Beating Depression: The Complete Guide to Depression and How to Overcome It
Beating Depression: The Complete Guide to Depression and How to Overcome It
(Class Health)
What is depression?
Every human being has changed in their mood. Experiencing
good, not so good, and low mood is normal. The variety of our
feelings is essential to our being lively and responsive to our
surroundings. We would otherwise be totally predictable and
robotic. Contrasting moods and feelings add depth to our lives.
There will be times when elated, or extra good mood, is
appropriate – something really good has happened and we are
very happy.
It will also be entirely appropriate to feel low, tearful
and negative in other circumstances, for example being made
2 Beating Depression
redundant. The difference, however, between that experience
and being depressed, can be subtle but all-important. It is the
difference between normal experience and illness. Many people
would feel bad at losing a job but not everyone would go on to be
ill. Illness begins and normal experience ends, at the point at
which your everyday functioning is affected and continues to be
affected beyond what would reasonably be expected. You would
not expect a person who has lost their livelihood last week to be
functioning well this week, but you would expect a gradual
improvement over the course of the following months. If this
(normal) mood is protracted and it starts to change the way
someone is coping (or not coping) with life, it starts to become a
problem or illness.
Frequently asked questions about depression?
How common is depression?
Depression of one sort or another is the commonest illness of all;
it’s said that 40% of all of us get this illness at some time in our
lives. Nearly a quarter of all GP attendances are for some form of the emotional problem; 3% of the population are estimated to be
suffering from depression, and 8% suffer from mixed anxiety and
depression, at any one time. Many more people, who don’t have a
full-scale illness, have difficulties or disabilities owing to some
depressive symptoms.
There is a wide range of severity of this remarkable illness. It
can range from a quite subtle loss of enthusiasm and pleasure in
life, which is hardly even recognized by the person concerned or
their family, to a severe condition that can need urgent hospital
treatment for the patient’s safety.
Most cases of depression are in the mild to moderate range. So
about 90% of people with depression will be most appropriately
treated by their family doctors, generally with a combination of
antidepressants and counseling.
The other 10% will need more intensive and specialized looking
after by a psychiatrist – and members of their team, such as
clinical psychologists, community psychiatric nurses, and other
therapists. Only a very small percentage will actually need treatment in the hospital.
This is relatively quite rare.
Depression can have accumulated over many years and a
catalyst could have set the final crumple-switch into action, causing the breakdown to develop into severe depression. Many
people do not recognize it happening to them. Others around
them can also be blind to it or don’t seem able to help.
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