The symptoms do not seem very serious at first. Maybe a person has fatigue, stomach cramps or chest pain. You can wake up early in the morning for no apparent reason. or the problem may be difficult to fall asleep. A change in appetite may have caused weight loss. Or maybe the problem is being overweight due to a sudden urge to eat.
Who among us has not experienced any of these symptoms? They can indicate a number of simple physical ailments. But what if they continue and a medical examination shows that there is no physical fault? If so, is the disease simply imaginary? Not necessarily.
Fatigue, physical pain and changes in eating habits or sleeping habits can be what doctors call a "somatic depression mask". What is depression? Why does it affect people?
Doctors often refer to depression as "acute" or "chronic". Acute depression occurs due to some external cause, such as a loved one, divorce or other serious loss. Depending on the severity of the cause, acute depression can last for weeks or even months. but then it disappears. On the other hand, the debilitating effects of depression in chronic cases continue month after month.
Another type of victim is "manic depression." This person alternates between a "manic" state (from Manikos, Greek for "crazy") and a state of depression. During a manic state, the individual becomes hyperactive, impulsive, often disordered in language and thought. Then comes a "normal" period after which you sink into depression. Some remain manic for the most part, with only brief depressions. Others are the opposite and remain depressed for the most part. And there are those who usually remain on a stable keel, except in short climbs and descents.
"Cold with mental disorders"
How Severe Is Severe Depression? An estimated 15% of the adult population in the United States suffers from depression that is severe enough to require treatment. It affects about 20 million people, making it not only the most common mental disorder but also one of the most common serious medical problems. Depression is so common that it is called "colds in mental disorders".
Studies report that women outnumber men by about 2 to 1 in depression, although some argue that this is because women are more willing to admit that they are depressed. Depression affects all races and all social and economic levels. Although the disease is most common between the ages of 60 and 70, it affects all age groups and increases in people in their 20s.
Why do so many millions of people suffer from depression?
Human society, a factor
Many studies have been conducted to discover the causes of mental depression. One of the main causes of the problem is the cracks in human society.
We are currently in an era of change. Old values, such as the old work ethic, are rejected and people find themselves in an ideological vacuum. Children realize that the fruits of four hundred years of scientific progress can be more bitter than sweet, but they do not know what to put in their place, and there is a sense of meaninglessness as a result. For this reason, many unhappy young people try to "escape" through drugs and other means. “The search for height among young people is often just an escape from the depths.
"Supermobility" also contributes to increased depression. Families who are constantly moving from house to house and city to city do not stay in the same place long enough to develop close relationships with other people. Boston psychiatrists have long known what is known as "Route 128 Syndrome" or "Cape Kennedy Syndrome" in Florida. It occurs in young families who have moved away and its members are a very focused man in their career, a depressed wife and children in need.
Sometimes depression occurs when a person reaches a "plateau" in their life after many years of hard work. A dynamic business leader can finally reach first place in his business only to discover that his goals in life have been exhausted.Housewives in their 40s and 50s often suffer from what psychiatrists call “stomach syndrome”. At this point, the children are usually older, husbands work most of the day and spend hours alone in homes without anyone.
What about the feelings of inferiority that usually accompany depression? Here, too, the responsibility may lie with human society. How is it? Because children often feel unattractive at a young age. Your coworkers may laugh at you if they can't do what most people think they're "interested in." If a child tends to be clumsy and uncoordinated, the school and classmates may trick them into believing that they "can't do anything right." These children often combine the generalization “I am weak” with the assessment of worth, “it's disgusting to be weak”. These teens are probably candidates for depression.
Biological factors
Significant research has been done in recent years to show that in many cases depression is due to inappropriate chemical activity in the brain. The whole brain is covered with "biogenic amines". These chemicals are particularly concentrated in the “limbic system,” a part of the brain that has a lot to do with emotions. Researchers have linked three of these amines - dopamine, norepinephrine, and serotonin - to the transmission of impulses from one brain cell to another.
Interestingly, animal and human experiments have shown that depression is the result of taking drugs that lower amine levels. On the other hand, the test animals showed remarkable viability as their amine levels increased. The New York Times magazine notes:
An international team of British and American researchers added new evidence to support the amine theory when they discovered that the brains of suicidal patients appeared to show evidence of decreased amine levels. A recent manic-depressive study provided more support: the urine of patients with manic-depression showed an increase in norepinephrine excretion and vice versa after transitioning to the normal or depressive phase.
