What is depression?
This has been an abundant mental disorder throughout the world. Simply depression means too much sadness or hopelessness in a person. It is being rapidly spread among younger generations. When a person becomes depressed, he or she will not be able to engage his or her day-to-day activities. Also, this situation negatively affects how they feel, how they think, and how they act. If a person does not take treatments, eventually he or she might reach the situation of suicide himself or herself.
Depression has no exact reason. The imbalance of dopamine and serotonin leads to this disorder. Dopamine and serotonin are neurotransmitters that are secreted by the brain. They mainly help us to maintain our mood functions. The regular level of dopamine controls motivation, desire, and cravings. When a person has a low dopamine level, his motivation also becomes low. Serotonin regulates mood and emotions. Other than that, the sleep-wake cycle, digestion, metabolism, appetite, etc.
There are various reasons that cause depression.
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- Mental stress :-
Many people spend their lives under some kind of stress. Mental stress can be generated due to the job, marriage life, economy, loneliness, death or loss of a loved one etc.
- Mental stress :-
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- Genetic factors :-
You can be inherited the risk of depression through genes.
- Genetic factors :-
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- Gender :-
Women have more risk than men to be depressed. There is no clear reason for that. But hormonal changes might be affected.
- Gender :-
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- Abuse :-
Physical, sexual, or emotional abuse can make you more vulnerable to depression. Especially, children are abused in their younger ages by parents, teachers, or any other adults in various ways. So, they will have depression in their later life.
- Abuse :-
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- Age :-
Elders expose to more risk of this disorder because of living alone or having a lack of social support.
- Age :-
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- Personality :-
Some personal behaviours lead to depression. If you frequently get angry, think of yourself too much, be anxious most of the time, you have a higher risk of depression.
- Personality :-
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- Also, some diseases and medicines can be caused to get depression.
- The use of liquor, cigarettes, and any other drugs also affect your mental well-being.
How can we identify a person with depression?
The symptoms are varied because this disorder affects so many systems of our body. Several major symptoms are here,
- Feeling sadness or emptiness. Each of us feels sadness. But this differs from that. It lasts for a long time without any reason, a depressed person feels sadness.
- Regular decrease of interests such as usual activities like sports, having sex, watching movies, and chatting with lovelies.
- Lack of sleep or sleeping too much.
- Anxiety, low frustration, or feeling worthlessness in everything.
- Weight loss due to rejecting meals or becoming overweight due to overeating and too much sleep.
- Activities become slower and slower such as thinking, replying to someone, and making a decision.
- Difficulty in concentrating and remembering things.
- Physical pains like headaches or back pain that has no clear reason.
- Thoughts of death or suicide.
Can depression be treated?
Of course. This is a treatable mental disorder. Through a regular series of treatments, depression can be almost ended up. There are four main approaches to treating,
- Psychotherapy
- Antidepressant medications
- Neuromodulation
- Lifestyle measures
Psychotherapy mainly aims at the root of depression. This helps people to choose the correct way of thinking patterns, understand their beliefs, spend a light life style, and understand the reason for being depressed.
Antidepressant drugs help to maintain the accurate levels of neurotransmitters which are holding chemical signals among nerve cells in the brain. Such as norepinephrine, serotonin, dopamine, and others belonging to a class of chemicals known as mono amines.
Only the balance of neurotransmitters is not enough for the relief of symptoms. Because not only the imbalance of neurochemicals but also the failure of electro signals between neurons are caused depression. Hence, we use neuromodulation methods. This method is done as a brief electrical stimulation of the brain while the patient is under anesthesia.
Unlike other physical diseases, depression cannot be cured by totally physical ways. The patient has also a major role of his relief. He or she should take the treatments regularly, always try to speak with friends, and family members, and engage in enjoyable activities also team activities. As well as trying to get better sleep is very important because regular sleep affects every system of the body and brain.
If a friend of us faces a situation like this, we should take care of him/her. Talk with the friend, go for walk, stimulate positive thoughts, points out that “You are a valuable person to this world/ valuable friend to us” and encourage him/her to achieve his/her goals. These things should be done after the friend gets some relief with his medical treatments. Otherwise, those stimulants are less effective at severe stages of depression.
Finally, depression is not a fatal thing. It is very common in the world today. But all of us should make a healthy lifestyle to our body as well as to our mind. Improving our behaviours that help to prevent depression is very important. Such behaviours are talking our problems with others, taking enough sleep and healthy diet, avoiding smoking, drugs, and liquors making time to enough rest, and engaging in leisure activities like sports, movies, etc.
As a student how do I prevent from depression?
Depression among students has been a major mental issue during the last few years. As students, they have to engage in many activities at the same time in modern society. There is endless competition to fulfill our goals today. So, a student should complete many tasks to reach the goals. Some of the activities are attending physical/online lectures, making effective notes, reading reference materials, attending practical sessions, submitting reports and assignments, participating to virtual meetings (viva), doing internships, and eventually obtaining a job. These tasks are mostly faced by undergraduates.
All of us have experienced failures and difficulties during our carrier. Depression and anxiety seem to be the two sides of the same coin. Anxiety can be ended up by making us depressed. As students, we should overcome anxiety. According to my perspective, mental health is more valuable than physical health. Here are some ways to decrease anxiety,
- You should study what you like
- Time management (through following a routine)
- Taking down notes regularly (making short notes/ mind maps might be more helpful)
- Don’t let build up negativity in your mind
We need self-motivation to overcome our negative thoughts. Some are overgeneralization, diminishing positive thoughts, labeling yourself as a weak person, make decisions too early, etc. Hence, we always try to deal with our mind to face problems successfully. You are the best healer as well as the best physician. when you cannot handle the situation anyway, you should obviously get some help through counseling.