DOES DEPRESSION AFFECT ONLY WEAK PEOPLE ?

A well known Indian actor Sushant Singh Rajput committed suicide today. The whole of India is shocked by the sudden goodbye from the highly talented actor. Reports say that the actor was dealing with the depression from the past 6 months and was also on the medication for the same. Generally, people don't understand the actual meaning of depression. They often confuse this term with the kind of sadness. Sadness and depression are not the same things. There are many cases where a person has no reason to be sad is getting into depression. Depression is not any kind of feeling rather it's a situation of feeling less behaviour from the depressed person. More precisely we can understand this term as a feeling of "emptiness". There is an assumption in a society that depression is something which a weak person feel; Strong people never fall into any kind of depression, Strong people always find a way to solve their problems. But the reality is depression has no connection with the strong man or weak man mentality. Depression is about how a person knows himself. Most of the people don't know themselves and with knowing I don't mean knowing the favourite colour, sports car or Hollywood actor. Knowing our self means to know how we react to a particular incident or how we feel when something doesn't go our way, basically knowing our nature is all about knowing our self. When we know our self we always know what we want, what is good for us, which is harmful to our growth, how to react to a particular situation, what our weakness is. Now coming back to the topic, does actually depression is something which only weak people face? NO, let me prove this sentence wrong with a real-life example.

We all have heard about Robert Clive. He is one of the most important figures in Indian history. Lord Clive is known as the king of diplomacy. Most of Indians know him for plotting the death of Siraj-ud-daulah during the Battle of Plassey. After winning this battle He established the East India Company rule over a major part of India in 1757. He was the most powerful person of British rule at that time. With his diplomatic skills, he stopped the French company to expand their control in India and established English rule in the major part of India. We can also say without him the establishment of British rule in India was not possible. But what happened to such a powerful person? The answer may be shocking to some of you but he committed suicide after suffering from long term depression. After he went back to England, he has faced massive criticism from his own people for doing planning and plotting in India and going out of authority, many corruption charges also started against him. He couldn't believe that he almost won India for British and facing opposition from his own people in his own country. In the end, he stabbed himself with a penknife. 

So Was Clive a Weak person? NO, he won India to the British and a weak person can not achieve this. He was depressed and his depression didn't arrive from sadness only, it arrived from the mixed emotions of Disappointment, anger and sadness. He stopped caring about his life. And if a person goes into a situation where he doesn't care about living, he feels empty means he doesn't have anything left to live for. It's not necessarily because of sadness but it can be because of many reasons and sometimes the reason could be unknown to the depressed person himself. 

Depression is not a joke. It is a very serious matter. It takes away the life of people so it's time we should start taking it seriously and not just as a word to make a joke out of it. If you feel that a person is suddenly behaving a little strange from his usual behaviour, always talk to him or her. Always try to cheer that person up. Sometimes a simple talk can stop a person from committing suicide so if you feel depressed or sad, never take yourself into isolation. Self-isolation always adds up anxiety and depression. Tell your problems to your family and close friends. Give yourself a chance to get out of it and trust me you will beat depression as many people did in their life.