Taiwan has resources for those coping with depression but must do more to raise awareness of the importance of mental health.
The News Lens
Date: 2018/04/06
By: Vanessa Wang
Currently, there are about 2 million people suffering from depression in Taiwan, and 97
Credit: Reuters/TPG
percent of them don’t reach out for help.
Depression is a transparent illness – patients themselves often don’t even realize that they have depression. Because of a lack of education and resources, most people who suffer from depression know that there is something wrong with them, but can’t quite pinpoint exactly what it is.
“Minor depression becomes major depression because we don’t talk about it; major depression becomes a suicide because we don’t talk about it.”
Personally, it took me six years to figure out that I was depressed. Depression is tricky – it is often stigmatized as “complaining” in upper-middle class women, but the incidence of depression is approximately equal regardless of financial circumstances. It is simply easier for upper-middle class women to detect that they are unhappy when their worlds seem perfect.
Depression is not just a feeling, but an illness – it is a common and serious medical illness that negatively affects how one functions. The symptoms of depression, as detailed in the book “Undoing Depression” by Richard O’Connor, include: [FULL STORY]
