What is the Best Way to Help Someone Who is Depressed?

                                                                                                 UNIT 14- PROBLEM- SOLUTION 2

                 Depression is not only a state of being sad, it is a disease that conquers the ability to feel emotion, whether good or bad, whatsoever. Depression not only involves the mind, it also involves the body and thoughts. In different cultures some complain of excessive headaches and extreme pain and this is identified as depression, moderate or otherwise. 

            This disease can be passed down through genes or can follow external events or can be caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain. Depression affects twenty percent of all Americans, some without even knowing it, at sometime during their lives. Depression is not a disease that only influences males or children of the age three to eleven. 

        Every human being is prone to depression. Although women are three times more likely to become depressed than men, men are five times more likely to commit suicide when depressed than women. Some think that women have a less pleasing social role and their hormones make them more susceptible to depression. Men are more subject to keep their emotions bottled up inside of them because of their role in society and that they do not have the society’s permission to express their feelings openly.

      Although all age groups are open to depression, teenagers are the most common to be heard of being affected by the disease. This is probably because of peer pressure and the changes in their life. Although the rate of suicide as a whole has decreased in the past twenty five years, the fixed amount of suicide from those between fifteen and nineteen has sky rocketed and quadrupled. The number of deaths due to suicide each year is roughly the same number of deaths from AIDS.

       Sometimes depression can be avoided all together. Having a good home life and a high self-esteem would be primary for people not to be depressed. Although in some cases you are predisposition to have depression, little things do help. Talking about your problems and not bottling them up helps immensely to avoid emotional breakdowns and blowups. Avoiding extreme “stressers,” like putting yourself in a situation you cannot get out of, also helps. Avoidance of cigarettes and alcohol also helps with staying healthy and happy.

       If medication does not work there is also another way to overcome depression, which is electroconvulsive therapy. In this therapy a low voltage current is moved through the brain for one to two seconds at a time to produce a controlled seizure. Although electroconvulsive therapy can be dangerous and cause memory loss or disorientation is proves to help those in need of it.

       Depression is not a matter to take lightly. It is not something to dismiss regularly, but to take to heart and find help. Hundreds of people commit suicide each day because of depression. If you are or know someone who is depressed get help. Do not hold it in forever, for you may be liable to do the same thing.