Depression Help

Life is a compilation of ups and down moments. If a positive moment enlightens our soul, then setback may lead us to downturn, which can take a colossal form of acute depression. In today’s competitive environment people are more prone to get in to depression and fail to tap the inner strength to deal with it and henceforth inner conflicts crop up and start reflecting in their lives. It is when the down times last for weeks or months at a time or keep you from living “normal”, you may be suffering from depression.

Depression is a medical illness that involves our body, brain, mood, and thoughts. Doctors can distinguish several types of depression, some of which are more severe than others. It affects eating and sleeping routines, self esteem and perspective on life. It persists and interferes with your everyday life. In addition, depression affects the people who love and care about the person who is depressed.

Symptoms can include

• Sadness
• Loss of interest or pleasure in activities you used to enjoy
• Change in weight
• Difficulty sleeping or oversleeping
• Energy loss
• Feelings of worthlessness/Failure
• Thoughts of death or suicide

Depression can run in families, and usually starts between the ages of 15 and 30. It is much more common in women. Many things can trigger debilitating depression. Feelings of depression are caused by a chemical change that affects how the brain functions. Sometimes the feelings of sadness, worthlessness, and hopelessness become so strong that a depressed person may even consider suicide. Suicide and attempted suicide are very tragic consequences of depression. If a person ever feels like ending their life, they should call a doctor immediately. Treatment is available and is usually successful.

What causes depression?

There is no single cause of depression. There could be many reasons why people may become depressed:

• Hormonal factors – menstrual cycle changes, pregnancy, miscarriage, postpartum period, pre-menopause, and menopausal ( symptoms commonly seen in women)
• Stress – at work and home, single parenthood, caring for children and for aging parents
• Family history – inherited (it’s in your genes); it can also occur in people with no family history
• Medical illness – stroke, heart attack, cancer
• Chemical imbalance – changes in the brain chemistry

Once identified, depression almost always can be treated either by therapy, medicine called antidepressants, or both. Some people with milder forms of depression do well with therapy alone. Counseling and psychotherapy can be very helpful in treating mild cases of depression. Others with moderate to severe depression might benefit from antidepressants. It may take a few weeks or months before you begin to feel a change in your mood. Some people do best with combined treatment — therapy and antidepressants. Also prevalent therapy like meditation also proved to be a great help to harmonizing the inner balance. It is opted by most the people today who are leading a nerve-racking lifestyle. Next time if you get trapped by this recession, think about the important people in your lives, your desires, and your hope for your future. This Life is the utmost precious gift given to us and just mere unenlightened thoughts which pierce our lives and creating imbalance should not be entertained for a long time. If you are not able to handle on your own then you can seek help from different sources like:

• Family doctor
• Counselors or social workers
• Family service, social service agencies, or clergy person
• Employee assistance programs (EAP)
• Psychologists and psychiatrists

Although transformation won’t come overnight—but with the right treatment, you can keep depression from overshadowing your life. Next time if that happens tap that moment with a smile and say O mind Relax please!

Tags:  acute depression chemical imbalance Depression depression causes depression help depression symptoms harmonal factor stress

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The term “depression” has been variably used to describe either a symptom, a syndrome, or a disease. In the present consensus statement, depression is used in the broad sense to describe a syndrome that includes a constellation of physiological, affective, and cognitive manifestations. As listed in the current American Psychiatric Association Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM- IIIR), criteria for the diagnosis of depression include:

(1) changes in appetite and weight; (2) disturbed sleep; (3) motor agitation or retardation; (4) fatigue and loss of energy; (5) depressed or irritable mood; (6) loss of interest or pleasure in usual activities; (7) feelings of worthlessness, self-reproach, excessive guilt; (8) suicidal thinking or attempts; and (9) difficulty with thinking or concentration. Depression may range in severity from mild symptoms to more severe forms that include delusional thinking, excessive somatic concern, and suicidal ideation, over longer periods of time. The DSM-IIIR requires the presence of at least five of the symptoms listed above for a diagnosis of major depressive episode. Concurrent medical conditions are frequently present in elderly persons and should not preclude a diagnosis of depression.

