Depression as a Disease of Our Time - Essay Example

number 20 March Depression as a Disease of Our Time We live in a time of technological progress when the pace of life is increasing significantly every day. It is natural that people try to tackle such conditions of accelerated life. Still there is a possibility that they are not able to. One of the reasons of this phenomenon is that human’s body and mind dont advance in responding in time of these changes without compromising to their operation. Consequently, the impulses that the body cannot cope with the load are transmitted to the brain. A moral dissatisfaction appears in addition to physical fatigue of humans. If such a condition persists for two weeks as minimum, then probably it is depression. Studies all over the world show that depression like cardiovascular diseases is becoming the most wide-spread illness of our time. It is a common disorder affecting millions of people. Its roots go deep into the interweaving of a variety of psychological and physical prerequisites. In this respect the purpose of our research work is to study the nature of depression in all its aspects and the ways of its treatment. We will not follow the traditional path of causal-and-effect links, and will start with the consequences of depression which are showed in statistical data to represent the whole seriousness of the situation and the instant need for large-scale searches of its improvement (the complete solution is not even possible now). As a matter of fact, “Approximately 350 million people worldwide are affected by depression. That’s one in twenty individuals experiencing a depressive symptom each year. Global estimates show that one million people on average commit suicide each year; that’s approximately 3,000 deaths per day resulting from symptoms of depression” (Hintze 1). These figures do not just surprise but they shock. If we only imagine for a moment this picture, it becomes hard to breathe. And thats without mentioning other causes of the high death scales on the Earth. We do not consider it wrong to sum up our research at the very beginning, though, because such a sad consequence of the depression as committing suicide requires constant attention. Unfortunately, the word itself as well as the phenomenon of depression has come into our everyday reality so tightly that it is no longer perceived as acutely as it should be. Perhaps for the neglect of the depression issue we have the following data, for example, “In the United States, there has been an increasing rate of people suffering from depression in the past 50 years. Research shows that the major depression rates for American adults increased from 3.33% to 7.06% for the years 1991-2002” (Nolan). This information gives us clarity to understand that with time passing the situation is only getting worse and the number of people suffering from depression increases. In order to see what kind of people gets into the risk group of depression, and how the origin of the disease at its initial stage can be identified for prevention of its further development and course, lets find out what is depression and what can cause its appearance. Depression is a psychological disease which develops on the background of general physical lassitude provoked by poor assessment of the reality by human brain. In other words, stress or long-term traumatic situations which are often conditions for depression come from the people’s treatment of the world. Depressive disorders can occur at any age and in representatives of all social groups. This is primarily due to the fact that the values of modern society have a significant pressure on a person. People strive for social welfare, professional success, and visual appeal. If they cannot achieve this, they can fall into despair, experience failures in a hard way, and as a consequence become depressed. Depression can also result from severe individual traumas such as the breakup with a loved person or his or her death, family breakdown or a serious illness. In rare cases the disease may arise without any apparent cause. Scientists suggest that in such situations particular neurochemical processes, notably, the exchange of neurotransmitters (serotonin, norepinephrine, etc.) play the role of provocateurs. As we can see there is no particular group of people who are exposed to depression. Therefore, the all mankind should be on guard in order to be able to stave it off, having observed its first manifestations or symptoms. One more thing that has to be kept in mind is that “… no gene for depression has ever been found and there is no physical test you can take to see if you are depressed” (Tyrrell). So it entirely depends on psychological factors not physical ones, for there is no hereditary predisposition as some people believe in it. There are many emotional expressions of depression such as anxiety, despair, low self-esteem, constant fatigue, and sadness. A person suffering from this psychological disorder ceases to be interested in what used to bring him or her joy, and becomes indifferent to other people. The behavior also changes. Depression can be suspected if the person loses the ability to focus and concentrate his attention. Sociable and cheerful by nature, people falling into depression begin to avoid contact with friends and relatives, and try to separate themselves within their homes. Often the addiction to alcohol and/ or drugs occurs as a complication of the disease. Humans suffering from depression are also characterized by some special peculiarities of thinking process. Peoples’ thoughts about themselves become bad; they focus on the negative aspects of life, feel themselves unnecessary, useless, a burden for relatives. It becomes hard to make decisions for the depressed. We cannot get more argument and evidence in any other source than in witnessing of a depressed person. There are the words of such a woman: “The problem is that people are not willing to get up close and personal with depressed people… People want you to be better so you will stop being a burden to them, which is terrible because when you’re depressed you feel like no one cares and that everyone would be better off without you. If depression was easy to fix we would have figured it out by now and there wouldn’t be any depressed people” (Fontenot). In addition to changes in the emotional sphere physiological or somatic symptoms are also peculiar to depression. The most often case is disorder in sleep and wakefulness resulting in insomnia or hypersomnia. Appetite may disappear completely, or increase and lead to overeating. Depressed people complain of pain in the area of heart, stomach, and may suffer from constipation. Markedly the energy reserves of human’s body become reduced, and as a result people overwork themselves quickly even with a small physical and mental job. One more negative feature of depression is possible disorders in sexual sphere. All these facts indicate a severe form of depression which follows the mild one. And this speaks for the absence of timely professional help to the depressed people at the early stage of the disease. So we come to the types of depression. It must be mentioned that depression can occur in the form of individual disease episodes of different severity or can last for a long time as repeated recrudescence. In some patients depression is chronicity for it remains for many years, though, without reaching a significant severity. So people can suffer from depression of one of the four main types, namely: seasonal affective disorder, dysthymia, bipolar disorder, and major depression. Seasonal depression presents itself with the change of seasons and may be disabling people because it has characteristics of major depression which has the maximum manifestation of psychological processes discouraging the desire to do something and blocking any activity at all. Dysthymia is a chronic mood disorder, still not as severe as major depression, and is characterized with mild episodes of the chronic disease. Bipolar disorder in its turn is marked by drastic changes of mood from sadness to happiness. “Episodes of depression alternate with manic episodes… Typically, the switch from one mood extreme to the other is gradual, with each manic or depressive episode lasting for at least several weeks” (Smith). And at last major depression which is the most severe form of the disease, and may affect thoughts, mood, behavior and physical health in such a way that people are not able to enjoy anything and may take their own life. If to trace the course of depression, it becomes obvious that the absence of qualified help in the earlier phases leads to the horrible psychological disruptions among which there is committing suicide (statistics are provided at the beginning of the research). Nevertheless, we don’t mind only the pharmaceutical treatment but the multimodality therapy of depression in all its aspects. The fact is that there is a deceptive belief that depression can be managed without deep psychological maneuver. “We have been brainwashed to feel that if were clinically depressed, we are helpless and there is little we can do for ourselves but help profit big pharmaceutical companies by passively swallowing happy pills and wait for the depression to leave” (Tyrrell). By the way, this is the characteristic feature of women to believe in such a panacea due to their nature which even causes female to undergo suffering from depression two times more often than men. Still the fact that depression is the most treatable disease of all mental disorders sounds encouraging. There is must be the proper and sufficient long-term treatment of depression for it to go completely, but if assistance is insufficient the disease can become chronic one. To conclude it all it must be said that depression is a multifaceted and complex psychological disorder which is affected by many factors, and it is impossible to analyze the disease taking into consideration only one of them. It is worthy to be guided by the principle, that is, the disease is better to forestall than to treat. In this regard in order to prevent the development of depression people need to learn how to overcome stressful situations. This is the best way of managing this psychological disease. Works Cited Fontenot, Brooke. The Reality of Depression. Reborn and Restored, Aug. 2014. Retrieved March 19 from: http://www.rebornandrestored.com/2014/08/14/reality-depression/ Hintze, Rebecca Linder, Gunning, Stephanie. Essentially Happy. Three Simple Answers from Mother Nature for Overcoming Department. New York: Kindle, 2014. Print. Nolan, John. Depression Statistics. Being Happy by Design, Nov. 2013. Retrieved March 19 from: http://beinghappybydesign.com/about-depression/depression-statistics Smith, Melinda, Saisan, Joanna, Segal, Jeanne. Depression Symptomes and Warning Signs. Helpguide.org, Feb. 2015. Retrieved March 19 from: http://www.helpguide.org/articles/depression/depression-signs-and-symptoms.htm Tyrrell, Mark. Self-help for Depression. Uncommon Knowledge, Oct. 2010. Retrieved March 19 from: http://www.uncommonhelp.me/articles/self-help-for-depression/ Read More