Barely Breathing

Depression

Katelyn:

Five minutes later we were at the Doctors Office, I walked in and it had that one smell that made me sick to my stomach. My mom went up to the counter and checked me in while my dad brought up sports, I was bored out of my mind.

“Katelyn Mathews?” the lady at the counter said looking for me.

“Uh- here.” I said standing up with my parents. We all walked in to this small white room that still had that awful smell.

“The doctor should be here in a couple of minutes,” she told us and walked out.

“Um honey we need to talk…,” My mother said to me.

“Yes…” I said nervously.

“So yesterday the counselor called and told us this story about you, she said you were very depressed and were thinking of killing yourself… is that true?” sShe asked me tears filling her eyes.

“Well, yes.” I said tears now filling my eyes.

“Why didn’t you tell us what-“then the doctor walked in.

“Hello, my name is Dr. Johnson.” The doctor said nicely.

“Hello, nice to meet you” My mother said shaking his hand.

“Hi…” I said quietly .

“You must be Katelyn.” Dr. Johnson said to me.

“Yup.” I said looking into his deep brown eyes.

“Can I ask you to sit on the bed please?”

“Sure…” I said walking over to the bed covered in paper.

“Okay now I’m going to ask you some questions, okay?” He asked me nicely.

“Okay, so I’m going to read you some symptoms you might have and you’re going to answer yes or no.” he told me.

 “Do you feel hopeless or guilty?” he asked me.

“Yes…”

“Do you cry excessively?”

“I guess?” I kind of asked.

“Well do you cry a lot?

“Yes.” I said.

“Do you feel agitated?”

“I do.”

“Have you had any thoughts of death or suicide?” He asked me looking into my eyes.

“Only a couple times…” I said looking down.

“How long have you felt sad or depressed?” He asked .

“About a year…” I said looking around the room.

“Have you gained or lost any weight since you’ve felt depressed, have you had any change in eating habits?” he asked me looking concerned.

“I’ve lost 9 pounds in about 2 months?”

“Okay have you had any sleep troubles?”

“No not really.” I said looking at my parents, they looked sad.

“Is it hard to focus?”

“Yea…”

“Okay so those are all the symptoms, and you have had most of them…” he said to me.

“Is that bad?!” My mom chimed in.

“Well, according to this she could have major depression…”

“Oh, could this affect anything in her body?

“Yes, it could affect her digestive system and she could develop constipation.”

“WHAT!” I yelled.

“What else could happen?” My mother asked him.

“You might develop heart disease but it’s not likely which could affect your Circulatory System, you may become stressed which will affect you Lymphatic System, it depresses the brain activity and causes breathing and blood pumping to slow down which affects you nervous system, and it will affect your reproductive system.” He told all of us. My mom looked shocked and so did I. I never knew how serious it was, but I still thought all of this was stupid.

“We are going to put you in a couple consoling sessions, okay?” he asked me.

“Ugh…fine.” I murmured.

“Here this is a brochure for your parents for the consoling session held tomorrow after school.” He handed me a couple pieces of paper.

“Thanks.” I said.

“Were not going to put you on Prozac.” He told all of us

“What’s Prozac?” I asked him

“Prozac is an antidepressant pill, a long time ago they used to give that pill out to millions of people when they didn’t need it.” He told me

“Oh, okay,” I gave the papers to my mom and dad and they dropped me back off at school.