The recognition of depression may be more difficult in late compared with early life. In the elderly age group, both clinicians and patients may incorrectly attribute depressive symptoms to the aging process. They may not fully appreciate the degree of impairment because of lower functional expectations in the post-retirement years. The particular constellation of symptoms may differ because elderly persons may more readily report somatic symptoms than depressed mood. Because both the patient and the evaluating clinician are often more concerned about concurrent medical conditions, depressive symptoms may be overlooke. Finally, the concomitant presence of dementia may compromise accurate recognition and reporting of symptoms. As a result, depression is often underdiagnosed in elderly people, despite a high frequency of potentially treatable depressive symptoms.

Depression in late life frequently coexists with multiple chronic diseases and disabilities, for example, cancer, cardiovascular disease, neurological disorders, various metabolic disturbances, arthritis, and sensory loss. These conditions create psychosocial concerns, medical and physiologic burdens, and functional disabilities that may directly contribute to the pathogenesis of depressive symptoms as well as complicate treatment. However, current data indicate that depressive symptoms may respond to treatment in many of these patients.

Depression in late life occurs in the context of numerous social, developmental, and biological diversities. Advancing age is accompanied by loss of important social support systems due to death of spouse or siblings, retirement, or relocation of residence. At the biologic level, there is variability in the regulation of homeostasis, organ system reserve, immunologic responsiveness, and body composition. These sources of heterogeneity have major implications for risk of illness, diagnosis, and treatment. For example, levels of antidepressant drugs and toxic metabolites may be disproportionately increased in the “old-old,” making this subgroup particularly vulnerable to adverse side effects.

Following are the ways to get rid of late life depression:

• Partial or complete remission of the broad range of symptoms associated with depression.
• Amelioration of pain and suffering associated with physical illnesses.
• Enhancement of general mental, physical, and social functioning and personal well-being.
• Minimization of cognitive disability, a particular fear in the elderly.

Tags:  change physical behaviours Depression depression late life

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A single episode of severe stress can be enough to kill off new nerve cells in the brain.

Rosalind Franklin University researchers believe their finding may give new insights into the development of depression.

Working on rats, they found that cells were lost in the hippocampus, an area of the brain which processes learning, memory and emotion.

The study features in the Journal of Neuroscience.

The researchers found that in young rats, the stress of encountering aggressive, older rats did not stop the generation of new nerve cells in the hippocampus.

“We want to determine if anti-depressant medications might be able to keep these vulnerable new neurons alive”.

However, it did prevent the cells from surviving – leaving fewer new neurons for processing feelings and emotions.

The hippocampus is one of two regions of the brain that continues to develop new nerve cells throughout life, in both rats and humans.

Treatment hope:

The researchers believe the loss of cells could be one cause of depression.

However, their work also raises hope of possible treatments to stop acute stress from contributing to mood problems.

They found that cells tended to die not immediately following a stressful situation, but after a delay of 24 hours or more.

In principle, they argue it could eventually be possible to administer treatment during this time to prevent cells being lost.

The researchers put each young rat in a cage with two older rats for 20 minutes.

The older rats quickly pinned down, and in many cases, bit the intruder.

The young rats had stress hormone levels six times as high as those who were not caged with older animals.

Microscope analysis:

However, microscopic analysis of brain tissue showed that their ability to generate new cells in the hippocampus remained undimmed.

This seemed to disprove a previous theory that stress hormones put a brake on the generation of new cells.

A week after the encounter, however, only a third of the new cells had survived.

Long-term survival of nerve cells was also compromised.

In another part of their study, the researchers marked newborn cells in the hippocampus, and subjected rats to stress a week later.

At the end of the month they counted a third fewer fully developed nerve cells.

Lead researcher Dr Daniel Peterson said the next step was to understand how stress reduced cell survival.

“The rule of thumb seems to be; a little stress is good for you but severe/unpredictable stress is bad”

Mixed results:

Professor David Kendall, from the University of Nottingham, said previous research had shown that longer-term, unpredictable mild stress could depress nerve cell generation in the hippocampus.

