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What is Mental Depression?
Depression is a mental disorder
where a person has a prolonged period of sadness, unhappiness, helplessness,
hopelessness or worthlessness. These feelings often get worse over a period of
time, causing a person to have feelings of self-doubt, severe despondency and
dejection.
Depression is an extremely
common illness. There are approximately 350 million people living in the world
today who are affected by it and it is the leading cause for a visit to see a
GP or doctor.
Depression also has a stigma
attached to it that people who suffer from it are weak which leads to them not
seeking treatment – less than half of all of the people with depression are
currently engaging in any kind of treatment for it.
Long-lasting
and moderate or severe depression
can be a serious health condition. It can cause an affected person to suffer
terribly, leading to problems with work, breakdowns in close relationships and
lead to poor physical health.
The
worst cases of depression can lead to a sufferer taking his or her own life. An
estimated 1 million people worldwide every year commit suicide because of
depression. Half of all the people who die by suicide have major depressive
disorder.
The
World Health Organization have reported that by the year 2020, depression will
be the second biggest cause of premature death in the world, heart disease will
be the only illness or disease that causes more.
What Causes Mental Depression?
There
are many different causes of depression. It has many different triggers and
there are multiple reasons it can develop.
Personal
Factors are known to trigger depression. Those who have a tendency to worry a
lot, have low self-esteem, are sensitive to personal criticism, are severely
overweight, perfectionists, or those with a self-critical and a negative
mindset all have a higher risk of developing the condition.
Depression
has been known to run in families and some people will be at an increased
hereditary or genetic risk. This does not mean that a person will automatically
experience depression if a parent or close relative has had the illness though.
Life circumstances and other personal factors are still likely to have an
important influence.
Having
a serious medical illness can trigger depression in two ways. Serious illnesses
can bring about depression directly, or can contribute to depression through
associated stress and worry, especially if it involves long-term management of
the illness and/or chronic pain.
Drug
and alcohol use can both lead to and result from depression. Many people with
depression also have drug and alcohol problems.
Symptoms of Mental Depression
Signs
and symptoms of depression include:
·
Feelings
of helplessness and hopelessness.
A bleak outlook—nothing will ever get better and there’s nothing you can do to improve your situation.
A bleak outlook—nothing will ever get better and there’s nothing you can do to improve your situation.
·
Loss
of interest in daily activities.
No interest in former hobbies, pastimes, social activities, or sex. You’ve lost your ability to feel joy and pleasure.
No interest in former hobbies, pastimes, social activities, or sex. You’ve lost your ability to feel joy and pleasure.
·
Appetite
or weight changes.
Significant weight loss or weight gain—a change of more than 5% of body weight in a month.
Significant weight loss or weight gain—a change of more than 5% of body weight in a month.
·
Sleep
changes.
Either insomnia, especially waking in the early hours of the morning, or oversleeping.
Either insomnia, especially waking in the early hours of the morning, or oversleeping.
·
Anger
or irritability.
Feeling agitated, restless, or even violent. Your tolerance level is low, your temper short, and everything and everyone gets on your nerves.
Feeling agitated, restless, or even violent. Your tolerance level is low, your temper short, and everything and everyone gets on your nerves.
·
Loss
of energy.
Feeling fatigued, sluggish, and physically drained. Your whole body may feel heavy, and even small tasks are exhausting or take longer to complete.
Feeling fatigued, sluggish, and physically drained. Your whole body may feel heavy, and even small tasks are exhausting or take longer to complete.
·
Self-loathing.
Strong feelings of worthlessness or guilt. You harshly criticize yourself for perceived faults and mistakes.
Strong feelings of worthlessness or guilt. You harshly criticize yourself for perceived faults and mistakes.
·
Reckless
behavior.
You engage in escapist behavior such as substance abuse, compulsive gambling, reckless driving, or dangerous sports.
You engage in escapist behavior such as substance abuse, compulsive gambling, reckless driving, or dangerous sports.
·
Concentration
problems.
Trouble focusing, making decisions, or remembering things.
Trouble focusing, making decisions, or remembering things.
·
Unexplained
aches and pains.
An increase in physical complaints such as headaches, back pain, aching muscles, and stomach pain.
