What You Should Know About Depression
If you can imagine the worst you have ever felt in your life, then imagine feeling like that everyday and you would know what it is like to suffer from depression. What everyone ought to know about depression is that is can be crippling and completely interfere with your life. What you need to know as a depression sufferer is that you are not alone and that there is help and hope. However, when you are in the grip of a depressive episode it is hard to imagine that you are not alone and there can be an end to the hopelessness.
What everyone ought to know about depression disorders is that they are a very common medical condition. Unipolar depression will affect 20% of the population at some point in their life. A bipolar disorder will affect up to 4% of people. The causes of depression are many faceted with both complex genetic factors and an array of environmental stressors taking part. Abuse, substance use, and emotional stress are the most common stressors that can set off a depressive episode.
In truth, a person who has a high genetic predisposition to mental health issues may not need any environmental stress to have a depression disorder; while someone who has a low genetic predisposition may have multiple, intense environmental stressors before a bout of depression is triggered.
What everyone ought to know about depression is that it is very treatable with a combination of modern medicines and therapy. The problem is that only about ¼ of those who have a depressive disorder ever seek treatment. Of those that are treated, 90% can be successfully treated. It is rare in medicine to have such a high treatment success rate for a condition, but getting people to seek treatment is very difficult.
What everyone ought to know about depression is that it is not a disorder to be ashamed of. Many patients feel that they can not seek treatment because of the stigma that may be attached to them for having a mental health diagnosis. It is true that some people may feel that way, but an individual must weigh this possibility against getting help to feel better about themselves and not feel so hopeless. If a person can get past the chance of a stigma, they will be able to receive successful treatment in nearly every instance.
Another thing that everyone ought to know about depression is that it can be very hard to diagnose. While most of the symptoms are well known, many of them a common symptoms for several disorders. To help with that there have been a few blood tests developed to monitor for any reduction in the level of serotonin, the main neurotransmitter responsible for depression. The problem with them is that they have not been proven to be effective, yet.
The Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scan can be used for diagnosing depression. The colors red and blue represent high and low brain activity, respectively. The PET scan is a very expensive test and is used rarely because of that.
While there are many things everyone ought to know about depression, many questions have been answered in this article. There are tests being developed and worked on to diagnose depression more easily, modern dedication and therapy can successfully treat over 90% of the cases, and depression is not a disorder to be ashamed of.
The biggest challenge to getting treatment for depression is simply going to find treatment. With only a quarter of all patients seeking treatment it is hard to eliminate the disease. One things sums up the challenge to depression sufferers: ” Please, seek help!”
