Essay On Dysthymia

627 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Culture and depression essay

What is Dysthymia and Major Depressive Disorder. Depression is general apathy towards daily activities and towards oneself. This disorder can cause a feeling of sadness and hopelessness. Activities that once brought happiness loses meaning. A person may overeat or oversleep or under eat and under sleep. This disorder is disruptive enough to be debilitating. Dysthymia is erratic while major depressive disorder is chronic. Depressive disorder is more commonly found in woman than in men, and elders and teenagers are more susceptible. How is Major Depressive Disorder and Dysthymia Diagnosed. Diagnosing depression is a two-week process. If the patient exhibits at least five of the following symptoms and is also generally sad or has lost interest. The symptoms, according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (1995), that are looked for are “depressed mood, loss of interest or …show more content…

Studies show that social, environmental, and biological interaction all contribute to depression. Good (1997) observes: anthropological and cross-cultural studies have found that cultural interpretations of mental illness held by members of a society or social group (including mental health professionals) strongly influence their response to persons who are ill and both directly and indirectly influence the course of illness. [233] What Good is saying is that if the media, your church, your job, your school, or even family says about the disease effects your perception of it and influences the patient suffering from depression feels about it. If the general overview was negative towards it, it could cause the patient to feel worse about it themselves and may lead to extreme measures such as suicide. If the general perception was positive and motivational it may be able to help the patient learn how to cope and try for a normal life. Another study showed conducted by Karasz (2005) as an ethnographic study of middle-aged

Show More
Related

  • Analysis Of Andrew Marantz's Unreality Star

    1036 Words  | 3 Pages

    As an expat child having gown up and lived across three continents-politely labelled as a third culture kid, but in reality not belonging to any one culture-I doubt if my own parents would understand me let alone a doctor in another country. My mother suffers from trichotillomania and on visiting a psychiatrist in a foreign country, he mentioned not seeing this disease often in his country: he had made her feel at once both alienated and awkward, and not likely to trust his diagnosis or his treatment. I have seen her throwing her medication away- Pharmacotherapy cannot work without psychotherapy-and the demands of psychotherapy seem to be only increasing when you add a complex cultural element to it. Gold and his brother argue that both biological and social factors contribute to psychosis. In the field of psychiatric and behavioural sciences this would call for physicians skilled in appreciating all sorts of cultures and environments and while this may seem a tall order, a first step towards a solution would lie in acknowledging the role and importance of such external stimuli. Doctors cannot know it all but at least when they give a label it will be real. In a field where labels tend to stick and where the social stigma attached to mental illness is still considerable, it is worth while for doctors to make more informed diagnoses. Diagnoses that we can

    Read More

  • Analysis Of William Styron's Major Depressive Disorder

    1789 Words  | 4 Pages

    Major depressive disorder is a mood disorder characterized by the DSM-5 of depressed mood and markedly diminished interest or pleasure in nearly all activities occurring nearly every day, for most of the day, as indicated by a subjective self-report or an observational report from others. Individuals who have depression also tend to experience significant weight loss, insomnia or hypersomnia, psychomotor agitation, fatigue and loss of energy, feelings of worthlessness or excessive guilt, diminished ability to concentrate, and recurrent thoughts of death. Most people who suffer from depression usually experience major depressive episodes in unipolar major depression, while some others experience both depressive and manic episodes in bipolar

    Read More

  • The Mega-Marketing Depression Of Japan Case Study

    1346 Words  | 3 Pages

    Culture is a collection of religion, traditions, and beliefs that are passed down from generation to generation. Culture is created and maintained through the repetition of stories and behavior. It is never definite because it is continuously being modified to match current trends, however, historical principles are still relevant. With respect to mental illness, culture is crucial to how people choose to deal with society and the methods used to diagnose and cope with mental illnesses. In Watters’

    Read More

  • The Side Effects Of Antidepressants : An Overview

    949 Words  | 2 Pages

    According to the DSM5 major depressive describes a person who is in a depressed mood for most of the day, nearly everyday. The person also has a diminished interest or pleasure in all, or almost all, activities most of the time. There may be significant weight loss or gain as a result of decrease or increase of appetite, respectively. The person may also experience insomnia or hyper insomnia nearly everyday. There may also be a consistent feeling of fatigue or loss of energy. Usually in major depression, there are feelings of worthlessness or inappropriate guilt. It is also common to have a diminished ability to think, concentrate, or experience indecisiveness. All of these symptoms cause clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning. (DSM 5, 160-161)

    Read More

  • Media Portrayal of Mental Illness in America

    3886 Words  | 8 Pages

    Mental illness is more common than one would like to believe. In reality, one in five Americans will suffer from a mental disorder in any given year. Though that ratio is about equivalent to more than fifty-four million people, mental illness still remains a shameful and stigmatized topic (National Institute of Mental Health, n.d.). The taboo of mental illness has an extensive and exhausting history, dating back to the beginning of American colonization. It has not been an easy road, to say the least.

