Ashi Jas asked:




Depression is an illness that involves the body, mood, and thoughts, that affects the way a person eats and sleeps, the way one feels about oneself, and the way one thinks about things. People with a depressive disease cannot merely “pull themselves together” and get better. Without treatment, symptoms can last for weeks, months, or years. Appropriate treatment, however, can help most people with depression.

Causes of Depression

Psychological – is where a stressful, or upsetting, life event causes a persistent low mood, low self-esteem and feelings of hopelessness about the future.

Physical or chemical – depression is caused by changes in levels of chemicals in the brain. For example, your mood can change as hormone levels go up and down. This is often seen in women as it is associated with the menstrual cycle, pregnancy, miscarriage, childbirth, and the menopause.
Depression is a medical disease, caused by a neuro chemical or hormonal imbalance. Depression is caused by certain styles of thinking. Depression is a result of unfortunate experiences.
Some types of depression tend to run in families, suggesting a genetic link. However, depression can occur in people without family histories of depression as well. Genetics research indicates that risk for depression results from the influence of multiple genes acting together with environmental or other factors.

We can see another complication by going back to the broken leg example. Some people suffer from osteoporosis which makes their bones more fragile (more vulnerable). If you only had a minor accident when you went skiing, your osteoporosis was probably as much the cause of your broken leg, since it made your leg more vulnerable to the effects of pressure. If you have a major accident, however, the leg will probably break, osteoporosis or not.

Hormonal causes

Women experience depression about twice as often as men. Many hormonal factors may contribute to increased rate of depression in women, particularly such factors as menstrual cycle changes, pregnancy, miscarriage, postpartum period, pre-menopause, and menopause.

Other causes of depression can be the result of various diseases. People suffering from an under active thyroid, anemia, heart attack, stroke, cancer, or diabetes may be at a higher risk for depression. This can be caused from the stress of the illness or the illness itself. Some prescription medication can increase the risk of getting depressed. Eating habits, sleep patterns, and lack of exercise may contribute to depression tendencies as well. There are medical reasons for not being able to sleep that can lead to depression. If you are suffering from depression, you need to see a doctor.

Events such as the death of a loved one, divorce, financial strains, history of trauma, moving to a new location or significant loss can contribute to the onset of clinical depression.

During clinical trials, depression was not reported as a side effect, however, drug makers are required to keep track of side effects reported to them after drugs go to market. During the past year, Merck & Co, Inc., which manufactures Singular, had received reports of tremor, depression, suicidality and anxiousness. In February of this year, Merck and the FDA began discussing how to disseminate this information to the public and the decision was made to interact face-to-face with prescribers and provide them with patient information leaflets to distribute.

Alan Hands asked:




Did you know that depression is becoming more common and is affecting many more of us or our fiends and family than ever before?

The impact of this illness on society is ever increasing and therefore it is important that we try to overcome depression as soon and as best we can.

Conventional anti-depressants are not the answer for everyone unfortunately and many people these days are looking to other treatment and self help treatment to help themselves beat depression.

So what are the best Self Help Techniques to battle depression?

1. Research it.

Find out as much as you can about depression, its causes, signs and symptoms, what conventional treatments are available. The more you know and understand about depression, the better prepared you will be to beat it.

2. Talk to someone about it.

A problem shared is a problem halved. Have you ever felt better by getting something off your chest? Of course you have. Did talking about a problem in the past help to put it into perspective and perhaps make it easier to deal with. I would guess you have probably been there too. Depression is no different.

Find someone you can trust and get talking about it. Friends, family, your doctor, support groups both online and off….You might even find that someone comes up with an idea you have never thought of which just might work for you.

3. Don’t be afraid to try new things. Everyone is different and some people respond better to some things than others. Don’t give up if you haven’t found something that works for you yet. Keep trying! Everything you try that doesn’t work brings you one step closer to finding the things that will work for you.

4. Keep a Depression Diary.

Like number 2 above, this can also help you unload your problems, thoughts and feelings but this time onto paper instead of to a real person. A depression diary can also be used as a mood barometer and help you keep track of your depression and your recovery. You will be able to see patterns of good times and bad, identify triggers and help you see if any particular treatment is having a positive effect on you. If so do more of it.

5. Improve your diet.

I’m sure you will agree that many of us should try this whether we have depression or not. In relation to depression improving your diet can help improve your shape, appearance and fitness which in turn can help with self esteem and as many depressed people have self esteem issues then this could obviously be of benefit.
In addition there are many foods or substances in our food which are know to help with depression. Foods such as oily fish, kiwi fruit and walnuts contain Omega 3 which is known to help with depression. Another substance which is thought to help is Trypotphan which is found in chicken, turkey, pumpkin seeds and almonds.

There are many more things you can do to help yourself overcome depression – too many to list here.
For many other tips to beat depression you may want to take a look at the Self Help pages on my site
http://www.self-help-mental-health-depression.com/depression-help-self.html

Please try some of these ideas and let me know how you get on and if you have any other tips I would love to know about them.
Good luck!

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AnswersTV asked:

Symptoms, causes, and treatment of depression. Watch this and more health videos at: www.answerstv.com