Why You Should Embrace Your Depression

Depression is one of the most common and dangerous health conditions of the 21st century, second only to obesity. It affects millions of people worldwide, and while some of them suffer from mild and temporary depression that typically resolves by itself, others suffer from a deep state of depression where they are feeling down and hopeless all the time. As a matter of fact, as much as 7% of the world’s population is said to be suffering from depression, and only a small percentage of those actually do something about it. While being depressed is certainly a negative thing that can seriously impact your life, it also has its upsides. Here are seven reasons why you should embrace your depression – accepting it and realizing its advantages is a big step toward overcoming it!
1. It Can Help You Focus on the Things That Truly Matter
Few of us actually realize how important certain aspects of life are until we get depressed and start to analyze everything on a greater, deeper level. We often tend to take things for granted without thinking twice about them. For some of us, especially for those who have artistic inclinations, depression tends to focus their mind on the most essential problems of life. Taking Darwin as an example, he is known to have suffered from chronic depression, and it was that deep sadness and pain that helped him analyze everything – a trait that helped him greatly when developing his evolutionary theory. For some of us, depression can be the tool we need to create greater things – things that we may otherwise be unable to create if we were always content or happy.
2. Depression is Sometimes the Mother of Creativity
It’s widely known that some of the world’s greatest

writers

and painters created their masterpieces when they were depressed or deeply hurt. It is almost an unwritten rule of the universe: when you experience a high level of sadness and depression, you tend to create deeply moving things. This is precisely what makes depression such a huge paradox these days, since for some of them depression is often associated with a lack of focus, determination or motivation. Some of those who are depressed simply feel like staying in bed or inside the house for days or even weeks. Others, though, get an inspirational outburst when they are depressed.

Growing older should be a source of pride, in fashion as with anything

I was in Machester recently to take part in Selfridges' excellent Beauty Project, a series of UK-wide events hosted by the department store to encourage conversation about diversity in the beauty industry.
Alongside me on the panel was Caryn Franklin, former fashion editor and co-founder of All Walks Beyond the Catwalk and Jody Furlong, who, among other things, cast the Dove Real Women campaign. Our discussion was titled Who Are You Calling Invisible? and centred around the marginalisation and neglect of older women by the beauty and fashion industry. This was only the second time I've done any public speaking (the first being last week at the Advanced Style premiere) but I have in the past taken to the stage to dance or model before an audience. You'd never have to look far for me before a show – I'd be the one in the wings with her head in a bucket, throwing up from sheer terror. It was so bad I had to strangle my stage career before I rotted the enamel off my teeth
Given the hysterical, and historical, trauma, you might venture a modest bet on how I'd deal with an audience and three very high bar stools. High bar stools are my nemesis. If there's a handy prop, then I can use that to help me mount, as it were, but there wasn't and I had to asked Furlong to give me a gentlemanly hand up. Did I flush scarlet and run away? No. I laughed it off because it was actually very funny and in a way underlined what we were there to talk about – how growing older is not something to be hidden and ashamed of but a source of pride. It is what it is and the media insistence that we want to "fight" age is largely misconstrued twaddle. But if you take into account that research shows the consumer is most likely to buy something if it is advertised in a way they can aspire to, connect with and recognise, then why is this still the case?
Furlong runs a modelling agency and said he frequently challenges what

advertising

people think they need but the final decision does not lie with him. Franklin (awarded the MBE for her work on diversity in fashion) spoke of looking around at decision-making meetings and seeing a uniformly male team.The panel talked about the fact that an entire demographic is lumped into the "50-plus" tick-box. If you suggested a consumer group as diverse as one aged, say, 10 to 60 shared the same tastes, interests, income and requirements you'd be laughed out of the room with your P45 tucked into your pocket as you left. This is an important point, given many more of us expect to see our centenary. And given that many more of us can now expect to live to 100, should the advertising industry be evolving too?
It's easy to feel all is hopeless but it's not.
The media storm that blew up over the skeletally thin La Perla mannequins meant that within 24 hours they'd been removed from the stores and an apology issued. You only have to tweet a single disobliging word about a company before their Twitter antennae start twitching and you get an emollient 140 characters manifesting in your timeline. This is real consumer power. It's no good suffering in silence and hoping someone else will start the revolution. We should all do more of that if we want to stop being called "invisible".