The words anxiety and depression are thrown around a lot. What is normal life and what are signs of mental illness?
Proverbs 24:16 “for though the righteous fall seven times, they rise again, but the wicked stumble when calamity strikes.”
When it comes to mental health and mental illness, it is really important to distinguish between emotions that we all have, and a mental illness.
Some people think that having a day where you feel really sad is a sign of depression, but everyone has bad days where they feel sad, even really sad. That is a normal part of life. If you feel sad because you are turned down for a date or miss out on a job you really want, this is a part of life. These things happen to everyone. Depression can occur when the bad days go on and on, or when it starts to affect someone’s eating and sleeping and the basic functions of life. Please note, if someone becomes suicidal because of a break up, they may not have depression but they do need immediate help.
It is the same with anxiety, we all feel nervous at times. For example, most of us feel nervous before giving a speech, which is really normal. It becomes anxiety when it stops us from doing something, for example, if we are so anxious, we have panic attacks or we cannot go to school or work.
When we talk about mental health, we have to be really careful that we do not turn all normal human emotions in to signs of abnormal development.