<br />
BY ETHAN GLADWELL<br />
A lot of people have the misconception that<br />
depression and loneliness are related to<br />
sadness, and this is all a person feels when<br />
their mental health is suffering. This is<br />
why people who do suffer from depression,<br />
anxiety, or loneliness feel as though they<br />
may not be able to speak out to people<br />
because they would just think that you were<br />
“down in the dumps.”<br />
Depression, which I believe I used to suffer<br />
from on a fluctuating scale, is this inner<br />
feeling of nothingness, which can be caused<br />
by many different things, such as bullying<br />
from friends, family, or even your own<br />
personal thoughts about yourself. When<br />
people suffer from depression, they feel as<br />
though they have no more choices left, like<br />
their paths are all being blocked off because<br />
of many things such as health, money or<br />
time. This makes the person feel lost and out<br />
of control of their own life.<br />
Depression is never just sadness,<br />
it is a constant or fluctuant<br />
feeling of having nothing.<br />
This can make you feel emotionally unstable<br />
and therefore may not feel up to going out or<br />
doing normal daily activities. This is because<br />
a person with depression may struggle to see<br />
the point in something because they focus<br />
mainly on the difficult journey ahead rather<br />
than the reward they will get and it’s not<br />
their fault that they think that way. It’s how<br />
others and their own personal thoughts have<br />
made them feel because they feel like every<br />
day has to be a long, meaningless journey<br />
with no real goal at the end.<br />
Loneliness is never just about being sad<br />
either, it’s a feeling that although you want to<br />
go outside, you might never have anyone to<br />
go with and would not want to go out alone,<br />
therefore you may feel lonely because you<br />
long for that social interaction. It’s not the<br />
case that a person with loneliness doesn’t<br />
want to go out, it’s because they feel that they<br />
can’t go out because they feel like they need<br />
someone with them otherwise they would<br />
just be feeling lonely outside. This can be<br />
a problem for a lot of students who live in<br />
rural areas away from friends and family<br />
or children who have moved about a lot in<br />
their life.<br />
There is also a difference between being<br />
introverted and lonely, which I think that<br />
adults need to understand in order to help<br />
the people who are lonely and allow the<br />
introverted people, who like being alone,<br />
time and space.<br />
56 • OCTOBER <strong>2019</strong> • STUDENT LIFE
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