The History of Depression and its Effect - Free Essay Example

Are you happy or are you sad? Everyone wakes up feeling sadness, but these feelings usually pass over time. Lack of awareness of the symptoms may cause people to consider the feelings that they have to be normal, therefore the person most likely will dismiss them, this occurs more with teenagers because they tend to keep their problems to themselves. If more people seek treatment instead of holding all their problems inside it may cause more people to overcome the effects. Depression is a disorder that affects how you feel, think, and handle daily situations, this also involves sleeping, eating, or working. According to the National Institution of Mental Health there are six types of Depression in America. Depression can affect anyone at any age and causes for the symptoms vary, many may have the symptom because of the genetics or because of mood regulation. One of the common types of depression is Seasonal Depression. According to this type of depression the person is affected by the seasonal change, this occurs mostly during autumn which eventually ends after winter. There are many ways to know if someone has depression and theyre emotional symptoms such as extreme irritability, anxiety, anger management, loss of interest in activities, fixation on the past, and thoughts of suicide. Depression can also have physical symptoms such as insomnia, weight gain or loss, difficulty thinking, and unexplained body aches. Given these points there isnt one cause for depression, genetics and brain chemistry all play a role. Although many can use antidepressants some have been successful for some people, but for others some may have side effects that may to suicidal attempts. The earliest accounts of depression were discussed to be as spiritual/mental state rather than physical and others thought of it as a demonic possession because the priest dealt with it rather than physicians. Throughout the years many doctors have considered it to be a biological or phycological illness. The biggest problem about depression is the fact that the illness can develop at any age, some children may experience something that causes the illness to go into effect. The second problem about the disorder is that it increases the outcome of for long term illnesses and co-occurs with the illness causing the patient to experience more pain. The depressive disorder is the lead cause of disability in the U.S. from people by the ages of 15 to 44. The suicide rate for older adults is more than fifteen percent higher than the rate for the nation as a whole. The main cause for that rate to be so high is because most youth who have the symptom are not treated mainly because they stay qu iet about the way they feel which leads to frequent self-injury or suicide. When things involve difficult situations, they will mostly likely lead the person to be sad, but these reactions are normal and are a part of life, most individuals are going to feel low sometimes. However, there are other individuals who have the disorder, therefore it causes the low mood to be more severe and occur more often. Studies show that the depressive disorder occurs more often in women than men. Men have been shown to be more reckless with their behavior and abuse on drugs, also most older men fail to seek help because of their stubbornness. Women tend to show more sadness, guilt, and worthlessness, women who become also experience postpartum depression which involves symptoms such as mood swings, sadness, and fatigue, but they usually pass within two weeks. If the symptoms continue to persist for more than two weeks, then it is a sign for a major depressive order. These symptoms will likely persist if the mother is stressing over the pressure of raising a newborn baby. Al though depression is one of the major disorders in America but, Anxiety Disorders are the most common mental illness in the U.S. that is affecting forty-million men. Furthermore, the feeling of being anxious or nervous when you are stuck in a horrible situation, its normal. Anxiety Disorders are different because they are a group of personal mental illnesses that cause a huge amount of distress leading you to function negatively in life. One of the first types of Anxiety disorders are panic disorder, this disorder makes you feel that youre having a panic attack, this leads to chest pains and the feeling of being choked. Social Phobia is a feeling of being overwhelmed, it also makes the patient fixate about being judged, embarrassed or ridiculed. In my opinion specific phobia affects the patient greatly because you feel fear towards certain situations or objects. This type of fear causes people to avoid a lot of situations that involve heights, flying or public speaking. These forms of mental illnesses are a combination of meaning things such as environmental stress or it may be in your genes, the disorder can run in families. Some people believe that Depressive Disorder is fake because the word depressed is thrown around too many times by teens or adults because of a bad day. The people who claim to be depressed for a day or two tear the meaning of the word leading to more people who stay quiet about their problem. There a lot of celebrities who have been known to always look happy, no would ever think they were suffering from depression. Take Robin Williams for example, he was rich, and he was famous, why was he depressed? No one will ever know but, if we want more people to be open about their problems and receive help suicides continue to will occur. Most of the celebrities who have been known to always be happy or smiling had major depressive disorder. Most of these famous people that we look up to show you that being rich and having expensive cars will make you happy forever and its false because some of them still fixate on things from their past or abuse on drugs. The worst thing that could happen to the person is if they are told theyre attention seeking after they had the courage to open-up about their personal problems. This leads the person to more drugs and eventually pushing all their loved ones away because of the fear of being denied or being told to get over it. Another factor that goes into effect is that because of the illness many eventually isolate themselves, friends usually stop reaching out because you are distant which causes you to do the same, as a result it creates a vicious cycle. Although there are ways to overcome this disorder, some will need support from family or friends by simply being there. When the disorder involves drug abuse the person must want to change to be able to receive help. Mac Miller has recently passed away because of his drug abuse and depressive disorder, I believe that he was trying to use the drugs to escape from his pain, which have been most cases involving teens or young adults. Being aware and understanding the statistics of depression could increase more awareness about mental health. Recognizing how widespread the illness is reducing the stigma that surrounds depression making people view it as a weakness, although physical issues can be developed by anyone, mental illnesses are not always preventable. The anxiety disorder can come from genetics, brain chemistry, personality, and life events. This disorder leads to depression after the disorder becomes worse over time. Anxiety causes frequent feelings of terror, once it gets worse the patient cant concentrate. Once the first stages of the disorder start it transitions to panic attacks that over time may lead to chest pains and dizziness. These symptoms continue to spread creating more problems for the body. Once these symptoms start effecting the mind stress starts to damage the body and mental state simultaneously, this involves multiple systems. The effected systems are the patients metabolism that may cause the person to lose too much weight or gain too much, and their memory. However, stress solves short term problems to help a person concentrate in difficult situations. A stressful experience in any situation will take the persons sense of control away and making them feel hopelessness. Negatively, the event that made the patient have a sense of panic can also be activated from a positive situation, such as having your first child or interviewing for an important job. Social interactions can also trigger depression leading to poor interpersonal skills. Most patients with the disorder experienced trauma during childhood that changes to a form of stress later in adulthood. Traumatic experiences can also lead to PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder), when developed they repeatedly have nightmares of the traumatic experience, this causes insomnia and numbness to any situation. Disorders like these that correlate with depression affect the person permanently unless treated daily. Bullying can also have a long-term effect on a person, being bullied will make the person suffer from emotional problems. Although this subject does not have anything to do with the history of depression, it correlates with it because bullying will affect people by making them more emotional and suicidal unless stopped. Being bullied during adolescent years will most likely take a toll on their well being, these involve avoiding social interactions because of the fear of not being accepted and loss or gaining of weight. After bullied constantly the child will most likely start to miss more school and build up more stress just by the thought of going to school again to be bullied again. The anxiety from the situation will most likely continue until adulthood resulting to poor relationships, poor communication skills and negative thoughts. Everyone is going to be in some situation that is affecting them emotionally and mentally. Being aware of these problems will not only help a single person by stopping long-term psychological effects, it will save many. Happiness comes from within and by sharing positivity and love, more will strive to live better than the day before. The awareness of this can help, especially with most teens that are likely to ignore help or become distant from parents who dont understand their problems.