    Read More

  • Dysautonomia Essay

    1305 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Autonomic Nervous System is responsible for the functions of the body that are not thought about to control. When this system dysfunctions, it can cause havoc on the human body. One example of this would be Dysautonomia. Dysautonomia is a rare but serious disease that affects the autonomic nervous system, has many symptoms, and offers few treatment options.

    Read More

  • psychological disorders

    1141 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Asian cultures make up a large portion of the world’s population, so being able to understand their way of dealing with psychological disorders is important. The way most of the Asian cultures view mental illness is vastly different from how Western cultures view mental illness. In a study it showed that “Asian Americans show stronger implicit mental illness stigma compared to Caucasian Americans” (Cheon & Chiao, 2012). One reason for this is that in Asian cultures they are more likely to attribute mental illness with some type of supernatural cause. This could include punishments by god or ancestors that they did not please by bad behavior or they may believe mental illness could be a result of a possession by an evil spirit. These types of beliefs lead to a stronger stigma against mental illness in Asian cultures. Since they believe that it can be caused by ...

    Read More

  • DYSTHYMIC DISORDER

    591 Words  | 2 Pages

     Mild, chronic depression has probably existed as long as the human condition, although it has been referred to by various different names. The DSM-III replaced the term “neurotic depression” with dysthymic disorder--which literally means ‘ill-humored’-and it was added to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 1980

    Read More

  • Depression: Symptoms, Types, and Treatments

    1957 Words  | 4 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Major Depressive Disorder

    1197 Words  | 3 Pages

    Major Depressive Disorder or MDD is a very common clinical condition that affects millions of people every year. According to the Agency for Health Care Policy & Research, “ depression is under diagnosed & untreated by most medical doctors, despite the fact that it can almost always be treated successfully.

    Read More

  • Dysthymia

    457 Words  | 1 Pages

    According to the article, About Dysthymia, during periods of depressed mood, most sufferers have, poor appetite or over eating, a sleep disorder (insomnia or over-sleeping), low energy or fatigue, low self-esteem, poor concentration or difficulty making decisions, and feelings of hopelessness and despair.

    Read More

  • Social Construction Of Mental Illness

    2921 Words  | 6 Pages

    Research on the social construction of mental illness can further help us gain understanding on the cultural meaning of illnesses, illness experience for the individual, and socially constructed “medical knowledge.” The research focuses on how social groups can alter norms and perceptions, contributing to a perceived social reality and knowledge. There lies a difference between disease and illness; the former being medically defined by professionals while the latter is socially characterized and defined. Medical definitions are rigidly and universally defined, whereas “illnesses” are dynamic in their nature and can be shaped by eras or culture at the time, thus giving insight into how perceptions evolve (APA, 9).

    Read More

  • Assess The Benefits Of Multicultural Therapy

    608 Words  | 2 Pages

    Culture plays a vital role in how we view mental health. Each culture views it differently, impacts the likelihood of someone to seek help from a mental health professional, and the outcome of treatment.

    Read More

  • Dysthymia Case Studies

    1139 Words  | 3 Pages

    As stated by the DSM-5 (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders), the major symptom of Persistent Depressive Disorder (Dysthymia) is depressed mood that occurs for more days than not for at least 2 year. Dysthymia shares the symptoms with MDD (Major Depressive Disorder), with the exception that symptoms last for 2 years (APA 2013). The way that Dysthymia is different from MDD is that the subject can function to some extent at a higher level; however, the symptoms last 2 years. To rule out possible medical causes such as diabetes or low thyroid levels, which causes a chemical imbalance that produces similar symptoms, a physical exam would be conducted.

    Read More

  • Argumentative Essay On Depression

    1357 Words  | 3 Pages

    There are many people in the world who are struggling with the disease depression. Depression is the state in which a person feels very sad, hopeless and unimportant. The thing about depression is that it affects both genders and any ages. Depression is something that deserves full attention. For many reasons doctors believe that when a person has depression, they have to start taking medication for it as if medications help. People are becoming more dependent on antidepressants when there are other techniques for dealing with depression.

    Read More

More about Essay On Dysthymia

Open Document