Depression is an illness that most people are beginning to come to terms with because of the increased awareness. Persons of all age groups can suffer from depression and experience its adverse effects on their different aspects of life. Specifically, it greatly affects personal relationships and might end up ruining even the most supportive and fulfilling relations. Depression brings about feelings of sadness, irritability, and unmotivated behavior in relationships.
The first significant effect of depression is that it causes sadness to other parties in relationships. In these cases, the focus is placed on relationships on a family and a more intimate level. People in healthy relationships ought to enjoy spending time together and engage in more exciting activities. They always have this desire to explore together and try out new things every time. However, this takes an opposite turn when one person starts to struggle with depression. It takes away all the joy and happiness that was once in a relationship and replaces them with sadness. They can no longer engage in activities they once found interesting. This is because the people who suffer from depression begin to prefer staying home alone instead of seeing their partner. Others are in constant thoughts, which are frequented with bouts of crying, making it hard for them to go out in public. At some point, they struggle with self-doubt and start feeling like they are not good enough for their partners. They may also feel like the depression may compel their partners to leave them for healthier persons. This brings about an aura of sadness in the relationships. The other person becomes frustrated since there is no more excitement in spending time with each other. Even in a family setup, it ruins the bond that was once there (Abaied & Rudolph, 2014) . It takes away the affection, quality time, and intimacy, which are the core components of a healthy relationship. Depression causes people in relationships to feel sad.
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Irritability is another common factor in relationships that have been occasioned with depression in one party. Once irritability is in full swing, it takes the slightest of things to make it worse. Even kind words from a partner may irritate. This, particularly, affects relationships even more. People with depression become easily annoyed or frustrated. They allow small matters to take on inappropriate significance (Brito, 2015) . In the heat of the moment, they cannot manage to filter out an impatient sigh or a sharp word. They are easily rattled and might end up saying hurtful things to their partners or family members. If this trend persists, it leads to the other partner feeling unappreciated and unwanted, which may take its toll on the relationship. This state makes it hard to anticipate people's reaction, which may result in loss of interest. Irritable behavior has the power to undermine even the most fulfilling relationships.
Depression makes people less motivated in relationships. Their focus shifts to other personal issues that they are dealing with at the time (Collins & Segal, 2019) . This allows for little to no time to pursue relationship goals. Communication with people suffering from depression is usually difficult. This is draining and upsetting to either the partner or family members. It makes the person with depression feel like a burden, as though they are making their partners' lives worse. It makes them feel guilty and lowers their self-esteem.
In conclusion, depression has dire effects on relationships both personally and in a family setup. It causes distinct emotions, including anger, frustration, sadness, edginess, and anxiety. All these affect relationships and hamper their progress.
References
Abaied, J. L., & Rudolph, K. D. (2014). Family relationships, emotional processes, and adolescent depression. Oxford Handbooks Online . https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199797004.013.023
Brito, J. (2015). Quality of interpersonal relationships and depression in adolescence: Psychosocial functioning moderating effect. https://doi.org/10.15405/epsbs.2015.08.8
Collins, E., & Segal, Z. (2019). Therapeutic mindfulness and depression. Depression , 357-371. https://doi.org/10.1093/med/9780190929565.003.0021
