Andrenisha
Coleman
Ms.
Carter
Honor
English 12
19
November 2015
Coleman
1
AndrenishaColeman
Ms. Carter
Honor English 12
18 November 2015
Depression
At some point in life, you will
experience ups and down, sad and angry feelings or mood swings. Whenever you
feel as if something has a hold on your life, it may be a sign of depression.
Depression is a mood disorder in which feelings of sadness, loss, anger, or
frustration interfere with everyday life for weeks or more (White).Depression,
the world most common mental ailment, affects the brain, the mind, and the body
in complex ways (Hales, 99). When you have depression, it interferes with
everyday life and causes pain for you and also those who care about you. Even
though depression is a common illness, it is also a serious illness (“What is
Depression”).Depression affects over 20 million people in the United States,
each year, regardless of the age, gender, race, religion or social-economic
level. It is known that depression is the leading cause of disability in U.S.
for ages 15-44 (“Hope for Depression”). An estimated 8 to 17 percent of adults
experience depression at some point in their lives. The relationship between
depression and race is complex. Rates of depression are higher among whites
than African American and Carribbean blacks (Hales,99). It becomes very
overwhelming for a person to get through the day (Smith). The primary reason
why a person dies of suicide every 15minutes is depression (‘Hope for
Depression”). Great Trauma in childhood can increase
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vulnerability to depression later in life
(Hales,99).Depression will be the leading global health burden by the next
decade (“Hope for Depression”).
There’s a different between males and females when it
comes to depression. Some of the symptoms of depression are the same for both
males and females even though females tend to experience certain symptoms more
often than males. Females tend to blame themselves, feel sad,apathetic, and
worthless, and feel anxious and scared. Females also avoid conflicts at all costs,
feel slowed to down and nervous, have trouble setting boundaries, find it easy
to talk about self-doubt and despair, use food, friends, and “love“to self –
doubt and despair. Males tend to blame others, become angry, irritable, and ego
inflated, feel suspicious and guarded, and create conflicts. Males also feel
restless and agitated, need to feel in control at all costs, find it weak to
admit self-doubt or repair and use alcohol, television, sports, and sex to
self- medicate. (Smith and Segal). More than six million men in the United
States – 1 in every 14 – suffer from this insidious disorder, many without
recognizing what’s wrong (Hales, 100).
The
main types of depression are Major depression, postpartum depression, Situational
depression and Bipolar disorder (White).Every depression has its different
causes, effect, and treatment. Major Depression is a depression that last a
whole day or longer through the morning time. 6.7% of the U.S. who are over the
age of 18 is affected by Major Depression (“Who is at risk for Major Depression?”).
Symptoms of Major depression are having loss if interest or pleasure in your
activities, being sleepy during the day or problem of going to sleep, and being
tired and without energy. The thought of suicide coming to mind is also a
symptom. Your doctor may diagnose you with major depression if you have five or
more of the symptoms for 2 weeks
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or longer. Talking to a
doctor can be a great treatment. The therapy/doctor/health specialist will help
find ways to tame your depression. There is a medication called Antidepressan3ts
which is very helpful and useful. Sometime therapy does not work. When therapy
does not work, Electronvulsive therapy (ECT) and Repetitive transcranical magnetic
stimulation (rTMS) are the next steps. ECT uses electrical pulse which helps
the parts of the brain that control your mood work better. Rtms uses a special
kind of magnet to increase certain areas of brain and help parts of the brain
that control your mood work better. Almost twice as many women as men havemajor
depression. During puberty hormonal change, menstruate, pregnancy, miscarriage,
andmenopause may increase the risk of a women. Men with major depression do not
look for help nor talk about their problem to anyone (“What are the signs of
major depression of men?”).
Postpartum
depression is a type of depression that women normally face. The baby blues are
normal but if your symptoms do not go away after a few weeks or get worse, you
may have postpartum depression. (Smith).Postpartum Depression is a mood
disorder that begins right after childbirth and known to last up to six weeks
or more (“Postpartum Depression”). Mood swings, crying jags, sadness, insomnia
and irritability than last a long time are signs of postpartum depression.
Postpartum depression can interfere with you being able to take care of your
child. You should not ignore the symptoms of postpartum depression, they are
very serious. Some of the causes are Hormonal changes, Physical changes and
stress. Hormonal changes is a drop, a
big drop, in estrogen and progesterone hormone levels and the changes in blood
pressure, immune system functioning and metabolism that new mothers experience
can bring on postpartum depression. Physical changes is when a women deals with
physical pain from the delivery or the difficulty of losing the baby weight,
leaving you insecure about your physical and
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sexual attractions.
Caring for your newborn can be very stressful and have you feeling overwhelmed
about your ability to properly care for your baby (Smith).
Postpartum
depression is normally divided onto two types: early onset and late onset. An
early onset is similar to the “blues” a mild brief experience during the first
days or weeksafter birth. 70% of mother will experience the “baby blues”.This
time is usually the time where extra sensitivity and symptoms including
tearfulness, irritability, and mood changes beginningthree to five days after
childbirth (“Postpartum Depression”).