An increase in physical complaints such as headaches, back pain, aching muscles, and stomach pain.
How is Mental Depression
Treated?
The
most common form of treatment for depression is the use of Antidepressant
medication. Nobody can say for sure at this moment why antidepressants can
alter a person’s mood, because nobody knows for certain exactly how AD
medication works. It is only thought that by increasing or decreasing certain
chemicals in the brain, such as serotonin, that this has an effect on the
brains neurotransmitters.
Currently,
10% of all Americans over 12 years old take antidepressants daily, and among
females in their 40’s and 50’s, that figure increases to 25%. Approximately 254
million prescriptions were written for them in America in 2010, resulting in
nearly $10 billion in costs. This figure is also expected to have risen
dramatically in the following years.
However,
antidepressants do not cure depression, they only lessen the symptoms for a
minority of people who take them. A recent report published in The Journal of
the American Medical Association stated that the drugs work best for very
severe cases of depression, but have little or no benefit over a placebo in
less serious cases.
It
is extremely difficult to put an exact figure on the percentage of people who
experience decreased depressive symptoms as a result of AD medication, as
reports and results vary wildly depending on the people in the study and their
severity of depression, and whether a study is done by an independent body or
by a pharmaceutical company. It is thought though, that the overall “success”
rate of the drugs is approximately 36% – slightly higher than that of a placebo.
Antidepressants
are also known to have side effects for the majority of people who take them.
Patients will usually experience one or multiple of the following; nausea,
increased appetite and weight gain, loss of sexual desire and/or other sexual
problems such as erectile dysfunction and decreased orgasm, fatigue and
drowsiness, insomnia, dry mouth, blurred vision, constipation, dizziness,
agitation, irritability, anxiety, and increased risk of suicidal thoughts and
behavior – especially during the first month of treatment.
Antidepressants
come with no guarantee that they will work, on any level of success.
Further
treatment options include counselling, psychotherapy or talk therapy. This has
a much higher success rate than antidepressants overall, but again the figures
at hand vary wildly.
The
cost of seeing a councillor, therapist or psychiatrist is also very high – the
average is around $150-$200 for a 60-minute session. It is not unusual for
these professionals to charge upwards of $500 for an hours’ session though –
and the sessions usually need to be on a regular weekly basis to have maximum
chance of success.
It
is thought though, that because has a higher rate of success than
antidepressants, that it is more cost-effective as a result. Again though,
there are no guarantees of success.
Other treatment
Options for Mental Depression
It
is interesting to note, that many health professionals believe there are much
better ways to treat depression.
Irving
Kirsch, the Associate Director of the Program in Placebo Studies and a lecturer
in medicine at the Harvard Medical School is quoted as saying; “Depression is a
serious problem, but drugs are not the answer. In the long run, psychotherapy
is both cheaper and more effective, even for very serious levels of depression.
Physical exercise and self-help books based on CBT can also be useful, either
alone or in combination.”
CBT
(Cognitive Behavioural Therapy) has a much higher success rate than medication.
Studies have shown it decreases severity of depression in most patients who
maintain a CBT course, with many patients reporting they never relapsed into
depression.
CBT
based self-help books sees an even larger percentage of success rates and
numbers of people reporting to be cured, with very little cost involved – so
why is this form of treatment not more widely used?
It
seems the answer is quite simple – there is nowhere near as much money to be
made from curing depression as there is from helping people live with it. There
is little money to be made from a healthy person, or indeed a dead person –
however in sick people there is billions of dollars to be made.
Due
to the pharmaceutical and medical industry’s wide-reaching influence and the
money involved, and due to health professionals who deal with depression and
other illnesses being afraid of offering a treatment which may upset those
powerful companies, very few are willing to publicize findings that depression
can indeed be treated naturally, safely, extremely cheaply and in just a few
weeks.
One
of these few researchers who dares to go against the current trend is James
Gordon, a UK-based researcher and former depression sufferer, who is doing a
lot of work to try to make these findings available to the general public. He
is the creator of the “Destroy Depression System™” , a simple, 7 step
guide to self-curing depression naturally using an amalgamation of all the
research done in the area, together with his own self-experimentation with
which he cured his own depression.
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