That study suggested the key seemed to be a reduction in production of a hormone that helps keep brain cells alive.

However, Professor Kendall said there was also evidence to suggest that mild stress could be protective.

“You might remember the issue of London cabbies allegedly having bigger hippocampi related to the stress of acquiring “The Knowledge”.

“The rule of thumb seems to be; a little stress is good for you but severe/unpredictable stress is bad.”

Tags:  Depression stress stress kill brain cell treatment

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In a speech made back in 1958, pioneer in broadcast journalism Edward R. Murrow told a gathering of broadcast colleagues, “This instrument can teach, it can illuminate; yes, it can even inspire, but it can only do so to the extent that humans are determined to use it to those ends. Otherwise, it is merely lights and wires in a box.”

Murrow was referring to television, and when quiz and game shows (the first form of reality television, you could say) began to make their debut on the television scene as early as the 1950s, Murrow already saw television’s decline. Well, now it’s about a half century later, and I can only imagine what Murrow would have to say if he had the opportunity. It’s become clich say Murrow would be rolling in his grave if he witnessed the state of television today. First of all, he was cremated, and second, how could he roll in his grave? He’s dead.

It’s been written many times that television is on the decline. It consumes too much of our day, and it has made us all lazy and stupid. These are some fair claims to make, but let me add one more to this list of growing problems caused by television: depression.

Yes, depression. Not the kind of depression you get when you turn on the nightly news and watch a game of Cowboys and Indians in the Middle East backfire continuously on the Bush administration. I’m talking about the depression you get when you turn on the tube and, instead of escaping everyday life, you are bombarded with shows depicting real life, i.e. reality television. Americans are getting a close look at some of the people that we share this great land of ours with, and if they’re anything like me, they’re not liking what they are seeing.

I’m sorry I pick on MTV, but it is just hideous, dreadful television. When executives over there decided that exploiting and ruining the music business was no longer fun, they decided to be innovators in the world of reality television.

Now we have shows like “Date My Mom,” “Parental Control,” “Sweet Sixteen” and of course, everyone’s favorite, “Laguna Beach.” I find many similarities between “Laguna Beach” and “The Charlie Brown” show; the most notable comparison being, where are their parents? How is it reality when you never show the parents? These kids live in a dream world. This show is not reality. It is a packaged soap opera.

Now, you may be saying, why don’t you just turn it off? That’s a reasonable solution, but the problem is that you are getting to see how low some people will go just to be famous; not to be really good at anything, but just famous, almost like it’s an occupation nowadays. Reality television is like a drug. You feel good at first, or in the case of watching reality television, you feel glad you’re not one of those people. Slowly but surely, you realize this is a bad habit you’ve gotten yourself into and you’re just wasting your life away. You’re not feeding your brain anything stimulating or informative except staged predicaments pretending to show reality.

As harmful as reality television may be to your health, I’m not going to go as far as to say reality television is as harmful as, say, cocaine and heroin, but let’s just say it does nothing beneficial for you.

I get the feeling, though, that the reason so many of us enjoy watching reality television is the fact that we get delight and a sense of satisfaction out of watching the failure and bad luck of others. “American Idol,” for instance, gets some of its biggest ratings when they air the try-out shows.

I’ll admit it’s quite funny to watch these people get the most recognition they will get in their lifetime, but I think it says more about people like me and others who get a kick out of seeing others fall flat on their faces in their desire to be on television. Instead of enriching our minds or better informing ourselves, we are addicted to a never-ending cycle of wannabes looking to pursue a fake life.

The problem with television today, especially since the onslaught of reality shows hit the airwaves, is the diminishing role of real relationships, such as the ones with our family, in our lives. Television has become its replacement, as evidenced when you see parents on “Sweet Sixteen” being verbally and sometimes physically abused by their teenage daughter who, like many others, has a distorted view on life. Our values and morals are being replaced by a box with lights and wires.