(“IHMC Cmap Tools”)
Postpartum psychosis
may lead to life – threatening thoughts or behaviors and requires immediate
treatments (“Postpartum Depression”). If you have Postpartum depression, taking
care of yourself is the best thing you can do. The more you care for your
mental and physical well-being, the better you’ll feel. Not skimping on sleep,
set aside quality, getting out in the
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sunshine and ease back
into exercise are all ways you can help yourself treat postpartum Depression. Leaning
on others for help and support by making your relationship a priority, not
keeping your feelings to yourself, and joining a group for new mothers.If self-
help and the help from family and friends do not work, you may want to consider
professional treatment. Professional treatments are Individual therapy or
marriage counseling, Hormone therapy andantidepressants (Smith, Saisan, and
Segal). Untreated, postpartum depression may last formonths or longer (“Postpartum
Depression”).
Changes in your life that cause you to become sad and
unhappy or sometime depress can led to Situational Depression. Situational
Depression is a short-term of depression that is cause after various traumata
changes in your normal life (“What is Situational depression”). Situational
depression is common and can happen to anyone – 10 percent of adults and up to
30 percent of adolescent experience Situational depression at some point in
life. Men and Women are affected equally. Stress is known as the most common
cause of Situational depression. People with Situational depression react to
the situation fearful, sad, or even hopeless (“When Life Gets You Down; Coping
with Situational depression”). Divorce, retirement, surviving a hurricane or
other major disaster, surviving a serious accident, experiencing an illness,
job lose and the death of a family member, loved one, or close friend can cause
Situational depression(“What is Situational Depression”). Children and
teenagers are more likely to show behavioral symptoms as fighting or skipping
school. Feeling nervous, having body symptoms such as headache, stomachache, or
heart palpitations, missing work or social activities, changes in sleeping or
eating habits, feeling tired, and abusing alcohol or drugs are also behavior
symptoms of children and teenagers (“What are the symptoms of Situational
Depression”). Doctors refer to the condition as adjustment
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disorder instead of
true depression. Someone with Situational depression may have symptoms that are
more or less noticeable than someone with clinical depression. Within roughly
ninety day following the event or situation that cause the condition is when
most people with Situational depression will develop symptoms (“What is
Situational Depression”).“Situational could lead to Major depression or simply
be a period of grief “, explains Kathleen Franco, MD, professor of medicine and
associate dean of admissions and student affairs at Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine in Ohio. “If
emotional and behavioral symptoms reduce normal functioning in social or
occupational arenas, it should be treated.” Situational depression
and other types of depression are a common problem today, notes James C.
Overholser, PhD, professor of psychology at Case Western Reserve University in
Cleveland. “Many people are struggling with social isolation, financial
limitations, or chronic health problems,” says Dr. Overholser. “A
psychologist is much more likely to view depression as a reaction to negative
life events. Many people can overcome their depression by making changes in
their attitudes, their daily behaviors, and their interpersonal functioning”
(“When Life Gets You Down; Coping with Situational Depression”). Taking certain
steps to limit the effects of the mild cases of Situational depression will
disappear on their own. Potentially helpful steps include getting regular
exercise, eating a nutritionally well-balanced diet, develop regular sleeping
habits, discussion your situation withloved ones or close friends by joining a
formal support group and participate in hobby or other pleasing events or
leisure. When you are overwhelmed by depression symptoms for a long time,
Situational depression usually goes away once you have adapted to your new
situation. If your symptoms seriously disrupt your life and or last extended
periods of time, youwill likely need to seek the help of a trained
psychotherapist. Having severe Situational
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depressionsymptoms,
your doctor may choose to treat your condition with medications such as antidepressants
or anti-anxiety drugs. In more serious cases, a combination treatment of psychotherapyand
antidepressant medications may be required. (“Different Treatment Approaches”).Family
therapy maybe the important thing for children and teenagers (“What are the
symptoms of Situational Depression”). If situational depression goes untreated,
it coulddevelop into major depression (“When Life Gets You Down; Coping with
Situational
Depression”).
When
someone is feeling happy one minute and sad a few minutes late which is usually
called mood swing, they maybe are experiencingBipolar depression. A person with
Bipolar disorder is called manic/bipolar depression. The person tends to have
mood swings that range from extremes of high energy with and “up” mood to low
“depressive” period. “Manic” describes an increasingly restless, energetic,
talkative, reckless, powerful, euphoric period (“Bipolar Depression”). One
percent of the population – about 2 million American adults – suffer from this
serious but treatable disorder. Men tend to develop bipolar disorder earlier in
life (between ages 16 to 25) but women have higher rates over all. About 50
perent of patients with bipolar illness have a family history of the disorder
(Goldberg, 103). The cause of bipolar disorder aren’t completely understood,
but if often appears to be hereditary. The first manic or depressive episode of
bipolar disorder usually occurs in the teenage years of early adulthood. During
a manic episode, a person might impulsive quit a job, charge up huge amounts on
credit cards, or feel rested after two hours of sleep. During a depressive
episode, the same person might be too tired to get out of bed, and full of
self-loathing and hopelessness over being unemployed
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and in debt. The look
of Bipolar disorder can look different in different people. The symptoms vary
widely in their pattern, severity, and frequency. Some people are more prone to
either manic or depression, while others alternate equally between the two
types of episodes. Some people have frequent mood disruptions, while others
experience only a few over a lifetime. There are four types of mood episodes of
bipolar disorder: mania, hypomania, depression, and mixed episodes. Each type
of bipolar disorder mood episode has unique set of symptoms (Smith,Saisan, and
Segal).
