Depression Is Like A Cold (And It’s Treatable!)

Did you know that depression is like a cold? And, like a cold, depression is treatable. In fact, of all the mental illnesses, depression is the most treatable. In this interview, Taryn Aiken Hiatt, a Utah Board Member of AFSP, compares depression to a cold and offers simple techniques for treating it.

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Transcript of Depression Is Like A Cold:

So, when I say that I think that depression is like a cold, I say because when a cold comes on, you know, we have that feeling of: “Man, I just don’t feel like myself. You know, my nose is runny.” You know, and you sense it, you sense that something’s up, but you’re like: “Oh, but I’m not getting sick.” And you almost start talking yourself out of it. But then, all of the sudden, you realize: “No. I’m sick. I don’t feel good.”

And you know that if we continue to go full-force the cold increases, it gets worse. You know, we don’t get better. We usually need to take a day off, you know, have some rest. Drink lots of fluids, you know? All those things that—that we need to do the same thing with our brain, you know? We need to allow our brain—if it’s feeling that darkness—to maybe have a chance to rest. Maybe I take some of the things off my plate, you know, that overwhelm me. Maybe I take a day to, again, do something that’s just for me that makes me feel happy, whether that’s running, walking, you know, like I said, listening to music, going for a drive, just taking time to take care of it.

And, and just like a cold, you know, it’ll eventually get better. Depression, even though it’s the most debilitating, sometimes, it’s the most treatable of all mental illness—if we would just DO something. We’ve got to DO something and that’s the part that’s hard—is it does take effort. And sometimes we’re so dang tired it’s the last thing we can do is find effort. But give yourself a break, you know? Give yourself permission and maybe have a day or two where I take some of the stuff off my plate and allow my brain a chance to just kind of [breathe].

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