Introduction: Depression is a life changing disorder that affects more than 350 million people worldwide (who.int). Depression is not just being sad, and it’s not something you can just ‘snap’ out of. Depression for many people is a perpetual feeling of doom. It causes people to see life as ‘grey’ and meaningless. It’s like being in the depths of despair. However, I am pleased to inform you that depression is a treatable disease. There are two main methods of treating depression, medication and therapy. Medication and therapy both easily rival each other in terms of effectiveness, but which one is more effective?
Depression: Depression is a mood disorder that causes a constant feeling of sadness and loss of interest. Depression can affect how you feel, think, and behave. When suffering from depression normal day-to-day activities become troubling, and you feel as if life isn’t worth living. Depression is similar to sadness, but it is in no way comparable. It is normal to feel sad from time to time, and everyone will experience sadness at some point in their life. Sadness is a normal reaction to a painful experience. Depression is more extreme, it’s a clinical illness and if left untreated can lead to self-harm and possibly suicide (coastalhealthinfoservicedotcom). Symptoms of depression include: feelings of sadness, emptiness, or unhappiness, insomnia, anxiety, loss of appetite, fatigue, and thoughts of suicide and death (mayoclinic.org). Not everyone suffering from depression will experience all of the same symptoms or severity of symptoms. Typically, five or more symptoms of depression must be present in order for depression to be diagnosed (Trimarchi). Anyone can obtain depression, and there is no single cause of depression, b...
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...nt is formed. Using both medication and therapy gives people the best of both worlds, where they can relieve and cope with their depression.
Works Cited
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"What's The Difference Between Being Sad and Being Depressed?”
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Cognitive Behavioral Therapy appears to be a new treatment, although its roots can be traced to Albert Ellis’s Reason and Emotion in Psychotherapy, published in 1962. Cognitive therapy assumes that thoughts precede actions and false self-beliefs cause negative emotions. It is now known that most depression treatments have cognitive components to them, whether they are recognized or not. In the 1970’s many psychologists began using cognitive components to describe depression. From there, they developed cognitive forms to treat depression with impressive results (Franklin, 2003).
...ohol, John M. Psy. D. “Depression Treatment: Psychotherapy, Medication or Both?” Psych Central. N.p. (2008). Web. 17 Nov. 2013
Depression is a mood disorder that causes a persistent feeling of sadness and loss of interest (ManiMala, 2016), which can negatively affects how you feel, the way you think and how you act. Depression causes feelings of sadness and/or a loss of interest in activities once enjoyed, which can lead to emotional and physical problems and can decrease a person’s ability to function at work and at home (Parekh, 2015). The symptoms of depression can range from mild to severe and include: feeling sad or having a depressed mood, loss of interest or pleasure in activities once enjoyed, changes in appetite trouble sleeping or sleeping too much, loss of energy or increased fatigue, increase in restless activity, feeling worthless or guilty, difficulty thinking, concentrating or making decisions and thoughts of death or suicide (Weis,
Depression is an illness within itself that affects the “whole body”. (Staywell,1998) The body, feelings, thoughts, and behavior are all immensely altered when someone is depressed. It is not a sign of personal weakness, or a condition that can be wished or willed away. For some people depression is just temporary, but for others it can last for weeks, months and even years.
Depression is considered a mental disorder that can lead an individual to commit suicide, experiment fatal risk that can injure his or her life. Furthermore, an individual feeling depressed lacks motivation to do anything progressive with his or her life. With that said, these individuals sometime gives up interest in activities that were once enjoyable, gets in a phase were he or she loses appetite, begins to overeat, loses concentration on what he or she is trying to complete, and becomes indecisiveness. Moreover, depression is a condition that makes an individual feel miserable, have no motivation to any activity that can influence his or her views, actions, welfare. Furthermore, depressed individuals at times may feel sad, apprehensive, desperate, destitute, useless, awkward, short-tempered, and agitated. In addition, the melancholy of depression is categorized by a greater concentration and length that is attached to severe symptoms. According to Wedding & Corsini (2014) states, “Physical disease, severe and acute stress, and chronic stress area also precipitating factors” (Pp. 240) of an individu...
What is depression? According to the American Psychological Association (2014), “Depression is more than just sadness. People with depression may experience a lack of interest and pleasure in daily activities, significant weight loss or gain, insomnia or excessive sleeping, lack of energy, inability to concentrate, feelings of worthlessness or excessive guilt and recurrent thoughts of death or suicide. Depression is the most common menta...
Almost everyone has experienced depression, at least in its mild and more temporary forms as loss and pain are inevitable parts of life. When individuals suffer from mild cases of depression they may feel sad, apathetic, passive, and discouraged, the future may look miserable and life may not be enjoyable. These reactions are normal as many studies show, however these feelings normally fade away after the event causing it has passed or the individual comes to terms with the situation. Clinical depression is more frequent and symptoms are more intense, and as Oatley and Jenkins explain; the duration of the symptoms are out of proportion to the person’s life situation.[3]
The article, Prescriptions for Happiness, by Fisher and Greenberg demonstrates the flaws in effectiveness between prescription drugs and placebos. Through blind-studies between antidepressants and placebos there were little results that show that the antidepressant actually does much more than the placebo. When taken into account, many factors such as whether or not doctors were nice also had a role in whether or not patients believed the pills actually worked. Thus leading us to believe that depression is far more complex than taking a pill and feeling better. Instead one has to come to the realization of its functions and origins in order for them to be able to solve the problem.
