According to the CDC, approximately 9% of U.S. adults experience Major Depressive Disorder, or “MDD.” 12% experience regular feelings of anxiety. 4% percent of the nation’s children have been diagnosed with MDD, while 11% have a diagnosed anxiety condition. In fact, anxiety disorders often go hand-in-hand with depression.
Amanda Hamilton is a South Carolina mom who invited her daughter, Eliza, to join her at StoryCorps in 2024 to ask her candid questions about her life and her experience with depression and anxiety. Hamilton is an employee of South Carolina ETV and SC Public Radio.
TRANSCRIPT:
Eliza: What was I like as a baby?
Amanda: You were a really good baby. I know there are no bad babies, but you were very happy and wiggly...
Eliza: Hee-hee, wiggly.
Amanda: …and you were very curious. You were always looking around and trying to touch everything or in some cases taste everything. Even if it was not food. You did not like to sleep. You have never liked to sleep. So, even as young as four months old, you would refuse to take a nap, which was exhausting. You never napped even as a baby or as a toddler or anything.
Eliza: What?? How am I still alive then?
Amanda: The question is how I am still alive. Having a no-napping baby is not the most fun you'll ever have.
Eliza: It’s funny.
Amanda: It was not funny. It was terrible. But you were very curious. You were a lot of fun. I think we've talked a little bit about how I have depression. We've talked about that. How sometimes my brain just makes me sad for no reason. Like nothing's changed.
Eliza: You need someone to get you out of it?
Amanda: Mm-hm. And that I take medicine to help.
Eliza: How many pills do you take at night?
Amanda: Well, I take one for depression and one for anxiety.
Eliza: What's anxiety?
Amanda: Anxiety is I get worried about things that aren't real. Like my brain makes up stories…
Eliza: And makes you worried?
Amanda: Mm-hm. I have had depression my whole life. And after I--
Eliza: Do you still have it?
Amanda: Absolutely. I will always have it. It is managed. It's something that I take care of my body and my health and I take my medicine and I eat the foods that make my body happy and I don't eat the foods that don't.
Eliza: Like salty?
Amanda: Yep. Like salty things make my body feel yucky. When you were a baby, my depression got really bad. And it wasn't anything that you did.
Eliza: It was just your mind making up stories that made you worried about me?
Amanda: That's right. And so, when we talk about if you're going to have siblings or things like that, I'm really worried about…
Eliza: …being the depression thing again?
Amanda: Yeah, so that's why we didn't have any more babies. Because my brain is not always terribly nice to me.
Eliza: I thought you just didn't want another baby because you have to change the diapers.
Amanda: I'm not really worried about the diapers.
Eliza: Oh.
Amanda: But that's why we are talking about becoming a foster family. Because then we can help older kids, and I don't have to worry about my brain…being a jerk.
Eliza: Okay.
Amanda: Does that make sense?
Eliza: Yes.
