A Simple Language For Depression - To Help You Get The Support You Deserve!
There's never been an easy way to communicate how you're feeling to your loved ones ... until now.
There's never been an easy way to communicate how you're feeling to your loved ones ... until now.
Since so many people don't understand depression, those who struggle with it are often called "weak", "lazy", and told to "cheer up" or "just get over it". Consequently, instead of feeling supported and cared for, they're left feeling extremely misunderstood, completely alone, and even more miserable than they already were.
To better understand depression, it’s extremely important that your loved ones learn about the illness. To help them do this, we’ve written a letter that you can use as a template to explain to them exactly what depression feels like, as well as the ways you’d like them to support you through it.
While psychoeducation helps your loved ones better understand your depression overall, it doesn’t help them understand how it's impacting you at any given moment in time. And, since depression can be completely different feelings at completely different times, it’s still very hard for your loved ones to know how to help you in any given moment.
Not only that, but when you do try to explain how you feel, regular language will often fail you. For example, saying “I’m tired” rarely does justice to how exhausted depression is making you feel - which leaves the person you’re speaking to thinking, “but everyone gets tired – so what’s the big deal?”
The Storm To Sun Framework solves this problem, since it allows you to instantly identify what state (or “Zone”) of depression you’re in. This makes it much easier for your loved ones to understand how you feel at any given point in time, and as a result, for them to know what to do to help and support you.
When you tell someone you're in the Cloud Zone, it communicates that things are presently "OK" – or in other words, that you have mild symptoms, and therefore a relatively high ability to function. This lets them know that right now, you don’t need a lot of support, since you're able to carry on with life fairly well. It can also mean that it's currently a good time to catch up and socialize - since in the Cloud Zone, your energy and motivation levels are at their highest.
By saying you're in this Zone, you're letting others know that while you can still complete most day-to-day tasks, doing so will be challenging for you, and may leave you feeling burnt out and exhausted. This helps your loved ones understand that you are likely going to need more support than you would if you were in the Cloud Zone, and that they'll likely need to be more accomodating of your illness (for example, by being OK with you cancelling a meet-up with them on short-notice if you're feeling too drained to go).
When you tell someone you’re in the “Storm Zone”, this lets them know that now more than ever, they need to be most accommodating of your illness; decrease their expectations of you due to your severe symptoms and low ability to function; and that you could really use their support. In practice, this support can often mean being there to listen if you feel like talking; watching a movie at home with you; or just giving you space while you survive the storm, recharge your batteries and climb back into the Rain Zone.
I’m sorry I cancelled our dinner date last week – I was deep in the Storm Zone that night, and really felt like just being by myself and watching TV in bed.
No, I don’t think I’ll be able to attend the party on the weekend, I’m afraid. I’m currently in the Rain Zone, and to try to prevent myself from slipping into the Storm Zone, I really need to spend a couple of days just relaxing and taking care of myself – instead of faking a smile at a party and pretending I’m OK.
Guiding you through the storm to the sun
