DEPRESSION

Depression is a mood disorder that causes a persistent feeling of sadness and loss of interest. It is also known as major depression or clinical depression, it affects how you feel, think and behave and can lead to a variety of emotional and physical problem. Basically people with depression find it hard to go about their day-to-day activities and may also feel that life is not worth living. Feeling down sometimes is part of life but when emptiness and despair take hold and won’t go away that’s depression. Depression is a common but serious illness; it prevents people from functioning normally.

Causes                  

The exact cause of depression is unknown but somethings are associated with its development. Certainly, depression does not result from a single event but from a combination of recent events and other personal factors. Depression is caused by a combination of genetic, biological, environmental and psychological factors. The parts of the brain involved in mood, thinking, sleep, appetite and behaviour of depressed people appear different. But these images do not reveal why depression occurs, they also cannot be used to diagnose depression.

Some types of depression tend to run in the family but depression can occur without family histories of depression too. Trauma, loss of loved one, a difficult relationship or a stressful situation may trigger a depressive situation. There are some continuous difficulties that can cause depression in people’s life. Long term unemployment, an abusive or uncaring relationship, long term loneliness, prolonged exposure to stress at work.

Some people are depressed because of their personality, particularly if they tendency to worry a lot, have low self-esteem or are sensitive to personality criticism. Long term management of illness and chronic pain can bring about depression. Changes in the brain can cause depression. Changes to stress hormone levels have been found in people with depression.

People are different and it’s often a combination of factors that can contribute to a person developing depression. It’s important to note that you can’t always identify the cause of depression or change difficult circumstances. The most important thing is to recognise the signs and symptoms and seek help.

Sign and symptoms of depression are:
A constant feeling of sadness, anxiety and emptiness.

The person feels hopeless

Individuals can feel restless

The depressed may experience irritability

Lack of interest in activities

Level of energy feels lower

Sleep patterns are disturbed

Suicide attempts

Overreacting and loss of appetite

Lack of concentration

Complain of aches, pains and headache. These problems do not get better with treatment.

How stress is related

Depression does not have one cause, it seems to arise as a consequence of several factors, one of which is stress. Stress is a normal psychological and physical reaction to positive or negative situations in life, what’s important is how to deal with it. If you have problem coping, chronic stress can wear you down and overwhelm you. Stress has direct effect on mood, when people experience stress; they often stop doing some of the healthy strategies that usually keep their mood on track.

The connection between stress and depression is complex and circular. People who are stressed often ignore healthy lifestyle practices. They may smoke or drink than normal and neglect regular exercise. Stress leads to behaviours and patterns that in turn can lead to a chronic stress burden and increase the risk of depression.

Ways to ease stress and come out of depression

Become aware of what healthy coping strategies are important for maintaining your mood but tend to go out the window when you are stressed

Identify early warning signs that are signal that you need to make some changes such as noticing yourself getting irritable at work or making repeated mistakes due to lack of concentration

Make a short list of things you could do when you notice the early warning signs that is in response to noticing stress, you can start scheduling catch ups with friends immediately after work so that you can leave work early.

Identify barriers to being able to implement your ideas when you are under stress. What could you do to overcome those barriers? For example ‘if i don’t have money to go to dinner, I could arrange to meet friends for coffee’

Your relationship is an important resource. What can you do to avoid straining them when you are stressed? Simple things can help e.g. making sure you say something positive before you say something negative when you see your partner at the end of the day.

Having a therapist you can touch base with when your mood starts to go downhill can also help if your partner sometimes feels like they are the only one supporting you. If you book a booster session with your therapist, consider having your partner accompany you to the session so your therapist can get your partner’s perspective.

Are women more depressed than men?

Depression is not “one size fits all”, particularly when it comes to gender so depression is as twice as common in women than men. Until puberty male and female develop depression with about the same frequency. Things begin to shift between the ages of eleven and thirteen.

Depression may strike at any time but women appear to particularly vulnerable during their child bearing years. Women are at highest risk for depression during pregnancy and after delivery. There are various factors that cause depression in women; there are biological and hormonal causes such as: premenstrual problems, pregnancy and infertility, postpartum depression, perimenopause and menopause, health problems.

There are also psychological causes such as focusing on negative feelings, overwhelming stress at work, school or home, body image issues.

And also, social causes such as marital or relationship problems, family responsibilities, experiencing discrimination at work , loosing or changing work, retirement, persistent financial problem, death of a loved one.

But for men they believe they have to be very strong and in control of their emotions at all times. When men feel hopeless, helpless or overwhelmed by despair they tend to deny it or cover it up by drinking too much, behaving reckless or exploding with anger .But depression in men is a common condition and it is often overlooked as many of them find it difficult to talk about their feelings. Instead, most men tend to focus on the physical symptoms that often accompany depression such as back pain, headaches, sleep issues or sexual problems. The causes of depression in men is almost the same as women, the difference comes in the way they express their depression.

Women react more to life changing and potentially stressful transforming events; during the year a woman pursues her education, career, marriage, childbearing and child rearing. In addition, women experience more stressful life event and have greater sensitivity to them than men.

Women use a more emotion-focused, ruminative coping style, mulling their problems over in their mind while men use a more problem focused, distracting coping style to help them forget their troubles. The coping style contributes more to women’s greater vulnerability to depression.

By:Ajibola Brymoh