Raising Aware-ness of depression

AT any one time, 10% of the Irish population suffer from depression, while, over the course of a lifetime, a person has a one in three chance of suffering it.
The illness touches everyone’s life, either directly or indirectly, but despite its prevalence a stigma surrounds it, with around three quarters of sufferers reporting a reluctance to discuss it with employers or work colleagues.
Aware is a voluntary organisation that works to combat the lack of knowledge surrounding depression and to provide support for sufferers, to help them reach their full potential.
Mary McGrath, the organisation’s executive officer in the West of Ireland, says there are different types of depression and degrees of seriousness.
“It can be mild, moderate or severe and the most common would be reactive, where the depression is a reaction to something, like a bereavement or the loss of a job. Then you have chemical/biological depression. Unipolar depression is where someone has low moods while bipolar people have highs and lows.”
A recently television documentary on the condition among sportspeople showed the depth of ignorance that surrounded the illness until recent years. It included footage of former Aston Villa manager, John Gregory, publicly ridiculing his star striker Stan Collymore, after he made himself unavailable for selection due to depression.
Clearly, the old-school manager had no empathy with, or sympathy for, the troubled young man, and while some of this attitude still prevails, Mary believes it is softening.
“There’s still a long way to go but I’d work with schools and with young people there is less stigma. The more it is talked about the better and the level of understanding is improving. I’m five years with Aware and the level of understanding has improved a lot in that time. It is an illness and it can strike anyone, even though people mightn’t have expected it to hit someone like Stan Collymore, but it can hit anyone at any stage, young or old, male or female.”
While the illness affects both genders, women are between three and four times more likely to suffer it, but men are more likely to die by suicide.
Mary says that people can recover and can enjoy an excellent quality of if they seek help for depression, but she believes there is no point in just hoping it will go away.
“It can affect anyone and the longer that it’s left untreated the worse it gets. The sooner you start treating it, the sooner you get over it.”
Aware has a support group in Clare that meets every Tuesday at 8.30pm at the Mid-Western Regional Hospital Ennis. The charity has around 60 of these groups around the country and Mary says they offer a lot to people battling depression. “The big thing is that they can talk to other people in the group in the same situation and not be judged. It can be of great benefit to open up. They get understanding and if you talk to people who have attended for the first time, they will often tell you it’s the first time they felt understood.”

On the group’s website www.aware.ie, there is a list of symptoms of depression. There is also a helpline that can be contacted on 1890 303 302, which is for people suffering from depression or those close to someone with the illness. Aware also runs a programme for youth groups and secondary schools entitled ‘Beat the Blues’ which focuses on awareness of depression.