COLUMN: Depression's stigma

From Siona Listokin's, "Think Different," Fall '00 From Siona Listokin's, "Think Different," Fall '00Talk about a faux pas. I knew a girl who absolutely never smiled. Tired of her monotone responses to all attempts at conversation, I jokingly suggested a regular regiment of Prozac. She responded by promptly taking a humongous bottle of the prescription drug out of her medicine cabinet. When she saw how uncomfortable I was, she actually smirked. I had safely entered the world of foot-in-mouth. This is a dangerous stigma, especially in a student body whose demographic has its fair share of sufferers. A study by the National Institutes of Health found that prescription antidepressants are quietly becoming ubiquitous on the campuses of America's elite universities. And yet the perception of these drugs and the diseases they treat is still negative. We at Penn think we are so perfect. We are smart, but not geeky. We are personable. We are the people our friends' parents like. We can be involved in a dozen activities and still have it all under control. And we dress well all the while. Nowhere do we leave room for the weakness of depression. Mental health is a forbidden subject, both between peers and within ourselves. With the taboo of depression comes a misunderstanding of the disease and its treatment. There are many types of depression, but mild to severe depression has nothing to do with mental willpower. The sick cannot just snap out of it. Some things called neuro-transmitters are in short supply in their brains. The fact is that about 10 percent of all Americans will get a form of depression every year. That is about 950 undergraduate students here at Penn. And hey, Penn girls -- women are more than twice as likely to become depressed as men. Studies suggest that likely factors for the higher incidence among women include "the greater stress on women of maintaining multiple roles such as homemaker, professional, wife and mother." Where do you see yourself in 10 years? The most dangerous effect of the stigma attached to depression is that it discourages many from seeking treatment. Two thirds of those with depression do not seek medical help, most often because of misdiagnosis or fear of being thought of as weak, lazy -- or crazy. This is a tragedy because depression can be cured. Counseling and antidepressants help about 70 percent of those who seek help, and the remainder have other options that can work. If left untreated, there is a chance that depression will recur. And recur. And recur. What follows in cases of repeated bouts of depression can be horrible. How many times can one feel like he is on the brink of insanity before he begins to think about suicide? Suicidal thoughts in the head of an overachiever are scary. And hey, Penn dudes, your demographic shows particular savvy in this regard; there has been a recent increase in rates of suicide attempts among young males, and males are between two and seven times more likely to successfully commit suicide than women. (A distinction I gladly concede.) I had the happy opportunity to be educated about depression by someone close to me who was suffering through the disease. I took his daily regiment of Prozac once -- we figured that I might as well get a buzz out of the situation. The pills did not produce any noticeable effect in me. You can be damn sure they helped him out, though. These pills are not uppers, nor are they placebos. They are a form of treatment for a legitimate disease. We at Penn are not perfect, nor are we immune to all types of mental disorders. Some of us suffer from a form of depression and are seeking help to cure it. Most of us are friends with someone who suffers from depression, even if we do not know it. And all of us need to gain a better understanding and appreciation for depression and its treatment.