Depression - How to cope with it?
Harinder Kaur
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One of the most prevalent and critical medical conditions, depression severely affects one's emotions, thoughts, and behavior. An individual with this mood disorder feels continuous distress and is unable to maintain interest in things. This is also referred to as a Depressive Disorder.
People with mental illness frequently experience a plethora of mental and physical complications. They can't even think straight or behave rationally.
Well, if you've ever wondered if mental illness can be treated by itself, the answer is no. No, it cannot be treated without doing nothing. A person should get medical help, otherwise, it will just get worse with time. Sometimes an individual can harm himself or others. In cases of severe mental illness, one can commit suicide also.
In our daily basis routine, it's normal if one is experiencing some pain or sadness. But if this kind of feeling continues for a longer time period, then one must consult a doctor. Another alternative is that he/she can share the reason for his pain or sadness with someone.
Sharing our thoughts with someone who is close to us, relieves us from stress to some extent. So, in case, if someone is getting sick of thinking about the same thing that is giving them headaches and then causing mental stress, it will definitely be a great help if they let their close ones know what they are going through.
Which Age Group Is Most Affected by Depression?
There is not a single age group that is targeted by mood disorder the most. However, if we check for the count, according to studies conducted by different health institutes, they show that the age group from 30 to 60 has a higher rate of depressive disorder.
This is the only age group when a person has to focus on numerous factors in his life, like while taking care of his family, children, and aged parents. In addition to this, they have to balance their work-life also. Sometimes life gets so hectic that they forget to care about themselves. They just devote their life and time to their family and work. Eventually, they get triggered by depressive disorder. Thus, it is recommended in this condition that these people should seek mental support and assistance.
Major Causes of Depression
1. Financial crisis:
According to most of the studies in the survey of countries, the financial crisis is the leading cause of chronic mental health issues. Several socio-economic factors which are responsible for direct mental health problems, such as
2. Health issues:
Having health issues can put you in the middle of a deep well of worries that you cannot escape from no matter how hard you try. Chronic health diseases such as heart diseases, kidney problems, Lupus, HIV & AIDS, etcetera, adversely trigger an individual’s mental health.
3. Physical & Mental Abuse:
Getting abused by close friends or family members on a physical & mental level causes extreme damage to psychological suffering t an individual.
4. Personal Life Conflicts:
Mental illness is caused due to the various sorts of conflicts and disputes one faces in their personal lives alongside their counterparts (primarily), other family members, and friends, leading to unavoidable mental illness or breakdowns. It impairs their thought process making them deliberately concentrate on the wrongs their near ones have done to them.
5. Hectic Lifestyle:
Sometimes a hectic lifestyle really troubles an individual’s health, especially their mental health and pushes one towards a high level of stress.
One cannot get rid of regular events that happen in his life daily. As anyway, they have become a part of his routine, and all of a sudden, a person just cannot leave them behind thinking that he cannot deal with these aspects of his life anymore. So, these situations sometimes worsen the mental illness of a person.
6. Societal Matters:
The societal issues we face sometimes cause us to feel a lot of burden on our brain rather than living a simple lifestyle. These issues include people’s interference in your personal life, their judgemental thoughts, and speeches against a person, and the way society reacts to one’s situation instead of understanding their condition.
Causes of Increasing Depression Rate in Youngsters
1. Societal Expectations:
In this competitive era, young people feel that life is a total burden for them, since, they have to keep up with society's expectations.
2.?Lack of Sleep:
Being a teenager used to be one of the most exciting periods of one's life when all one thought of was himself. Today, even a teenager is mentally so constrained that he doesn't have even time for himself. As a result, some teenagers and students have difficulty sleeping.
3.?Competition in Studies:
A teenager's life should be one of fun and learning, however, these days studies have another level of competition that they must clear regardless.
4.?Unhealthy Eating Habits:
Modern children are very fond of junk food, which is largely considered to be unhealthy food and has negative effects on our bodies and minds. Furthermore, eating habits have an enormous impact on our health, both mentally and physically. Therefore, we should keep in mind a healthy list of foods for the brain that have proper nutrition.
5.?Indulging in the Wrong Society:
The involvement of youngsters in the wrong society is very common these days. This involvement sometimes leads them towards the worst decisions of their life which they may regret afterward such as drug addiction, robbery, no studies, and many more. Eventually, all these factors drive their minds under stress and lead to mental health issues.
Signs that Show a Person is Depressed
1.?Lack of interest in favorite events:
The person is no longer interested in the daily activities, or hobbies that they used to enjoy earlier in their daily routine.
2.?Don’t feel like eating anything:
When a person suddenly stops eating and doesn’t feel hungry at all over the course of the day.
3.?Always feel like crying:
Whenever someone is sad that they just want to cry all the time.
4.?Feeling isolated:
When an individual feels so broken that he feels no one understands his pain, he starts to feel alone and depressed.
5.?Struggle for sleep:
Sometimes, a person is unable to sleep due to the constant running of thoughts in his mind which can further lead to insomnia.
6.?Excess amount of sleep:
In some cases, a person sleeps a lot and doesn’t just want to wake up to see the world because he feels worthless.
