What's My Cause?

I have always admired people who are passionate for a cause.  Especially those who have found one that has affected them personally.  A childhood friend, whom I've reconnected with through work, has started and runs her own foundation.  Her son continues to battle childhood cancer, and her fervor for better research for childhood cancer cures is astounding.  (Check out www.bradenshope.org if interested in learning more.)  A former day care provider for my children has always been a huge supporter of the Juvenile Diabetes cause.  She is very close to someone who is affected by this.  I remember as a young girl, walking with my mom door-to-door delivering collection envelopes for the March of Dimes.  I remember Mom telling me, "Paula, you can't support every charity that comes along asking for donations.  Find one or two that are important to you, and concentrate on those."

I feel very fortunate that myself and my family have been relatively healthy.  We have been lucky, I guess, in that there hasn't been a clear front-running cause to capture my passion.  Our family hasn't been directly touched by cancer, diabetes, heart disease, or birth defects.  So, I've asked myself, "What cause can I get behind?  What really matters in my family's day-to-day life?"  The answer has been there for quite awhile.  I just wasn't ready to admit it ... to embrace it.  I kept telling myself, "Yeah, but that's not life-threatening."  Or, "What will people think?"  Or, "Will this be embarrassing for my loved ones?"

Well, I'm done with excuses!  I HAVE found my cause, and I WILL be passionate about it!
 

DEPRESSION!

Did you know that in my immediate family of six, half of us suffer with depression?  That's right!  Three of the six of us have been diagnosed with some sort of depression.  Dan, Maria, and Kyle.  Did you know that depression runs in families?  Dan's mother, Darlene, had horrible spells of depression long before it was a recognized form of mental illness.  She told me once that she had almost a full year of her adult life that she doesn't remember at all because she was so deep in the throes of depression.

3 of 6 deal with depression in our family

Depression is so misunderstood!  Even after so many years of living with people with depression, there are some days when I'm tempted to say, "Can't you just try to be happy?"  Or, "Think positive!  Your life is going well!"  I constantly have to remind myself that their brains are working differently than mine.  

Treatments for depression are very frustrating.  Medications may work for some people, but not others.  Even if you find a medication that helps, there are side effects to deal with or over time it stops being as effective.  Therapy has been somewhat helpful for Kyle, but ineffective for Maria and Dan.  More than anything, the stigma of depression can be the worst.  How do you tell people that you have depression?  How are you going to react to their reaction?  It can be nerve-wracking and exhausting.  

So now that I have a cause, what am I going to do?  Well, today, I started by looking up some organizations that support people with depression and research about or treatments for depression.  Here's what I learned today.  There are lots of organizations out there for the support of mental health issues!

http://www.familyaware.org/

http://www.freedomfromfear.org/index.html

http://www.nami.org/

I'm not ready to start donating any money today.  (If you know me, I do a lot of research before I send my money anywhere!)  But I am ready to educate myself, and I can encourage you to do the same.  

And one more thing before I sign off -- I mentioned something earlier in the blog post about my cause not being life-threatening.  Well, that's WRONG!  There is a clear link between depression and suicide.  (Dan and I had one very scary night with Kyle many years ago.  Perhaps that will be the subject of a future blog post.)  

So for now, I hope I can share my passion with you.  Learn about depression.  Be compassionate to your friends who suffer from this form of mental illness.  Be patient and be present in their lives.  It does help!

Cheers,

Paula