Mania
is when someone experience the same mood state several time for weeks, months,
or even years at a time before finally having the opposite mood. Hypomania is a
less serve form of Mania. Hypomania is mood that many do not see as a problem.
It actually may feel pretty good. You have a greater sense of well- being and
productively. Depression is when a person hear things that are not true. They
may hold onto false beliefs and cannot be swayed from them. Mixed features
refers to the presence of high and low symptoms occurring at the same time or
as part of a single episode in people experiencing an episode of mania or
depression (‘Bipolar Depression’). Lithium and the anticonvulsants lamotrigine
and valproate are mood stablizers that
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are sometimes used “
off label “ as treatments for Bipolar depression, although none of these has
been established as an FDA – approved first-time treatment for bipolar
depression. For many years, psychiatrists have traditionally added an
antidepressant to a mood stabilizer if a mood stabilizer alone is ineffective,
research shows that antidepressants are often different effective for bipolar
depression. A mood- stabilizing medication works on improving social
inferactions, mood, and behavior and is recommended for both treatment and
prevention of bipolar mood states that swing from the lows of depression to the
highs of hypomia or manic. Acoording to the Amercian Psychiatric Association
(APA), lithium lamotrigine valproate, carbamazepine, and most atypical
antipsychote medications are approved by the FDA for treating one or more phase
of bipolar disorder. Some patient with bipolar disorder, a mood stabilizer may
be all that is needed to modulate the depression mood. However in bipolar
patients who do not respond to one mood stabilizer, another mood stabilizer or
an atypical antipsychotic is sometimes added to the treatment regimen
(Goldberg, 1). While antidepressants are effective treatment for people withmajor
depressive (unipolar) disorder, antidepressants they are not generally should
not be given alone to someone with bipolar disorder, there is a risk the drug
might ignite a manic episode in some patients , knowimg this, most doctors may
avoid using antidepressants as monotherapyfor bipolar depression (Goldberg,1).
A very large randomized study sponsored by the National Instiute of Mental
Health (NIMH) called the Systematic Treatment Enhancement Porogram for Bioplar
Disorder (STEP-BD) showed that mood stabilizer alone produced a stable
improvement only in about 1 in 4 people with bipolar depression, and
surprisingly, adding an antidepressant to the mood stabilizer did not increase
the cances for improvement. The STEP-BD study underscored the need to find
treatment other than mood stabilizers or antidepressants for
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bipolar depression. Studies
have shown that some antipsychotic drugs are in themselves effective treatments
for bipolar depression. Seroquel and Seroguel XR are used for the treatment of
depressive episode associated with bipolar disorder is Symbyax, a combination
medication of the atypical antipsychotic zyprexa (olanzapine) and the selective
serotonin reuptake inhibitior. (SSRF), Prozac (Fluoxetine), and atidepresant.
The atypical antipsychotic Latuda (luraisidonet) is FDA – approved for use
alone or with lithium or valproate for treating bipolar depression. These thres
drugs are currently the only FDA-aprroved treatments for bipolar
depression.Thesemedicatios work by affecting brain receptors involved in mood
and behavior, and helping to restore the balance of certsin not natural
chemicals in the brain. Central Nervous system (CNS) Depressants, which
included the benzodiazepiazepines, act on neurotransmitters to show down normal
brain function. CNS depressants are commonly used to treat anxiety and sleep,
disorders and may be an effective is some bipolar patients with acute mania
(Goldberg, 2). American Ppsychiatric Association guideline suggest the ECT is a
reasonable alternative in those patients who may have suicidal idention or
psychosis. In additional , ECT may benefit women who are suffer with severe
bipoloar depression or mania. Along with medications for bipolar depression,
patients may benefits for ongoing psychotherapy. This one-on-one theraphy
combines interpersonal psychotherapy with behavioral technique to help patients
learn how to diminish interpersonal probles, stay on their medications, and
nonmalize their lifestyle habits. The STEP-BD study mentioned earlier found
that in additional to medications, adding a structuved psychotherapy – such as
cognitive behavior therapy – can speed up treatment respong in bipolar
depression by as much 1509 (Goldberg,3).
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Major depression, Postpartum depression, Situational
depression and Bipolar disorder are
all treatable
depression. Male and Female may experience depression a little different from
each other. Even though depression a common illness, it
can get worst without treatment. If you
are facing or know someone who is facing depression or any of the typres above,
get help. There are so many things that cause depression and even more affects
that depression has on people but treatments can help overcome all types
of depression.
Works
Cited
