Essay Example on Depression: A Global Crisis That Needs Attention

Introduction

Psychological sicknesses are as severe as physiological as they affect a person's well-being. One of the common mental disorders is depression. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) (2019), more than 300 million people suffer from depression globally. America, alone, spent over 3% of its revenue as a result of depression effects (Mental Health America, 2019). Despite its adversity in the socio-economic sectors, very little attention has been paid to this issue. Questions like "what is depression disorders and what are their causes, treatment, and effects," are not answered with clarity. As a result, confusion about this condition culminates into more cases. Therefore, this paper seeks to answer this question in detail to provide information about depression.

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What is Depression Disorder?

According to the American Psychiatric Association (APA) 2013, depression is a mental condition that negatively affects how people feel and think about themselves and how they act. People in this situation usually feel low and total sadness about themselves or an event (APA, 2019). They suffer from persistent moodiness, which, in turn, causes them to end up losing interests in things that they once liked (APA, 2013).

Causes of Depression

Depression is caused by a wide range of reasons which are usually related to unfortunate events such as losses. Losses, such as the death of a loved one or losing a job, results in significant life changes that are overwhelming to an individual; thus, increasing the chances of him/her of falling into depression. Notably, the risk factors of depression vary from individual to another.

The first group of factors is environmental. People who are exposed to situations or environment that are characterized by hardships are more likely to get depressed. For instance, children or adults who are in a domestic-violent family are at a higher risk of depression than those who are from a peaceful one. Depression can be a result of genetic issues in which the condition runs in families and hereditary.

Importantly, the most common risk factor of depression is the body's biochemical reactions. Here, the body produces hormones in abnormalities resulting in the brain's ineffective control of the emotions. A person will end up becoming moody or feeling low over baseless reasons. Notably, the biochemical causes affect women more than me due to their anatomy system. For instance, pregnant or menstruating women experience a significant imbalance of hormonal production, which can cause them to be depressed.

Symptoms of Depression

As mentioned above, depression is characterized by a continuous feeling of sadness, helplessness, and lowness that causes one to lose interests in activities that he/she once enjoyed. Other signs, according to APA (2013), include:

• Suicidal thoughts
• Low self-esteem
• Change of sleeping pattern
• Withdrawal
• Unexplained weight gain or loss
• Loss of concertation

Notably, symptoms of depression vary from children to adults (Strawbridge et al.,2015). Children, mainly, adults, are most likely to show withdrawal symptoms. In this case, they seclude themselves from other people to stay in loneliness. They will also begin to experience low self-worthiness that could make them develop suicidal thoughts. In school, they will become inattentive in their academic works; thus, they will result in performing poorly. They will experience rebellious behavior.

On the other hand, adults may experience severe symptoms. They will also be less social-interactive, which, in turn, may make them incompetent at their workplaces. Besides the depression can be characterized by their sudden interest in drug abuse.

Effects of Depression

From the signs, it is arguable that depression affects both the psychological and physiological wellbeing. Arguably, depression effects range from socio-economics to biological to metal situations. Socio-economics include both the social and the economic sector. Depression is prone to breaking up relationships due to the withdrawn status by the patent (WHO, 2019).

In most cases, people do not understand the condition of depressed people; thus, they resolve to neglect them due to their strange developing behaviors (Strawbridge et al. 2015). For instance, take the example of a man who is depressed after losing a job. This man is more probable to start drinking habits, which may make his wife divorce him. On economics grounds, this disorder makes one lose his/her competence in working. If the individual is employed, he/she risks getting fired. For instance, in the above example, the man could have started reporting to work late, prompting him to get sacked.

Depression can lead to a physiological illness that is chronic such as diabetes and heart condition (MHA, 2019). Depressed people are less concerned about their lifestyles; hence, they become at risk of health issues (MHA, 2019). For instance, the change of eating pattern may be over eating, which can result in obesity, a condition that creates room form other fatal diseases such as heart failure.

Lastly, depression results in the acquisition of other psychological disorders. The condition distorts the stability of the brain, making it impossible to control the body's emotion, imagination, and desires (MHA, 2019). One disorder that is caused by depression is an anxiety disorder that causes the victim to be excessively anxious.

Treatment of Depression

Depression can be treated using medicinal and therapeutic approaches.

Medicinal Treatment

Biologically, depression is caused by the biochemical reaction in the brain (Strawbridge et al., 2015). Therefore, medicine can be prescribed to regulate these reactions. Antidepressants are the medication used in treating depression (Strawbridge et al., 2015). They work by tranquilizing the brain to stabilize its moody-balancing function. Notably, this approach is useful for chronic conditions of depression (Strawbridge et al., 2015).

Therapeutic Treatment

This method involves talking to the patients and counseling them out of their disorder. It applies to mild cases when it solely recommended. In cases of chronic depression, it is accompanied by depressants. The therapist helps the patient to overcome his problems by talking to him/her and advising him/her (Strawbridge et al., 2015).

In conclusion, Depression disorder is a chronic but treatable condition. It should not be ignored since it can cause severe body damages physically and psychologically. Mental health is vital in ensuring that an individual function best concerning emotional effects, which, in turn, contributes to positive behavior

References

American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), Fifth edition. Retrieved from https://books.google.co.ke/books?hl=en&lr=&id=-JivBAAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PT18&dq=American+Psychiatric+Association.+Diagnostic+and+Statistical+Manual+of+Mental+Disorders+(DSM-5),+Fifth+edition.+2013.&ots=ceTQ_0NEt6&sig=JO4gvVMdzgjhlM_mcXWlQNRQ2gM&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=American%20Psychiatric%20Association.%20Diagnostic%20and%20Statistical%20Manual%20of%20Mental%20Disorders%20(DSM-5)%2C%20Fifth%20edition.%202013.&f=false

Mental Health America. (2019). Depression in the Workplace. Retrieved from https://www.mentalhealthamerica.net/conditions/depression-workplace

Strawbridge, R., Arnone, D., Danese, A., Papadopoulos, A., Vives, A. H., & Cleare, A. J. (2015). Inflammation and clinical response to treatment in depression: a meta-analysis. European Neuropsychopharmacology, 25(10), 1532-1543. Retrieved from https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0924977X15001777.

World Health Organisation. (2019). Depression. Retrieved from https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/depression