Tori Lemon
Lantern Staff
It is easy to dismiss or poke at the things we do not understand. Many do not even realize when they are reinforcing typical stereotypes about others, and unfortunately it is a day to day situation. Our perceptions of others come from the stereotypes society has placed over time in regards to our appearance, gender, race and disabilities. It is easy to stereotype; however, coming from the other end, being stereotyped can feel like a day to day struggle. On top of living with both depression and anxiety, freshman Destiny Bowlin also lives with the daily stereotypes and stigmas that surround mental illnesses.
Bowlin started feeling her disorders manifest her freshman year of high school, although she was never clinically diagnosed.
“I have what is known as depression and anxiety disorder,” Bowlin said. “Having both of them is really hard to deal with because anxiety makes you feel like everyone is watching or that you’re doing everything wrong while the depression makes you feel like everyone hates you or is judging you.”
Mental illness is subjective to each individual, and it will affect their day to day lives differently. Because depression diagnosis involves looking at the severity on a spectrum, there is more than one type of depression- clinical depression, major depressive disorder, situational depression, bipolar disorder, postpartum depression, so on and so forth. Due to the fact that there are so many types of depression, and because it is so specialized per person, treatment options vary quite a bit as well. Medication and therapy are only two of many ways to cope with this mental illness.
“My day to day life can vary because any set of things can set me off,” Bowlin said. “Mostly whenever someone feels disappointed or frustrated with my actions is when I really fall into depression. Then after depression my anxiety disorder kicks in really hard. I really tried to stay away from treatments as much as possible, as crazy as it sounds. In order to cope with it I really just try to remember the promises that I’ve made to my family and myself. Sometimes love is all you need to keep you going.”
Those who are uncomfortable with mental illness or who have never lived with one may not necessarily know how to react to someone with depression. It is one thing to choose not to educate yourself on this topic, and there is simply just not knowing what to do or say when interacting with someone with a mental illness. Either way, that lack of acknowledgment and empathy is what creates the problematic stereotypes and stigmas.
“I definitely feel like people who do not have depression or anxiety disorder feel as if those people are sad all the time, 24 hours a day,” Bowlin said. “And that’s not always the case, we still have happy moments, they just don’t come around as often as everyone else’s. I wish people would understand that people with this disorder don’t want to be depressed. They want to be happy but just can’t find the motivation to do so.”
Sharing a personal struggle with what seems like the world is not an easy task for many. Bowlin hopes that by sharing her story, she can help to challenge modern day stigmas surrounding people like herself who struggle daily with mental illness.
“I feel like depression is something that you hear a lot, but not see or understand a lot,” she said. “So I really wanted to shed some light on this disorder, and hopefully some people will really get involved and help others overcome their disorder.”
