Recognising and avoiding depression

People who have chronic illnesses such as ABPA & CPA are very vulnerable to anxiety and depression. These are not superficial illnesses in themselves, and they can be very serious and even life threatening in some cases, if neglected. It is important that we remove the stigma that has long been a part of depression – partly from those who would seek to devalue people who suffer from depression, and partly from the people themselves. Depression is very common.

Recognising Depression – Common Symptoms

The mental health charity, Mind, has produced this extensive guide to understanding depression. It’s full of useful information and contacts, so is well worth a read if you think you, or someone you know, might be experiencing the symptoms of depression. Some of the most common symptoms they identify are copied below:

This NHS page also gives a good overview of depression; recognising the symptoms in yourself, and the various treatment options available.

Depression and chronic illness

This WikiHow article is very good at describing how we can fight back against depression due to chronic illness – the first part of which is acceptance, and then developing your personal tools to beat depression. Building effective personal management tools is very important in this battle; apathy or lack of acceptance will contribute to making depression worse, because if we fail to recognise the symptoms (in ourselves or others), we will fail to build our defences against it.