Tags:  Depression parental control television and depression

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Eat a mind meal

An ideal meal for mood has been devised for the mental health charity Mind by Amanda Geary, nutritional therapist and founder of the Food And Mood Project. It’s a healthy feast of wheat-free pasta with pesto and oily fish, avocado and mixed-seed salad, and fruit and oatcakes for pudding. The pasta is wheat-free because wheat is a common culprit in food sensitivities that can cause fatigue and depression. The meal is rich in tryptophan, an amino acid that is converted in the body into the feel-good chemical serotonin. Slow-burn carbohydrates help facilitate the absorption of tryptophan, and the oily fish and seeds are high in omega 3 and 6 fats, which nourish the brain.

Avoid trans fats and hydrogenated fats:

This means no processed foods, deep-fried food, ready-made cakes or biscuits: they all contain damaged fats that are bad for brain health. “If you eat too much of these damaged fats, they push out the good fats, such as omega 3s, from the brain,” says Josephine Ng, a nutritional therapist at brainnutrition.co.uk and a specialist in mental health. “This makes the cell membranes more rigid and causes problems with the receiving of neurotransmitters.” Also, use real butter instead of margarine – Ng says it’s best to avoid processed food in general because it is nutrient-poor. If depression causes a poor appetite, make sure the food you do eat contains as many nutrients as possible.

Don’t binge and don’t go on a low-fat diet :

Research from the University of Texas shows that 80% of women who binge eat because they feel down go on to develop full-blown depression within five years – though there is a blurring of cause and effect. Dr Susan Nolen-Hoeksema, author of Eating, Drinking And Over-Thinking (Piatkus), says, “The lesson here is that the intersection of depression and unhealthy eating patterns is more toxic for women than either of these problems alone.” The best way to avoid bingeing is to eat three meals a day to set up a regular pattern of hunger and satiety.

Strict low-fat diets, according to the Food And Mood Project, can lead to anxiety, depression and other mental health problems.

Eat food rich in folate:

The link between folate (folic acid) deficiency and severe depression – as well as other psychiatric disorders – has been well documented. Most recently, a study in the Nutrition Review looked at the relationship between folate and depression. Low folate levels were detected in severely depressed people and, conversely, symptoms of depression are one of the main indicators of folate deficiency. They also found that people with low folate levels don’t respond as well to SSRI-type antidepressants. Good dietary sources of folate include calves’ liver, pinto, garbanzo, navy and kidney beans, lentils, asparagus and dark leafy greens. Overcooking the greens can destroy the folic acid, so lightly steamed is best.

Ditch caffeine and sugar:

These two seem to be the culprits in any pleasure-free detox regime, but if you are prone to depression there is a good reason for cutting down or eliminating them. “This is related to blood-sugar balance,” says Josephine Ng, a nutritional therapist at brainnutrition.co.uk, who specialises in mental health. “If you have lots of sugar or caffeine, you cause sudden surges and slumps in blood sugar, which then affect the supply to the brain. The brain needs a slow and steady supply of glucose to maintain stable moods.” Reduce levels over a few weeks for minimum discomfort

Eat more oily fish:

Essential fatty acids, in particular the omega 3 eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) found in oily fish, cod liver oil and eggs, can help. Dr Basant Puri, psychiatrist and co-author of The Natural Way To Treat Depression (Hodder), says diets low in EPA essentially starve the brain and weaken the phospholipid layer of the brain cells, which in turn inhibits the activity of feel-good neurotransmitters such as sero-tonin and dopamine. Puri treats depressed patients with EPA supplements, but he says you should still eat a diet high in EPA to prevent recurring episodes of depression.

Don’t drown your sorrows:

Alcohol is a depressant with an initial paradoxical effect; you feel OK, then you feel really bad. The Royal College of Psychiatrists says it is bad medicine: “If we drink alcohol to relieve anxiety or depression, we will become even more depressed.” Also, hangovers that make you wake up feeling jittery and ill will compound any underlying depression. Alcohol inhibits the absorption of many of the nutrients vital to brain health. Mild depressions can sometimes lift by stopping drinking, but if you increase alcohol use when depressed, you might find you need more alcohol to blot out bad feelings – and then you’ve got another problem.

Tags:  Depression depression and Ideal meal hydrogenated fats low fat diet mind meal

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