A green blazer, a black shirt and red glasses. That is rans4d. With a deep breath she starts: “Hello, how are you?”. In the first moment it seems to be a strange question, knowing that asking the question back, she might have various answers to that instead of a general “Good, how are you?”. Since she is 14 years old she is living with the diagnosis of depression. However, its beginnings have been noticeable at an earlier stage for her, feeling confronted with a variety of emotions and moods. “I used to have extreme mood switches. So while in one moment I was completely fine with hanging out with my friends, in the other moment I was snapping at someone even though they said something very normal.”
Regarding the fact that the moods and feelings of depression are highly individual and multilayered, Summayah is not the only person in Ireland who is dealing with mental health issues and depression in particular. Especially young adults are highly affected as 3 in 5 people under 25 report the experience of depression. While this is an alarming number there are still various barriers remaining for affected people to access sufficient support and help services due to a lack of funding and rising therapy costs at the same time. As a consequence, long waiting lists and expensive prices complicate the process. “If you want to speak to a psychotherapist you will have to go on a long waiting list. To pay for a private session to get direct access to support, you need to pay around 100€ per session. For most people, especially young adults, it is not affordable”, says Ber Grogan, Policy and Research Manager from the ‘Mental Health Reform’ organisation.
To improve the situation and increase the provision of help centers the ‘Mental Health Reform’ requires the government to spend a higher health budget on mental health. Ber Grogan demands a budget of at least 10% of the overall budget to improve the conditions. However, in Ireland, it is still stuck between 5-6% as only €1.3 billion is allocated to mental health while there is an overall health budget of over €22 billion. And even though politicians are currently debating about the establishment of a “Mental Health Bill” that aims to provide human rights-compliant mental health legislation, including the distribution of registered mental health centers, it is important to know that a Bill is not an enacted law yet. So far, the Bill has completed the first stage, Dáil Éireann, which means that there are still ten stages that need to be passed.
Nevertheless, in order to successfully access and distribute support it is important that society and affected people as well think very carefully about stigma around mental health issues such as depression according to ‘Aware’, the national organisation for depression. “Self-stigma is something that can prevent access to help. So often people may believe that they should cope with things alone or they have negative beliefs about having mental health difficulties which can get in the way of accessing help. On the other hand, public education and public health campaigns could support society in building more knowledge around what depression really is”, says Dr. Susan Brannick, Clinical Director at ‘Aware’.
According to a survey from the Journal of Clinical Medicine Research, the vast majority of people show a misunderstanding about the behavior of depressed people and stigma about the cause of depression. For Summayah, dealing with stigma around her depression was also part of it which was the reason, among other things, for her mood switches.
“I treated anyone who tried to help me as my enemy. So many times I did not want to help myself because I felt miserable. But you need to understand that the only person who can help you is yourself.”
Summayah
So can friends and family members help affected persons anyway then? What are the ‘dos’ and ‘don’ts’ if you want to approach someone in this situation? From a psychological perspective it is important to take every issue seriously and to not minimise it even though, unless someone has experienced similar issues and feelings, it can be difficult to empathise with them. From Summayah’s point of view as an affected person, there is not much a third party can do, although there are of course ‘dos’ and ‘don’ts’ for her: “It does not t matter if it is a parent or a partner in this case. The biggest ‘do’ for me is to let people know that you are there for them and that they can talk to you. You can just listen to them once they start talking about their depression to let them know that they are being heard. A big ‘don’t’ on the other hand then is trying to intervene. It just backfires and might cause the affected person to stop reaching out to people.”
At this point, it deserves special attention that every try to help an affected person with depression is a very personal step and requires a special kind of thoroughness. Once the mood switches, people with depression might experience ambivalent feelings and emotions, a mixture of good and bad ones.
However, Summayah was able to find support very quickly and got an appointment with a psychiatrist to whom she told her story. What might sound good at a first glance now has proven to be difficult for her as she has not had good experiences the first time. “I felt like they did not listen that much to me. They were more like ‘Oh you are definitely depressed, we put you on antidepressants’.” While it is important to know that a psychiatrist is allowed to prescribe medication, other than a psychologist, premature prescriptions can cause negative effects on the patient. Antidepressants can treat the symptoms of depression but they do not always address its causes at the same time, according to the Health Service Executive (HSE).
To be fair, in comparison to other European countries like Germany, which has spent over $800 Million on antidepressant drugs only in 2020, Ireland has spent much less on those medications with a total of $54 Million. Nevertheless, the number of prescribed antidepressants has continuously risen during the last years for young teenagers as well as for older people with over 900.000 prescriptions in 2023.
For better results of sufficient services, Dr. Susan Brannick requires an increase in education offerings to provide evidence-based support and to address depression in a more sensitively and carefully. “It is about updating and evolving mental health services. We are looking for a much more multi-disciplinary approach, so bringing in other disciplines in terms of increasing the amount of psychological therapy. All of those things are key for people with mental health issues”, she clarifies.
In Summayah’s case, visiting a psychologist has helped her to better understand her own needs and feelings. At the age of 19, she started therapy sessions over a period of more than three years. For her, it was a good beginning to be able to work through the reason why she is feeling something in a particular moment. “In the past, I was rather analysing my actions than my emotions. But analysing my emotions gives me an insight into the way I behave and helps me to understand the way I act and feel in a particular way”, she says.
However, being quiet about her diagnosis was not an option for her. Together with her sisters she has an Instagram channel with more than 200.000 followers and reaches more than 14.000 followers on her personal account on which she shares her story. Summayah was always very determined that she needed to use every forum she had to speak about it. On the one hand to break taboos and gain attention and on the other hand to make affected people feel addressed. “If you do not speak about it, it just creates divisions and boundaries and there will always be misunderstandings due to a lack of knowledge. Some of my followers told me that they are going through the exact same thing so it might be helpful for them to have someone that talks about those feelings”, she elaborates.
Even though there are still good and bad days, Summayah has found a way to deal with and live with her depression and to control her emotions in a very remarkable way from an outside perspective. Nevertheless, if you or someone you know is affected by any kind of mental health issues please do not hesitate to contact national helplines and seek support. You can find a detailed list of supports and services by visiting this website.
