A quote that sums up depression quite well was written by Martha Manning in her book “Undercurrents: A Life Beneath the Surface.” Depression is such a cruel punishment. There are no fevers, no rashes, no blood tests to send people scurrying in concern, just the slow erosion of self, as insidious as cancer. And like cancer, it is essentially a solitary experience; a room in hell with only your name on the door. (Manning) These words describe depression well. They show that depression is a battle; depression is a war against oneself. It is a war for one’s life. This war is full of ups and, even more so, downs; but the war can be won. Across the world, there are thousands upon millions of people who suffer from depression. Upon the numerous sufferers, …show more content…
an entire hoard of pain and suffering is inflicted. Depression can come in many forms and can have many causes. It can affect anyone, not just the lower classes, or “lower” people. There is a large variety of effects that are caused by depression, from mental to physical. In today’s world, depression has become associated with innumerable different things, It will mean different things to different people; no one will suffer the same. In the end of things, there is hope; there are ways around depression; there are ways to win the war. In each different war, the enemy can take a different form, from bipolar disorder, to major depression, to seasonal affective disorder, to countless others. All of the different strains of depression have different causes, effects, and treatments; but many of them do have things in common (Bartha). In almost every single depressive episode, the sufferer will have persistent feelings of sadness, of guilt, of hopelessness. They could feel like their entire world is collapsing inwards in a sort of dark descent (Singh and Mastana). While depressive episodes are a large part of this, there are periods of “normal,” as well. In said periods, a person would feel normal; they might not show any signs of depression (Bartha). Mania, on the other hand, is on the opposite side of the spectrum. Manic episodes are portrayed by grandiose self-image, false beliefs, and, in extreme cases, psychosis (Bartha). During such an episode, one would appear more productive; they might sleep less; they could engage in promiscuous activities more; they could even become irritable and aggressive; their entire personality could change (Bartha). If one suffers from major depression, they would have depressive episodes and periods of “normal.” With bipolar disorder, one would experience depressive episodes and periods of normal along with manic episodes (Bartha). Depression can also be categorized more specifically. One could suffer from bipolar type 2, for example. Depression, in general, has a copious number of causes that can range from environmental to genetic. It can be caused by a major shock to one’s routine, such as the death of a loved one or a traumatic event. After such an event, sadness would be normal, but it could become excessive and continuous; it could become major depression (Singh and Mastana). How one is raised could also cause depression. If raised by family members who suffer from depression, such moods and feelings could become the norm (Bartha). Aside from environmental cues, there are also genetic factors. Certain studies have shown that if one has a twin sibling with depression, they will have a forty to fifty percent chance of also being affected (Bartha). This study, and numerous others, show that there is a link between depression and genetics. On the topic of the causes and the circumstances of depression, it affects more than the lower classes of people. Anyone can suffer from depression, the rich, the famous, the middle-of-the-road. Robin Williams, Heath Ledger, and Jim Carrey all suffer from this affliction. While it took root in their low points, it grew to their highest branches. It contributed to some of their greatest downfalls. Robin Williams was a well-known and beloved American actor and comedian who suffered from depression during numerous different parts of his life (Williams). While other things contributed to his death in 2014, depression could have been a large part of it. Williams suffered from Lewy body disease. From various post-mortem studies, it has been found that he had a very severe case (Williams). Aside from his tragic end, Williams had depression; it had taken root early on in his career. With the hardships and rigor of performing stand-up comedy, Williams struggled regularly (Williams). His depression helped lead to his downfall and subsequent suicide. Heath Ledger, best known for his portrayal of the Joker, was an Australian actor and director. During his time in the spotlight, he suffered from both depression and anxiety (Watson). While he was nearing his end, Ledger’s depression and anxiety started to get the better of him. In order to alleviate some of the symptoms, he started to take prescription drugs. In the end, he died from the overuse of prescription drugs; he died while attempting to salvage his life (Watson). Across the entire spectrum of depression, many changes and symptoms can arise. These symptoms can be physical or mental. They effects range from slight insomnia to an entire change in someone’s personality. It can change a person’s entire view of the world. It can make them lose hope. It can start a war in one’s body and mind. Depression can cause an assortment of different mental changes. It can cause one to feel a melancholic sense of despair. It can cause one to feel a sense of hopelessness. Depressive episodes will cause a person to feel “down” in many different ways (Bartha). It will generally cause one to obsess over their inadequacies and failures. Over time, it will tear one’s self-esteem down (Coleman). It can cause one to lose interest in family, friends, and activities thought to be fun. It can cause them to act as if they were an entirely different person (Singh and Mastana). Aside from all of the mental changes, there are a plethora of physical changes that can be observed. Depression can affect one’s appetite and weight. It can cause both a loss of appetite and weight or an increase in weight and appetite. Generally, the aftermath will be quite noticeable, but there are quite a few exceptions (Singh and Mastana). Sleep habits can also be affected. Depression can cause insomnia to varying degrees, but it can also cause hypersomnia (“The Effects of Depression in Your Body”). Altogether, depression causes many different things, but it is also related to many different that it does not necessarily cause. While these disorders and actions may correlate frequently, it does not mean that one causes the other. Anxiety, self-harm, insomnia, and eating disorders have all been associated with depression at one point or another. Each occurs separately, but there is a correlation between them. Depression and anxiety can be tied together with ease.
