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The reality of some of the ambitious is that you desire to achieve success though there is nothing you truly love that you want to be successful at. Anything you partake in is only a means to success and you cling to the idea that no matter what the product or the means, if the result brings triumph over those less willing to sacrifice their lives on a loveless goal, then you will be happy. The issue is that you find yourself being misunderstood, by both yourself and the people around you.
The “underachievers” have their fair share of happiness, but their envious eyes upon what you’ve achieved convinces you that you are merely unappreciative or ungrateful of what you’ve accomplished and that you should just continue building your tower upon your foundation of sadness because their happiness doesn’t satisfy them, so it won’t satisfy you either. So you continue to work. You work and you work until you achieve everything you’ve ever wanted and it brings you nothing other than the realization that you’ve done what you thought it takes to bring you happiness and you haven’t gained it. So what now? You’re left to resign to the idea that you’re depressed. But depression practically equates to weakness in your own eyes, and as far as the people around you either understand or are concerned, you have no reason to be depressed. You have everything.
But say you do become strong enough to confide your weakness, that is your unhappiness, in someone else. What do they tell you? To snap out of it, that you’re just sad, you have the blues, or you’ll get over it. It seems then that no one understands what you’re going through. Or worse, you begin to believe you aren’t truly going through anything. You’re merely self indulgent and you should be thankful for the many people that surround you with their judgmental eyes and unforgiving tones. So things get worse and you put on your brave face while you fall deeper into misery. And no matter how unhappy you become and or how much you hear about ways that you can get help, you don’t seek any, because you tell yourself nothing is wrong with you.
This isn’t how it has to be. The unfortunate truth is that though you aren’t alone in your depression, many people fall victim to this illness, many of the people in your life and the people you love, just won’t understand and it isn’t their fault. I bold the word illness because that is what depression is. It is a mental illness that consumes you, and though there is truly a difference between sadness and depression, people who haven’t experienced it just cannot see the difference, and that doesn’t mean there’s no way to fight it. There are ways to deal with depression and the truth is, it has to be dealt with. In the U.S, 60% of people who commit suicide had depression or another mood disorder and depression discriminates against no one. Some of the greatest minds have suffered from depression, so there’s no need to feel weak.
I believe that the first steps to dealing with something is understanding it, so beneath is a link to some information on Depression, and then a pretty in-depth online quiz you can take to begin walking down the path for help.
This test is not to be taken as a medical diagnosis, but in the event it tells you that you do suffer from depression or one of its forms, you should talk to your doctor. Click here
