Depression Primer

By Jessica Alvarez Fernandez

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Being sad for a while is one thing, but being depressed takes sadness to another level. Depression is a pervasive sadness that grips you by the collar and transforms your life as it slips a burlap sack over your head. You begin to adapt to life with this sack on, and soon you sway every decision based on that sack blinding you to your true abilities.

Depression is defined as two or more weeks of emotional and physical lethargy. Clinical depression is a month or more of depression. It can feel like living in hell itself without any hope for improvement. Symptoms include changes in appetite and sleep patterns, loss of energy and interest in things that used to be pleasurable, feelings of worthlessness, difficulty concentrating or making decisions, and thoughts of death or suicide.

Every year, approximately 20.9 million American adults out of the total population of 306 million are affected with mood disorders, including major depressive disorder, dysthymic disorder (chronic low-grade sadness), and bipolar disorder. Depression has become one of the most common medical problems in the USA. It occurs twice as frequently in women as men. There are no figures available to count the number of people suffering silently with mild or moderate depression, but researchers estimate that two-thirds of those affected do not get any help. Those who become depressed tend to abuse cigarettes, alcohol, and/or prescription drugs more frequently than those who are not depressed, so those who will not help themselves may also be dealing with addiction problems.

Depression is an expected reaction after experiencing a significant negative life event, such as the death of a loved one, a romantic break-up, a change in social life or social status, injury, or long-term illness. Depression tends to run in families, so it could have a genetic cause as well. But the depression that sneaks up on you for no apparent reason and hangs around for a long time is not normal, and the root of it needs to be uncovered.

Marjorie Wallace of SANE, a British mental health charity, comments, “Depression is a complex and challenging condition that remains poorly understood, with as many as one in 10 people with severe depression taking their own life.”

Around the world, middle-aged people consistently are at higher risk of depression than younger people or the elderly. Research suggests that 44 is the age at which we are most vulnerable to depression. The term “midlife crisis” was coined because so many people worldwide experience a depressive phase during their 40s. “Encouragingly,” says Andrew Oswald, a professor and economist at the University of Warwick, “by the time you are 70, if you are still physically fit, then on average you are as happy and mentally healthy as a 20-year-old."

Former Surgeon General Dr. David Satcher says promoting mental health calls for a resolve in all of society to have a “willingness…to educate ourselves and others about mental health and mental illness, and thus to confront the attitudes, fear, and misunderstanding that remain as barriers before us.”

Whether you or a loved one is suffering from depression, take that first step and educate yourself about how to best handle this pervasive problem.