What is depression, what are its symptoms and how to deal with it

Today, the world is becom­ing more and more open to dis­cussing men­tal health issues. How­ev­er, in the coun­tries of the post-Sovi­et space, the prob­lem of stigma­ti­za­tion of men­tal dis­or­ders is still rel­e­vant. Today we dis­cuss what depres­sion is, its main signs and symp­toms.

What is depression?

It is impor­tant to remem­ber that depres­sion is not just a bad mood or, as they some­times like to say, lazi­ness. This is a seri­ous type of affec­tive dis­or­der, which, although treat­able, can lead to cat­a­stroph­ic con­se­quences for a per­son.

It is dan­ger­ous because it destroys friend­ship, love and good rela­tions with col­leagues. A con­stant lack of moti­va­tion hin­ders career devel­op­ment, and can also lead to job loss. Sim­ple but very nec­es­sary joys are not avail­able to a per­son with depres­sion, no mat­ter how hard he or she tries.

How­ev­er, it is treat­ed and treat­ed quick­ly, if you pay atten­tion to the trou­ble in time.

What’s stopping you from asking for help?

There are sev­er­al destruc­tive fac­tors that influ­ence a patien­t’s deci­sion to seek or not seek help, from which many oth­ers emerge:

• Stigma­ti­za­tion.
• Debase­ment.

The stigma­ti­za­tion of men­tal ill­ness is more about the destruc­tive opin­ion of the post-Sovi­et soci­ety, which believes that it is bad to seek help from a psy­chol­o­gist or psy­chi­a­trist. Based on this, a depressed patient first of all pays atten­tion to more “cor­rect” ways of con­so­la­tion: alco­hol, drugs, smok­ing, overeat­ing, and so on. And only then, when every­thing gets real­ly bad, a per­son begins to think about how to see a doc­tor.

Depres­sion is the same dis­ease as appen­dici­tis or bron­chi­tis. But for some rea­son, peo­ple are in no hur­ry to seek help from a spe­cial­ist in order to cure her, unlike the last two cas­es.

Deval­u­a­tion of oth­er peo­ple’s expe­ri­ences and feel­ings is some­thing that peo­ple who suf­fer not only from depres­sion, but also from any oth­er men­tal ill­ness, face. Remarks like “I was also depressed when I was in school” or “Depres­sion is just lazi­ness, you just don’t want to do any­thing” are a great exam­ple of deval­u­a­tion. Char­ac­ters in “white coats” not only do not want to under­stand and share the grief of anoth­er, but also rev­el in their suc­cess, com­pared to the inter­locu­tor: “I’m bet­ter, it will nev­er touch me.”

Causes of depression

Depres­sion is a prob­lem that can hap­pen to any of us. There are no peo­ple with immu­ni­ty to it, but there are plen­ty of those who have a pen­chant for it. For exam­ple, those who have a genet­ic cause of depres­sion.

Here is just a short list of causes of depression:

• Dra­mat­ic expe­ri­ences (loss of a loved one, work).
• Dif­fi­cult expe­ri­ences from child­hood (abuse, bul­ly­ing).
• Per­son­al qual­i­ties (per­fec­tion­ism, a ten­den­cy to envy).
• Hor­mon­al caus­es (hor­mon­al imbal­ance).
• Med­ica­tions (cor­ti­cos­teroids can have this side effect).
• Bad habits (abuse of alco­hol or drugs).
• Somat­ic dis­eases (even a com­mon flu can cause ill­ness).

Recent­ly, the abuse of social net­works, in par­tic­u­lar visu­al ones, has also been added to the caus­es of depres­sion.

Insta­gram can cause depres­sion in peo­ple who tend to com­pare them­selves to oth­ers.

Signs and symptoms of depression

It is impos­si­ble to accu­rate­ly devel­op a list of symp­toms and signs of depres­sion, because for each patient, depend­ing on the type of dis­ease and its caus­es, they will vary. We give only the main symp­toms that are observed in most patients with depres­sion.

An impor­tant nuance: if you notice these symp­toms in your­self for more than two weeks, seek help imme­di­ate­ly! You may be depressed!

Typical symptoms:

• Loss of plea­sure from what used to please.
• Depres­sion, bad mood.
• Pro­longed loss of strength, inabil­i­ty to car­ry out the pre­vi­ous vol­ume of work.

Additional symptoms:

• Neg­a­tive set­tings: pes­simism, feel­ings of guilt and worth­less­ness, fear, low self-esteem.
• Thoughts of death or sui­cide.
• Too much or too lit­tle appetite.
• Sleep dis­or­ders: insom­nia or over­sleep­ing, night­mares.
• Decreased per­for­mance: decreased con­cen­tra­tion, inabil­i­ty to make deci­sions.
• Sweet taste in mouth for no rea­son.

It is very impor­tant to pay enough atten­tion to your­self so as not to miss such a ter­ri­ble dis­ease. And most impor­tant­ly — nev­er be afraid to ask for help from a spe­cial­ist! Going to a psy­chol­o­gist is not a man­i­fes­ta­tion of weak­ness, but an oppor­tu­ni­ty to know your­self, become more con­fi­dent and iden­ti­fy dan­ger­ous dis­eases in your­self. Be hap­py and healthy!

Pho­to: Freepik