The Facts of Depression

Depression

            Depression is a very serious mental condition that can affect the body, mind, and thought process. I have met this disorder on a very personal level; I've had friends that have had depression according to my own symptom observation. Through reading what depression is, and how it works and affects people. I feel that it’s a serious thing that most people look over or take very lightly. My situation is quite a different one, from my own conclusion I feel that it is a mix of Dysthymia and Atypical Depression.  Because some of the listed symptoms are not all exact to my own. Though, I mainly share the same feelings as one of my unnamed friends. We both have a feeling of “loneliness”, even though we have our parents and other friends. I have talked to her about it, and basically it’s a feeling of no one understanding and no one feeling the same feeling. This has led to her losing friends the loss of her sense of humor. So due to all this I feel that depression is a bigger issue than it is made out to be.

            Depression is a very touchy subject sometimes, due to how it affects everyone differently. Sometimes depression can run through genetics, just teens growing up and there hormones or something that has happened that was very traumatic. In America in one year over 15 million people go through an episode of major depression and only 60 percent reported getting treated. With this depression people can lose pleasure in things they use to, sleeping problems, decreased energy, changes in appetite and weight, inability to concentrate, and thoughts of death and suicide. These are only a few symptoms of many that show depression in a person. There are different types of depression, Dysthymia is one type. Dysthymia is a chronic form of depression but not as bad as major depression. Though with it the person may not always feel depressed, there can be up to two months of improvement then back to the original feeling. So the majority of the time it goes unnoticed because of its “up, down” tendencies. Atypical Depression is another more common type; 25-40 percent of people with depression have Atypical Depression. Most of the time people with this type will still find pleasure in things, but afterwards go back to feeling depression and bad moods.    

            My main argument with this is that depression I feel is taken lightly. Many people with depression are just given the “It’ll be ok” talk, and that doesn’t work. Because depression is something that needs to be watched and taken care of, without this it can lead to loss of relationships and possibly suicide. So why is depression not looked at more and a taken more seriously? With these cause and affect situations such as it leading to problems and suicide this needs to be taken seriously. Some people look at others as if their different and that is what needs to be changed. People with depression don’t need to be look at any differently or treated differently, I believe they just need someone to talk to and to understand them. In my opinion anti-depressants are not the answer is a person that is open minded and understanding, that’s the solution.