Depression is a serious mental illness that can adversely affect a person’s life. It will cause long-lasting and severe feelings of sadness, hopelessness, and a loss of interest in activities. It will reflect by physical symptoms of pain, appetite changes, and sleep problems.
Many people who suffer from this don’t seek treatment. It takes courage to go out and seek help to cure depression. Many times people are not treated with efficient methods which can overcome this. Typically, treatment is medication, talk therapy, or both. Antidepressants are effective in treating 40% to 60% of patients. Similar success rates have been reported for psychotherapy treatments of depression.
The symptoms and causes of depression can be different for every person.
WHO estimates that one in four people in the world will be affected by mental or neurological disorders at some point in their lives. Around 450 million people suffer from such conditions, which place mental disorders among the leading cause of ill-health and disability worldwide. Depression is ranked as the single largest contributor to global disability (7.5% of all years lived with disability in 2015). In the worst-case depression may lead to suicidal thoughts & over 8,00,000 people commit suicide every year because of it. Suicide is the second leading cause of death in the age group of 15-29 years.
What are the causes of depression?
The following is a non-exhaustive list of potential causes for this. Each cause deserves its own tightly fitted treatment option.
1. Chemical Imbalance
It is a must to have a balance of brain chemicals for healthy mood & behaviors. Some of the neurotransmitters that might be out of balance in depression are serotonin, dopamine, norepinephrine, acetylcholine, glutamate, and GABA.
2. Genetics
Some of the strongest evidence for a genetic contribution to depression is the increase of risk in relatives of people who suffer from the same. A person who has a first-degree relative who suffered major depression has an increase in risk for the condition of 1.5% to 3% over one who has no first-degree relatives afflicted with depression.
3. Electric signal pathologies in the brain
Our brain has two types of signals: chemical and electrical. While research has extensively studied the chemical imbalance hypothesis, there is very little to address the neuro-electrical pathologies related to depression. But, what has been known for centuries is that electric convulsive therapy temporarily alleviates symptoms of severe depression.
4. Medical conditions
One of the most common complications of chronic illnesses is depression. Our Online Mindfulness Training for Professionals is advised to always check first for medical conditions before ascribing a mental disorder diagnosis. WebMD lists the prevalence of this among patients with chronic illnesses (prevalence of depression in parentheses), heart attack (40-65%), Parkinson’s disease (40%), Multiple sclerosis (40%), cancer (25%), diabetes (25%) and chronic pain (30-54%).
5. Medications
Some prescription medications may cause depression. To name a few, beta-blockers for a heart condition, Accutane for acne (also increases the risk of suicide), and birth control pills.
6. Viral & autoimmune
Pathogens acting directly on the brain have been related to psychiatric symptoms. A Danish study examined the medical records of over 3 million people. They found that any history of hospitalization for infection was associated with a 62% increased risk of later developing a mood disorder. In addition, they reported that a history of an autoimmune disorder increases the risk of a future mood disorder by 45%.
7. Hormonal
Women tend to develop depression more than men. There can be many reasons for it, but one of them is hormonal differences. According to the Center for Disease Control, 11-20% of women suffer from postpartum depression. Again, there are many reasons, but one is hormonal.
8. Adverse Childhood Experiences
Adverse childhood experiences increase the likelihood of later developing depression. For example, one study found that losing a parent (or both) during childhood increases the risk of depression in adulthood. One study showed that there is a graded relationship between exposure to adverse situations and the risk of depression. Getting bullied for a long period can cause negative thoughts which will lead to it.
9. Change of Season
Change of season is also related to depression. This type of depression is known as Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD).
10. Diet
A meta-analysis found a link between vitamin D deficiency and depression. Another study cautioned about sugar. They found that men who consumed 67 grams or more of sugar per day were 23% more likely to be diagnosed with depression in five years than men who ate 40 grams or less.
11. Psycho-social factors
There is extensive literature on factors such as loneliness, job satisfaction, marital status, and depression. I will address this in future articles.
12. Sleep habits
It is very complex to understand the relation between sleep and depression: poor sleep habits can cause or exacerbate depression, and it causes sleep disturbances.
13. Media addiction
Social media abuse/addiction is overpowering today, which leads to loss of productivity, decrease self-esteem and confidence, and causes changes in mood. Also, some movies or TV series can develop depression in some people.
14. Personality
Some personality types might be at a higher risk of depression, such as highly sensitive people with a troubled childhood.
15. Minority/majority status
Being a minority or financially poor comes with its package of social pain. They feel more guilt, embarrassment, shame, and sadness than people with higher status.
16. Substance use history
Withdrawal from some drugs or a history of substance use can be related to depression.
17. Stress
Chronic stress increases cortisol and indirectly reduces brain neurotransmitters such as serotonin and dopamine, which can contribute to depression.
18. Old age
Of course, depression is not a part of normal aging, but the older person is more vulnerable. Many biological, social, and psychological changes occur with growing old. Some people struggle with the process of aging and this might culminate into a depression.
19. Where you live
Depression rates vary by country, state, and city. People living in urban areas have a higher risk than those living in rural areas. Risk also varies according to the geography of land—for example, the suicide rate is related to altitude.
20. Loss of meaning or purpose
People who struggle to find meaning in their life or with concepts such as death might develop existential depression, or a loss of motivation to search for meaning or purpose.
How we can help to overcome depression?
The study has proved that meditation and counseling have a better ratio in healing depression than medication. We have a certified online eft practitioner in our panel, who will help you with depression. Also, have the facility of private one-on-one counseling where one can talk about the problems & trauma faced in the past as well as present. Suggest using meditation in routine life which is very effective to control your negative thoughts. Mindfulness is also an effective solution to overcome it.
An Online Mind and Body Practitioner helps to understand what contributes to our emotional, physical, and spiritual health via education and awareness of the mind-body connection and how thoughts contribute to physical stress impacting the health and function of the brain and body. This will create a bridge to connect your body with your mind and function positively in day-to-day life.
EFT and TAT can also help a bit in this case. These methods will improve your focus and heal traumas. We have certified experts to conduct EFT and TAT which will heal you.
We believe that change in lifestyles such as,
eating healthy
taking a walk or workout
be a part social network
learning new things
aiming for new goals
good sound sleep
Express yourself
try to notice good things
daily meditation
do activities which you enjoy
rewarding yourself for your efforts
All this will help immensely to overcome dark thoughts and depression.
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