An entire hoard of cases involving both disorders arise each year (“The Effects of Depression in Your Body”). While both disorders could have appeared without any correlation, depression can cause one to worry unduly. This worry could continue into something more. After a while, these worried feelings could evolve into a full-blown anxiety disorder (Singh and Mastana). Self-harm, or self-mutilation, is the intentional action of harming oneself, generally without the intent to kill. It is estimated that over two million people self-harm in the United States alone (Pomere). When involved with depression, self-harm is generally used as a method of coping with stress and various feelings that they may be having. If depression manifests with feelings of inadequacies, one could feel like they deserve to be injured (Bartha). Over time, the act of self-injury could become an addiction. It could become an obsession (Pomere). There are numerous ends to depression, some are happy, some are traumatic. There are many different ways to get to said ends, ranging from prescription drugs to psychotherapy. The aftermath to depression is always something that must be dealt with, whether happy or sad. The war can be
won. There are two main ways to treat depression: psychotherapy and prescription drugs. Frequently, both methods are used at the same time (Bartha). Psychotherapy is essentially talking with a psychiatrist. While in therapy, the patient will talk about certain events and feelings. There would be discussions about how the patient feels, how their life is going, or almost anything else. These discussions occur in order to help the patient better understand themself and to learn new, better habits (Bartha). Prescription drugs, on the other hand, are quicker fixes; they affect one’s brain on a chemical level. They can help to stabilize moods, provide relief from deep depression, and provide a sense of normality (Singh and Mastana). There are numerous ends to depression. While depression might stay as a constant companion, it is likely that relief will be found. If everything went well, it would end with a happy story; a person will become normal and relatively happy once more. If things were to go wrong, depression could end in a suicide (Bartha). No matter how things end, there is always an aftermath to deal with. While the sufferer does not deal with the aftermath in the case of a suicide, the friends and family will; their loved ones would be greatly affected. In the case of a happy ending, the aftermath would be the effects from previous choices (Coleman). Throughout the war known as depression, many things can be found. There are many causes, many effects, many well-known sufferers. While some cases are continuous, many of them have an end, whether sad or joyous. The undercurrents of life may seem terrifying, sad, or depressing, they can be fought; depression can be fought. It can be treated. “Life will find a way (Jurassic Park)
Depression can be caused by many different things, and can also lead to someone having more problems. I have struggled with depression for quite a few years now, and there have been many different reasons that have caused it and that have made it worse. Having depression has lead me to do things in life that I am not overly proud of, one of which being self harm. While we were reading ‘Speak”, the further we got into the book I
Depression shifts ones focus off the necessity to belong in life onto the thinking one never can.
Self-harm, or also known as attempted suicide, or parasuicide, is a way to physically express emotional distress. For people who do self-harm, it is a way to cope with their problem, to distract them from the emotional pain. In simple words, it is a quick temporary band-aid for their inner wounds. After hurting themselves, people wou...
