The first step is seeking help
For as long as she could remember, Sarah Jones was always sad.
Her depression probably started when she was in high school, but like most people, she figured that nothing was wrong and she had to just deal with it. It wasn’t until her 20s that she realized that something was awry.
“I was sleeping a lot,” said Jones, who asked that her real name not be used. “I was lethargic. I’d sit down and then couldn’t get out of the chair. I was very unapproachable.”
Friends and family were of little help. Someone suggested taking iron supplements, but her energy level remained just as low.
“I was a walking zombie,” she said.
Jones finally sought help in 1999. She never considered herself clinically depressed. “I thought I was just down,” she said. “I thought that I was just experiencing everyday problems and that life as a black woman was tough and my reactions to that life were normal.”
She was wrong. Her primary care physician prescribed an antidepressant and referred her to a psychiatrist.
“It was like night and day,” she said. “There was no more gloom and doom or obsessive thoughts and brooding behavior. My relationship with people changed and I could now let bygones be bygones.”
Jones is now 40 years old and highly recommends that everyone have a mental health checkup. “Do not let symptoms go unattended,” she said. “They are not normal and they will not go away on their own.”
For Jaime Cruz, life was cruising along until last Christmas.
His nephew was at a party when a fight erupted. Someone pulled out a gun and began firing. No one was killed. But Cruz’s nephew was hit in the spine, and is now a paraplegic, paralyzed from the waist down.
Cruz was especially close to his nephew and when he learned of the tragedy, his life fell apart.
“I shut everyone out,” he said. “I cried a lot and missed a lot of days of work.”
He eventually lost his job as a security supervisor. He couldn’t sleep and his diet was awful, which was troublesome since he is a diabetic.
“My family knew I was having problems, but they felt that I was just having a reaction to my nephew’s incident,” he said.
Fortunately, not too much time elapsed before he sought and received help.
“I was in too much pain and I had too much anger,” he said. “I also felt that I had a lot of people counting on me. I wanted to be strong for them, but I realized that I was too overwhelmed with my own emotions.”
Cruz said he knew he was depressed and decided to get help. He got it at Whittier Street Health Center and hasn’t looked back. He was prescribed an
antidepressant and regular psychotherapy sessions with a social worker.
It took a while for the medicine to take effect. “I feel a lot better now,” he said. “I can cope a lot better.” |
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Jaime Cruz’s life began to unravel when his nephew was shot, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down and confined to a wheelchair. His story is below.
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| Sarah thought that her depression was a normal part of life, and went untreated for over ten years. She attributes her recovery to medication and therapy. |
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