DO I HAVE DEPRESSION ?

“Whenever, I remember those painful memories, I feel awful and it pains me a lot. I feel highly depressed”

“I have a lot to do right from the morning, take care of my six months old son, worry about daily house work, spare time for my preparation of job, I hardly find any time for myself and my daily needs’. Really, I go through lot of depression”

“I go to school and I worry mostly about my grades. I have no friends and I am sometimes jealous of girls because they are so talkative and pretty and have boyfriend.  I feel tensed”.

“I am worried about my marriageable daughter.  She is not getting any suitable match. She is getting old.  I am always anxious”.

“I belong to a well to do family but I always feel depressed, I don’t know why”.

This is what we hea4r all around us. It appears everyone is depressed and stressful. Every one is running just like a machine and has no time to think for a moment for self insight.

What is depression?

Depression is a common mental disorder which is reflected by the behaviour of the sufferer. Occurrence of sad mood and loss of interest in day to day activities are few examples of depression. Clinically speaking, depression is a chemical imbalance in the brain. As such social and physical activities are affected. 

Depression is a mental state of excessive sadness categorized by constantly low mood, loss of pleasure and interest.

Symptoms of Depression:

Low self-esteem is quite related with depression.  There are sudden bursts of rage. Lack of pleasure from activities that normally make you happy including sex is also seen when a person is depressed. Other symptoms include:

•    Disturbance in sound sleep.

•    Fatigue and lack of energy

•    Lack of concentration

•    Feeling of restlessness and irritability

•    Low esteem

•    Sluggish activities

•    Loss of appetite

•    Thoughts of suicide

Causes of Depression:

The main causes of depression can be categorised as under:

1. Genetic
2. Biological
3. Environmental

Either all of these or any one of the above factors can develop depression. During depression, brain chemicals known as neurotransmitters, become imbalanced. In some cases heredity factor is also responsible for causing depression in coming generations.

We face difficult life style now days. Mostly we do not find situations under our control which may cause transfers, loss and other unwanted situations.

Individual thinking process may also cause depression. The individual may have negative thinking and may also have tendency towards worry and pessimism. Overdependence on others can also contribute to depression and stress.

Child Depression

Children equally suffer from depression. It appears that they suffer more than the adults for the simple reason that they do not speak of their depression with others. Adults have got choice to find out the ways to come out of depression but children generally do not get such opportunities. Children express their state of depression by means of changes in their school performance, behaviour or sleep.

It has been observed that children of divorced couple are more prone to depression. They have no choice but to bear the situation. Gradually, they develop stress and depression causing behavioural changes like sad mood, feeling of guilt, disturbed sleep and appetite, low energy, lack of concentration and much more. Severe depression may even develop suicidal tendency amongst children particularly when the examination results are announced. Parents should be cautious and should immediately consult doctor whenever they observe such symptoms of depression in their children.

Adult Depression

Like children, depression in adults is quite common and widespread.  Adults have wide area of activities and generally they come across depression at any time in life in any of the area connected with their hectic life style.

The main causes of depression amongst teenagers are more or less the same e.g. hereditary, imbalance of neurotransmitters and environmental but adults have one more reason for getting stressful and that is change in hormones at adolescence stage and physical changes associated with them. Hormones like estrogens mostly in girls and testosterone in boys affect their moods very often.

Teenagers have also to face stressful situation for setting their career or getting admission through severe competition.