7.?Complications in taking decisions:
A person is not able to focus on the situations and feels helpless while taking even minor decisions in his life.
8.?Suicidal thoughts:
The majority of people feel detached from society, which often leads them to suicidal thoughts.
9.?Starring at a single spot:
People caught by severe mental stress are most likely to stare at a single spot, wall, or ceiling of a room. Their brain is occupied by a single thought which depresses them, and they have their focus on that point only and that is the reason they stare at the single spot around them.
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Types of Depression and their Symptoms
Commencing with the different types of mental health disorders, it includes the following seven which are very common:
Major depressive disorder (MDD) is the condition when someone feels depressed for a longer period, lacks interest in his favorite activities, feels not worthy of anything, and so on. It is also termed as clinical depression. People get sad often when something does not go according to them but when this feeling of sadness clings to that person for way too long, then it is certain that they have been attacked by major depressive disorder.
In some areas of the world, this sort of mental illness is so common that people don’t even consider seeking treatment, which we don’t believe is right.
Symptoms of Major Depressive Disorder
Chronic depression of mild to moderate severity is basically referred to as persistent depressive disorder.
If the condition continues for 2 years or more in which a person stays unhappy or sad for the majority of the days, then that state is referred as Bipolar Depression. This is a frequently observed type of mood disorder that strike anyone at any age.
Symptoms of Persistent Depressive Disorder
Being a mother is undoubtedly the best experience of life. During this time women go through various phases of life which involve joy and sadness while tackling several challenges at the same time.
It is mostly observed in mothers shortly after giving birth because they feel fatigued, unhappy, and sad for at least a week or two. But it goes away gradually with time.
Symptoms of Postpartum Depressive Disorder
4.?Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder:
Premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) is a serious medical condition that is related to premenstrual syndrome (PMS). Basically, premenstrual syndrome refers to a variety of physical or emotional symptoms that usually occur five to eleven days before a woman's monthly menstrual cycle begins.
During this time span mostly, women face the feelings like sadness, anger, fatigue, headaches, craving for various foods, lack of sleep, and anxiety.
Symptoms of Premenstrual Depressive Disorder
5.?Seasonal Affective Disorder:
Seasonal Affective Disorder or SAD is also referred to as Seasonal Depression. As its name implies, this mental issue is faced by a person every year at a specific time.
People are likely to be caught by SAD most commonly during winters because they get stuck inside their homes during winters and do not bother to go out in the cold. Most people gain a lot of weight because the temperature doesn’t allow them to come out of the warmth of their beds and they oversleep.
Symptoms of Seasonal Affective Disorder
6.?Atypical Depression:
In this type of mental illness, an individual feels sad, and helpless and pulls you away from indulging in happy moments or positive events. Nowadays, it is also referred to as major depressive disorder (MDD), but the only difference between both is that in the former type, a person’s mood can be cheered up by a few positive activities or events.
What’s more, even though its name is atypical depression, it is not an unusual kind of mental illness. It can totally influence one’s thinking, feelings, and the way they react to different situations emotionally or physically. It is possible that teenagers are most likely to be caught by this mental health disorder.
Symptoms of Atypical Depression
Treatment for Depression
A person triggered by mental health disorder can easily overcome the situation by medical treatment and for some, the set of treatments in a combined state would be most effective.
People facing mental health problems usually respond to medications and psychotherapy. The symptoms of this can be relieved with medications prescribed by your primary care physician or psychiatrist. It is however beneficial for many people dealing with chronic mental illness to see a doctor, psychiatrist, or psychologist.
Natural Lifestyle Habits to Treat Depression
1. Selfcare
It can be healed if we step toward taking care of ourselves. Selfcare is the best routine that one can follow to get rid of mental illness. This includes several things like:
2. Exercise
A proper exercise routine is a key to a healthy lifestyle . It doesn’t mean you need to do a set of heavy exercises, but 30-40 minutes of physical activity can work incredibly. If even this is not possible then even 30 minutes of the walk can help a lot. But in order to get fit and to get rid of mental stress, one should aim for mental as well as physical fitness.
Exercise helps in increasing the production of endorphins (hormones to improve your mood and are also known as natural pain relievers). The human body produces these chemicals in two stages:
3. Avoid Alcohol and Drugs
Although alcohol and drugs may provide temporary relief by cutting a person off from the world, they will adversely affect you over the long run. Moreover, these substances will make mental health disorders worse over time.
4. Routine Check-up
The individual must go to the doctor on a regular basis during this bad phase when he is suffering from intense misery in order to check on himself if he is improving or not. If not, the mental health professionals will suggest something better or find a more effective way to treat the patient.
5. Improve Eating Habits
Mental health disorder sufferers must consume more vitamins in their diets because vitamins are essential for the body to function correctly. There are two vitamins that have been shown to be helpful in treating disparity in human beings up to a large extent, according to many studies:
Prevention from Depression
Our mental health is something we should not overlook. This is natural that some activities and events in our life become so challenging for us that we cannot just ignore them even if we want to.
It is certain that prevention of this mental illness is way too difficult and sometimes seems to be impossible, however, our efforts can make it less influential. If a person has already been exposed to mental stress in the past, he/she can prevent further episodes by taking effective steps.
Thanks for reading!
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