Depression is an emotional state in which there are extreme feelings of sadness, dejection, lack of worth, and emptiness. Depression is not just a definition. It's an illness that affects about 20 million Americans each year. There are several types of depression...manic depressive, clinical depression, post-partum depression, to name but a few.
Depression can hit anyone. It is a medical condition that at least 1/3 of the people do not seek treatment for. Depression is thought to be assocciated with an imbalance in the chemicals of the brain called neurotransmitters. Other factors that are thought to play a role in depression are heredity, personality, and environmental factors (such as personal relationships or life events).
According to the National Depressive and Manic Depressive Association (NDMDA), for a doctor to make a diagnosis of depression, 4 or more of the following symptoms must be present and have lasted for at least 2 weeks and be troublesome enough to interfer with every aspect of a person's life:
--persistant sad mood
--loss of interest or pleasure in most activities
--changes in sleep patterens
--loss of energy or feeling tired all the time
--difficulty in concentrating or making decisions
--feelings of worthlessness or inappropriate guilt
--repeated thoughts of death or suicide.
Combined treatment of psychotherapy and medication is the prefered treatment of severe clinical depression, because it is believed that depression is caused by a combination of biological, social and psychological factors.
If you suffer from mild to moderate depression, exercise can also help, but it does not have as much impact on those who suffer from severe depression.
1 in 4 women and 1 in 10 men can expect to develop depression in their lifetimes. Even though this illness is so common, many blame themselves for having it. They view it as a personal weakness and get upset with themselves for not being able to 'snap' out of it.
One of the biggest problems with depression is society does not view it as an illness. They believe the physical symptoms that are experienced are signs of another kind of illness. Still others think 'it's all in their heads' and that nothing is really wrong.
The truth is depression is a brain disorder that affects the whole body. One of the first things that needs to be realized about depression in order to start getting better, is that depression is an illness, just like high blood pressure or the many other medical problems that are treated by doctors. Once that is realized and the recommended treatment is started, you will start to feel better in a matter of time. |
