[Bashir Mehmood]
Medically, depression must be diagnosed timely just like any other physical disease. People suffering from depression need love and attention the same way any other patient needs
“Hopelessness” has been declared as a sin in Islam. Anyone who looks into the negative angles even in positive aspects of any matter of life can be considered a “Dejected Person”. A dejected person remains in the state of an unknown fear; he considers a common rope as a snake to him; and his heart beat runs out of control on hearing even a slight sound/ voice. All the time, he remains in the state of an unknown fear; and ultimately such feelings overcome his personality. Whereas, one should always be ready to face/ overcome every problem of life bravely, otherwise survival in this world becomes very challenging. Joy and sorrow/ troubles are part and parcel of the life; to get rid of them is like impossibilities. As a matter of fact, “sorrows” make the “joys” more cherished in the life. Factually, we always gaze for pleasure in life but even then we inevitably come across “sorrows”. Sign of a healthy person is that he accepts the realities and tends to find harmony and inclines to disremember/ overlook any acrimonious/ grief-stricken incidents. When somebody becomes downhearted/ dejected/ hopeless, is known to be in a state of “Depression/ Anxiety”. Physicians opine that if “Depression” is not controlled/ cured timely, it may become the most hazardous sickness, seconding the heart attack in grading. Irony of the fate in our society is that, the general public is poorly cognizant of these actualities. It’s very imperative to create awareness/ consciousness in the general public about this dangerous disease before it’s too late. More or less every category of the society is affected by this disease without any discrimination of being rich or poor. 90% ratio of the affected avoids the medication so that the others do not label them as “mentally sick” ; and only 10% of the affected take it serious and consider themselves for proper medication. According to the experts, as a ratio, females are more affected by this disease than of males. One female amongst every four and one male amongst every seven are sufferer of this disease. According to few physicians, depression/ anxiety is not only a mental disease rather it is a biological disease just like “Diabetes”. The only difference is that, it has psychological symptoms that are actually due to biological changes as result of the depression; which makes the sufferer even “disheartened of life”.
The individuals suffering from depression constantly remain preoccupied of the “fear of unknowns/ untoward incidents”. They remain in this state until they themselves realize that whatever they think is wrong and baseless and they can overcome all the situations (they come across) bravely. According to the clinicians, it’s also a bitter reality that it’s not too easy to bring a patient of “depression” back to the normal life. Medically, depression must be diagnosed timely just like any other physical disease. People suffering from depression need love and attention the same way any other patient needs.
The Westerns are comparatively more aware of this disease. There, the individuals suffering from Depression don’t face any difficulties in getting treatment facilities/ psychological counseling. No one in Western countries feels shy in accepting if affected by depression. In this world, perhaps it’s only our country where “Depression” is taken as “mental illness/ madness”; rather it is preferred to stay quiet on such cases. Depress patient also does not want to create glitches for his/ her family members. The patient himself keeps feeling/ listening to the “silence and noises” of his inner-self. Particularly women usually absolutely fail to realize this disease. Even their husbands and close relatives disagree to realize/ declare such women as patients of depression. In such environment, there is no question/ practice of taking such a patient to the doctor. In most of the cases any such efforts are always disagreed/ resisted and as a result, the effected women stay unaware of this disease. Due to non-diagnosis of this disease, it keeps increasing continuously. Most of the women patients spend most of the time in taking sleeping pills as they don’t find any other way out to this problem; and such sleeping sessions gets them temporarily rid of the “silent noises”. According to the medics, effective medicines are available to cure this disease. Whereas it should be taken care of that the patient is not trapped/ handled by any incompetent doctor/ hakeem, who definitely have all the chances to fail in curing this disease. Irony of our society is that we purchase and take the medicines without any proper prescription. It’s also a non-sense to take a medicine merely for the reason that some other person also got healed up by taking the same medicine; without realizing that every patient has different symptoms and needs different handling for the same disease. Only a competent consultant can prescribe correct medicine after proper diagnosis. Self-medication may lead to very dangerous results. According to the specialists, changes in hormones may also lead the women to serious depression. During depression, human body’s immunity/ defensive system also gets disturbed. In such case, patient’s “heart beat rate”, “blood pressure” and “cholesterol level” rise than normal. As a result, “blood clots” form up in the veins; and the affected falls sick of multiple/ different diseases. Depression always has symptoms; it is always useful to visit any competent consultant in the very initial stages otherwise the condition keeps getting worsened. As for as males are concerned, they usually get chances to discuss their problems/ mental worries with their friends; whereas on the other hand, the women cannot share their feelings/ worries/ complications as they usually stay busy at home and feel isolation. The women have otherwise been normally found less cooperative with each other within women even they are more than one in same home. Depression/ tension also cause a considerable rise to disputes in day to day life.