Depression is a state characterized by a sad mood and loss of interest in one’s usual activities with feelings of hopelessness, suicidal thoughts, psychomotor agitation or retardation and trouble concentrating. (Nolen-Hoeksema, & Rector, 2011, p.297) Depression is a common major health problem that significantly affects the patient as well as generating extensive costs for the society. (Johansson, Nyblom, Carlbring, Cuijpers & Andersson, 2013) Thus, it is really important that this illness can get treated with the right therapies to minimize the negative impacts on the individual’s quality of life. Psychodynamic treatments are developed from Sigmund Freud’s theory of psychoanalysis which formulates t...
Depression is a mental disorder that currently affects more than 350 million people worldwide (who, 2012). With such a staggering amount of people suffering from depression it is important for people to know about it. While some people think that depression is just short term differences in one’s mood that is not the case at all (who, 2012). Someone suffering from depression can have their disorder have negative effects on their life and other people’s lives. Luckily for most people suffering from depression there is treatment available Sadly though because many people don’t understand depression they may not seek treatment at all (NIH, n.d). In order to truly understand depression you need to understand what it is, signs and symptoms, causes, how to diagnose it, and treatment.
Major depression, in itself, is a debilitating mental disorder that negatively impacts most or all aspects of a sufferer’s life and often times can even lead to suicide. Just to give a few numbers, at least 1 million people worldwide every year take their own life (Hawton and Heeringen 1372-81), half of which are caused by the possession and improper or unsuccessful treatment of major depression (Chehil and Kutcher 30-33). In light of these dark statistics, the benefits and limitations of the main treatments for major depression, antidepressants and psychotherapy, are not only worth investigation, but with thousands of lives on line, vital to the human race. However, to take it further, there is much to be said of human nature in general as it relates to how people respond to the biological treatment of antidepressants as opposed to the cognitive and sociocultural treatment of psychotherapy. Is it possible that the various symptoms of sadness and hopelessness characteristic of major depression can be cured simply by balancing the chemical messengers in charge of happiness and motivation in the brain or must the need to be perceived and understood through therapy be satisfied? Are we, as humans, simply biological machines, or is there something more?
Depression is an equal opportunity disorder, it can affect any group of people with any background, race, gender, or age. Depression is a sneak thief that slips quietly and gradually into people’s lives - robbing them of their time, and their focus. At first, depression may be undetectable, but in the long run a person could become so weighed down that their life may feel empty and meaningless. Contrary to popular belief, not everyone who commits suicide is depressed, but majority of people who commits suicide do so during a severe depressive episode. There are over 300 million people in the world today who suffer from depression. Depression has affected people for a long as records have been kept. It was first called out by the famous Greek philosopher Hippocrates over 2,400 years ago. Hippocrates called it “melancholia”. Many times we think of depression as one disorder alone, when in fact there are many different types of depression. The different types of depression are major depressive disorder, dysthymic disorder, atypical disorder, adjustment disorder, and depressive personality disorder. All types of depression share at least one common symptom. It is commons from the person who suffers from any form of depression to feel an unshakable sadness, anxious, or empty mood. Major depressive disorder also known as unipolar depression or recurrent depressive disorder is the most severe depressive disorder out of all of the depressive in my estimation. Major depressive disorder is a condition in which affects a person’s family, work or school life, sleeping, eating and general health. It is important to emphasize that we can understand the mechanics of this disorder and how it affects people with major depressive disorder.
Depression is much more common than most people think. Because it is essentially an invisible illness and is largely in the mind, it is difficult to correctly diagnose it and most people suffer for months, years, or even decades with depression. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines depression as “a mood disorder marked especially by sadness, inactivity, difficulty with thinking and concentration, a significant increase or decrease in appetite and time spent sleeping, feelings of dejection and hopelessness, and sometimes suicidal thoughts or an attempt to commit suicide.” Most medical definitions are able to explain what happens and why it does, but after carefully examining this one, we only notice that it explains what happens, but not why. Usually, the symptoms of an illness are...
Depression is defined as an illness; the feelings of depression persist and interfere with a child or adolescent’s ability to function. Depression can be a very difficult and painful experience that affects not only the individual suffering from it, but also the people around them. There comes a point in some peoples’ lives where social isolation, low energy, sadness, low self-esteem, and the feeling of hopelessness, cannot be taken anymore. The feelings are so strong and persistent, that the victim becomes severely unhappy, which can then result in depression. Clinical depression has many related symptoms trouble sleeping, eating disorders, withdrawal and inactivity, self-punishment, and loss of pleasure. People that are depressed do not like to do things they may usually like to. However, there are many differences between feeling depressed and actually suffering from depression, the disease. Any person feels depressed at some time or another in their life. They feel worthless, tired and tend to want to be alone without human interaction, this is normal. Depression brings on poor concentration or inability to think and make decisions (Kist 26). Surveys that have been taken that show approximately 20 in 100 people suffer from depression at any one time. About one if four Americans will suffer from a depression over the course of their lifetime. Depression strikes men and women of all ages, in all races, but most studies indicate that women are more often afflicted. Depression comes in many different types: major, manic and dysthymia are a few. A chronic, physical illness, drug habit, death of a loved one; or a problem in a marriage cause major depression. Even though most people with major depression will recover, half will suffer another episode (Hales 38). People with severe cases of major depression can’t work, study, or interact and eventually can’t feed, clothe or clean themselves (Hales 38).Manic depression is a type of depression that goes from a person being extremely happy and then becoming severely depressed (Kist 107). Being in a depressed state can be life threatening. People suffering from manic depression show many symptoms. A few major ones are hyperactivity; talking fast, inability, fear of dying, and jumping from one topic to another during a conversation (Kist 39). Another type is Psychoanalysis. Psychoanaly...
What people don’t proclaim about depression is that it’s something serious. There are many people who have depression and has committed suicide or drink various of medications because they believe this is their only way out, but the truth is you don 't need medication to feel better. In “ Treatment