I was planning to do a round-up, link-love post, but decided against it because this is too important to be overshadowed. Airdrie, whom I am honored to call a friend, is writing a series (read part 1 and part 2) on her experience as a depression-afflicted individual. Airdrie contributed a really amazing post to my Blogathon writing about her experience as the wife of a cancer patient, and in this series, she reveals some of her struggles with depression.

Beth also linked to her post and agreed with Airdrie that Student Health Services often provide counseling services, and anyone who needs help should definitely look into that. I wish I had received the help from Counselling Services much faster when I broke up with my ex and was really down, but at the end of the day, I was ok. If you, dear reader, ever think you might need help with depression, don’t hesitate and contact the myriad of services available.

Depression has been surrounded with stigma and it’s feared. People don’t want to talk about it, and it’s often spoken about very lightly. But that’s just stupid. Depression IS real, and it is a mental health illness, and should be talked about, blogged about, spoken about. Thank you Airdrie for helping shed some light on this thorny and often-stigmatized topic. By sharing your struggles and how you’ve faced them and you are still going strong, you help us, the general public who may not know what to do when dealing with depression. Thank you, Airdrie. I really applaud you.

Related posts:

1. Restarting the conversation around depression and mental illness in Canada
2. Northern Voice 2009 – Coping Digitally: Breaking Stigma and Healing Mental Illness Through Blogging
3. Mental Health Camp 2009 – A proposal