Depression Health Feed

Pay attention to your emotions and moods. Depression is a medical condition that prevents the brain from regulating its emotions. Everyone feels down occasionally, but people suffering from depression frequently experience certain emotions or a combination of them. If you experience these emotions, or if they prevent you from functioning in your everyday life, then it is important to seek help. Some emotions you might feel if you are depressed include:

• Sadness. Are you often sad or low-spirited?
• Emptiness or numbness. Do you feel as though you have no emotions at all, or have trouble feeling anything?
• Hopelessness. Have you felt tempted to "give up", or had trouble imagining any improvement? Have you become more of a pessimist since you began suspecting depression?
• Guilt. Do you often feel guilty for little or no reason? Do these feelings stay with you and interfere with your ability to concentrate or enjoy yourself?
• Worthlessness. Do you have a low sense of self-worth?
• Irritability. Have you been snapping at people or getting into arguments without good reason? A short temper is another example of a mood change sometimes caused by depression, especially among men and teenagers.
• Low energy. Do you often feel tired, unable to perform routine tasks or concentrate, and prone to avoiding active motion?
• Indecisiveness. Do you have difficulty making minor decisions? Does attempting to make decisions make you feel overwhelmed and hopeless?

Watch for a desire to withdraw or isolate from friends and family. People who suffer from depression often stop spending time with friends, or lose interest in other things they used to enjoy. This is because they have a desire to isolate themselves or withdraw from their usual activities. Consider your desire to withdraw or isolate from people and how your social life and daily activities have changed in the past few months or over the past year.

• Make a list of the activities you regularly participated in before you started feeling worse, and estimate how often you did each one. Over the next couple weeks, make a note whenever you do one of these activities and see if your rate has significantly decreased.

Identify any suicidal thoughts. If you have thought about hurting yourself or even killing yourself, then it is important to seek immediate medical attention. Call emergency services right away, such as by dialing 911 in the US. Some other indications of suicidal tendencies include:

• Fantasizing about hurting or killing yourself.
• Giving away belongings and/or putting your affairs in order.
• Saying a final goodbye to people.
• Feeling like you are trapped or that there is no hope.
• Saying or thinking things like, “I would be better off dead,” or “People would be happier without me around.”
• Making a quick transition from feeling hopeless and depressed to feeling happy and calm.

Depression is more than just feeling low or down. It is a serious illness that is caused by various changes in the brain chemistry. There are a lot of factors that cause depression, which range from genetics to change in hormone level, stress, grief, medical conditions and other life circumstances. All these can lead to depression and that is something which does not go away on its own. However, there are a few efficient ways through which patients can deal with depression.

These are as follows:

1. Exercise: Taking a brisk walk for fifteen to twenty minutes every day can be very healthy, not only for your body,  but also for your mental health as well. Dancing, jogging, cycling and yoga are alternatives as well. Although, people who are depressed might not feel like doing any of those things, but one should try to do them anyway. Once a person gets into the exercising routine, they will start noticing the change in their mood. Deep breathing, yoga exercises and meditation can also help people feel better and less depressed.
2. Anti-depressants: Three brain chemicals that are responsible for handling your mood are norepinephrine, serotonin and dopamine. During depression, the brain circuits that make use of these chemicals stop working properly. In this case, antidepressants can be very useful. These tweak the chemicals that run through the brain and help improve your overall mood.
3. Psychotherapy: It is a method through which therapists find out a person’s everyday stressors. This therapy is a powerful treatment for depression. Combining psychotherapy with medications can be even better and more effective. This also makes the symptoms easier to take. When a person talks about his feelings and problems with a stranger, it can help him or her release certain amount of stress.
4. Social support: Talking to a friend or attending group therapies has proven to be beneficial. However, it is important that the person you talk to is someone who you will feel comfortable around. Therefore, it could be someone you know or someone who empathises with you. This is possible either with your close ones or group therapies where the people you talk with, have been going through the same problem you have.
5. Meditation: Calmness and meditation can help you channelize your positive energy and thoughts over the negative ones. It can help a person see new perspective, develop forgiveness and compassion. Much like exercise, meditating briefly can help you gain immediate effects. It helps a person get over depression. This happens over time. One might not be successful in releasing their stress at once. It is a process that takes time.

The treatment that you get for your depression will depend on the kind of depression that you have. Some might get psychotherapy while others might get antidepressants or for some, exercise could be enough.