WHAT IS DEPRESSION ?

 

Depression is the leading cause of disability in the world. In the United status, close to 10% of adults struggle with depression. But because its a mental illness, it can be a lot harder to understand than, say, high cholesterol.

One major source of confusion is the difference between having depression and just feeling depressed. Almost everyone feels down from time to time. Getting a bad grade, losing a job, having an argument, even a rainy day can bring on feelings of sadness.

Sometimes theres no trigger at all. It just pops up out of the blue. Then circumstances change, and those sad feelings disappear. Clinical depression is different. Its a medical disorder, and it wont go away just because you want it to.

It lingers for at least two consecutive weeks, and significantly interferes with one's ability to work, play or love. Depression can have a lot of different symptoms:  a low mood, loss of interest in things you'd normally enjoy, changes in appetite, feeling worthless or excessively guilty, sleeping either too much or too little, poor concentration, restlessness or slowness, loss of energy, or recurrent thoughts of suicide.

If you have at least five of those symptoms, according to psychiatric guideines, you qualify for a diagnosis of depression. And its not just  behavioral symptoms. Depression has physical manifestation inside the brain.

First of all, there are changes that could be seen with the naked eye and X- ray vision. These include smaller frontal lobes and hippocampal volumes. On a more microscale, depression is associated with a few things:  the abnormal transmission or depletion of certain neurotransmitters, specially serotonin,norepinephrine, and dopamine, blunted circadian rhythms, or specific changes in the REM and slow wave parts of your sleep cycle, and hormone abnormalities, such as high cortisol and deregulation of thyroid hormones.

 But neuroscientist still dont have a complete picture  of what causes depression. It seems to have to do with a complex interaction between genes and environment,  but we dont have a diagnostic tool that can accurately predict where or when it will show up.

And because depression symptoms are intangible, its hard to know who might look fine but is actually struggling. AccAccording to the National Institute of Mental Health, it takes the average person suffering with a mental illness over ten years to ask for help.

But there are very effective treatments. Medications and therapy complent each other to boost brain chemicals. In extreme cases, electroconvulsive therapy, which is like a controlled seizure in the patient's brain, is also very helpful.

Other promising treatments, like transcranial magnetic stimulation, are being investigated, too. So, if you know someone struggling with depression, encourage them, gently, to seek out some of these options.

You might even offer to help with specific tasks, like looking up therapists in the area, or making a list of questions to ask a doctor. To someone with depression, these first steps can seem  insurmountable. If they feel guilty or ashamed, point out that depression is a medical condition, just like asthama or diabetes.

Its not a weakness or a personality trait, and they shouldnt expect themselves to just get over it anymore than they could will themselves to get over a broken arm. If you have nt  experienced depression yourself, avoid comparing it to times you have felt down.

Compraring what they are experiencing to normal, temporary feelings of sadness can make them feel guity for struggling. Even just talking about depression openly can help.

For example, research shows that asking someone about suicidal thoughts actually resuces their suicide their suicide risk. Open conservations about mental illness help erode stigma and make it easier for people to ask for help. 

And the more patients seek treatment, the more scientists will learn about depression, and the better the treatments will get.