Psychology
__ October 2014 (date)
During the past several decades, a lot of scientists studied various aspects of depression, including its treatment, reasons and consequences. These scientists have provided answers for a lot of questions in respect of the depressive disorder, gathered knowledge and solid experience, offered many methods of its prevention. The investigations provided us with a profound knowledge of the depressive disorder. However, it is not easy to answer the questions: what do people with depressive disorder need? How to treat people suffering from depression effectively?
The researcher Pim Cuijpers, professor of Clinical Psychology, in his article makes stress on the serious problem regarding depression’s treatment. In spite of the large number of scientific works in this field, we still do not know how to treat depression: “Scientists need the patients’ perspectives and the problems they experience every day more than ever” (Cuijpers).
There are many ways of treatment the depressive disorder. Many medicines have been invented; also, there are a lot of qualified specialists working with depression. But still there are a lot of depressed people who do not know how to treat the disorder, what medicines to buy, whether they are dangerous for health or not, where to go and what to do in order to get effective treatment.
It is rather difficult to identify what treatment is appropriate for this or that patient, whether the psychological treatment or medicines will not be harmful and will help. According to the author of the article, “to choose the correct way, it is necessary to know how people live with the depressive disorder, how they go to work, communicate with others, how they suffer from various side effects of the drugs. The patients’ perspectives should receive more attention” (Cuijpers).
Pim Cuijpers states that “one of the serious problems in the depression treatment is that around 50% of patients do not seek professional help” (Cuijpers). The grounds for it are both financial and personal. The treatment of the depression is often expensive, and not all patients can afford it. Some patients doubt the result of the treatment, care about the price, and prefer not to ask for help.
People with depressive disorder often are not aware where to find treatment. It is necessary to make treatment information reachable with the help of mass media and internet. Patients suffering from depressive disorder very often try to find information on the pages of magazines, news-papers and on the internet. The above-mentioned approach has the advantages, however, sometimes wrong information may be found there.
According to the author of the article, “internet offers excellent possibilities to organize groups of mutual support; also it possesses great potential to study the process of mutual support. Large quantities of patients communicate every day in the forums with other depressed people. It is a good way to organize support for the depressed patients. It is also a good resource for researchers to study these processes. It results in the large amounts of texts which can be studied to get a better understanding of the patients’ needs” (Cuijpers).
Under depression we understand a psychological condition that influences how one thinks, feels and affects one’s behavior and sometimes physical condition. It can decrease one’s self-esteem and be the reason of self-depreciation. Depression is not only an occasional sadness, it is permanent and sadness stays with the person. In the situation when it is not treated, the depression can impact one’s feeling, actions and thoughts. It may make a person pessimistic towards the friends and family. Depression is defined as the most common psychological problem. Depression influences almost each of us by the personal experience or trough a depression in family members. Depression may become the cause of suicide, especially in untreated cases.
Every person may be affected by depression. A lot of people who receive medical treatment are treated successfully. Although people usually seek professional treatment, still not all of them do it that may sometimes lead to physical illness.
Depression may be the reason of bad appetite or insomnia. It may become the reason of loss of interest in sports, friends and outdoor activities.
Often people may not recognize the depression timely. Sometimes people think that they just more lazy than usually. In any case they recognize changes and it is very important to identify the reason that provoked depression.
Among the numerous reasons of the depression, we can outline the following: trauma, financial problems, peer pressure, death in the family, chronic illness, work stress, problems with the relationships. Children are usually depressed because of the parents’ divorce or bad family life.
The real reasons for the depression are unknown. There are theories that help to explain them. Scholars and psychologists believe that mental disorders are provoked by biological, social and psychological factors.
There are some common reasons for depression:
- Abuse. In case a person is suffering from abuse or experienced it before, it may cause the depression.
- Genetics. Genetics is one more reason for depressive disorder. People suffering from depressive disorder often have family members who face this problem as well.
- Serious illnesses. In case people face serious illnesses, they often get depressed. If the illness is not very serious and may be cured, some people still may be anxious about it that can cause the depression.
- Conflict. Serious problems with family members, colleagues or friends are also common reason for the depressive disorder.
- Medical treatments may also cause depressive disorder. There are medicines, the consumption of which, may lead to the depression.
Women suffer from depressive disorders more often than men. According to statistics and research, the number of depressed women is higher than depressed men. Without good family relations, women can be depressed.
Although the criteria of diagnostic stresses the vegetative and emotional symptoms, depressive disorder is also associated with some physical symptoms, such as stomach ache, backache, muscle ache, headache and joint ache. Depression and its painful symptoms must be treated simultaneously with the goal to get remission. Researchers confirm that physical improvement is connected with the improvement of other depression symptoms.
The Lifestyle ways of treatment are following: wake therapy, light therapy, eating a healthy diet, meditation and exercise.
Physical activity may help with the depression treatment. I suppose, one of the best ways among the above is sport. Sport helps us to forget about the problems at least during the time of exercising. Sport improves physical condition that may help with the physiological symptoms. People in good physical condition always feel more calm and happy. Exercises can also influence the appearance of the person that improves his or her mood and self-esteem.
People who suffer from depression may also try to practice meditation. Meditation helps to understand you better and relax; also, it makes a positive impact on one’s mental condition and health. Meditation may also extend your knowledge about culture and religions of Eastern countries and helps to abstract from available problems and sadness.
Smoking cessation can help to treat depression. Smoking makes harm to smokers. Smoking cessation may relieve people from such an influence. The former smoker will be healthier; good physical condition may make a positive impact on his mind.
Healthy diet is useful for everybody. It may also be of help to people suffering from depressive disorders. Rejection from fast-food, alcohol drinks, fried meals, etc. will improve one’s health. A lot of people who tried healthy diet say that their mood has become also better.
Educational experience, sex, age and religious persuasion cannot distinguish between suicide nonattempters and attempters. The non-Caucasians with the depressive disorder are less likely to attempt suicide than the depressed Caucasians. The suicide attempters show more subjective depression, hopelessness and suicidal ideation than the nonattempters”.
Teenagers are often more sensitive than adults. In their age, they can get depressed due to many factors, for example, problems in their families, bad grades at school, sexual orientation, quarrels with peers, etc. The adults would not pay attention to such problems, but teenagers do. Symptoms of the depression in teenagers are as follows: apathy, staying awake at night, memory loss, hopelessness, sadness and thinking about death.
Unfortunately, there are many cases when the depression in teenagers causes suicide attempts. In order to prevent such attempts, teachers and parents should be attentive to teenagers, understand and help them.
Conclusion
During the past several decades, a lot of scientists studied various aspects of depression, including its treatment, reasons and consequences. However, it is not easy to answer the questions: what do people with depressive disorder need? How to treat people suffering from depression effectively?
Pim Cuijpers offers to pay more attention to the ways of depression treatment. In general, people with the depressive disorders should be treated by the doctors.
Works Cited
Cuijpers, Pim. 'The Patient Perspective In Research On Major Depression'. Cuijpers BMC Psychiatry 11.89 (2011): 1-2. Web. 24 Oct. 2014.