Depression brings people down to a joyless state in which they do not see the positive side of any concept. However, with proper medications and treatments, they can be brought back to normal emotion levels. Lets begin by giving the description given in the DSM-IV-TR on Major Depressive Disorder. The DSM states “five (or more) of the following symptoms have been present during the same 2-week period and represent a change from previous functioning; at least one of the symptoms is either (1) depressed mood or (2) loss of interest or pleasure.” (APA, 2000) The American Psychiatric Association also states that the symptoms do not include those symptoms, which are due to a general medical condition or hallucinations or mood-incongruent delusions. The symptoms that the DSM discusses are the following:
What is self-harm / self-harm? Self harm happens when you hurt or harm yourself. There are many ways to do so. Some include overdose, cutting yourself,burning yourself, banging your head against a wall or something else hard, punching yourself, sticking things in your body. and swallowing things such as nails or other sharp objects.
Depression is an incredibly serious matter that affects many people around the world. It is fairly common for many people to experience depression in some sort of way after a tragic event, such as the death of a family member or the severing of a long-term relationship. In fact, some may argue that these feelings are indeed appropriate for the time being. However, for some individuals, these feelings of despair and stress can last for weeks at a time or longer. While some who are not dealing with depression may interpret the feelings and the mindset of those who are struggling with major depression as a case of “the blues”, depression is undoubtedly a serious condition when left to itself without any type of support or medication. Depression
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...
Despite all the valid points made in these claims, it doesn’t change the fact that “An estimated 16 million American adults—almost 7% of the population—had at least 1 major depressive episode last year”(Numbers,n.d.) and that “People of all ages and all racial, ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds can experience depression” (Numbers, n.d.). People all over the world experience depression in many different forms. For some it is a mental illness that cripples the body, for the mind is powerful and has supreme control over the body to the point that it will continue to function for three minutes after the heart fails; as is the case with a personal friend of mine who has battled with depression since the seventh grade and has had to take many visits to the hospital and bottles of medications and various treatments in order to treat and fight off his depression that often prompts him to self-injury and causes him to get physically ill for many days. For
The exact causes of depression seem to differ immensely, but there are some who believe that it maybe caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain, or that it may even be hereditary. Still there are others who believe that it is a combination of social, biological, emotional, psychological, and economical influences that may cause someone who has no family history of depression to develop even a mild case of depression.
Let us look into basic and generalized knowledge of self injury. Self injury (self harm or S.I.) is the act of harming yourself as a way of coping with emotional pain, frustration, and anger. Some view it as a suicide attempt or a precursor to a suicide attempt, but it is not a suicide attempt at all. Rather, it is a serious cry for help. When an individual turns to self injury, they look for an emotional release which gives them momentary calmness. “While self-injury may bring a momentary sense of calm and a release of tension, it's usually followed by guilt and shame and the return of painful emotions” (Self Injury 1). Self injury can also result in serious or even fatal injuries (1).
There is a fine line between anxiety and depression. A line that is often times blurred. Although there are differences between the two, they also share many similarities, which can lead to false diagnoses for patients. It only gets more complicated when both illnesses are present. For example, The National Institute of Mental Health (2009) did a study of anxiety disorders and found that 53.7% of people reported they also experienced major depression as a secondary condition. These researchers also stated that people who are severely depressed do become anxious. In order to have a better understanding of anxiety and depression one must first clearly define the two conditions, understand the causes, look at the symptoms involved, and review the different treatment options available.
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.
Due to the consequences of depression, it can cause an individual to feel emotionally useless, hopeless, and shameful of themselves. To prevent these feelings that builds to depression one should try to maintain these symptoms before it become severe. People in society should not throw harsh words as well as changing their mind of viewing depressed people as shameless, and that they will not be able to function properly. Instead, these judgmental comments made for depressed people are keeping them from seeking medical help. Most of them think that they are better off to keep it in, and until they can no longer to bare with it no more, then bad reactions will occur. Indeed, people who have depression can still be successful in their career,
Depression is one of the most common psychological problems. Each year over 17 million Americans experience a period of clinical depression. Thus, depression affects nearly everyone through personal experiences or through depression in a family member or friend.