In the world, almost one in ten people suffer from depression. However, many people do not understand how serious this disease is. This is the most common cause of suicide and one of the main causes of many crimes. Check out how much you know about her. Knowledge of information about depression can save not only you, but possibly your loved ones, whom you can help in a timely manner and thereby prevent trouble.
1. Depression is caused by a life crisis or a difficult situation.
Yes, often its development is associated with a specific event, but this is not always the case. Sometimes depression occurs without a cause or even precedes an objectively positive life span. Often enough against the background of success and significant achievements, people are not able to cope with strong emotions, even positive ones, and this is often accompanied by depressive states. Also, achieving goals and success sometimes brings havoc, which also sometimes pushes people into the abyss of depression.
2. Depression is always associated with sadness.
It is true that sadness usually accompanies depression, but not necessarily. It happens that the patient does not feel emotions at all or feels altogether broken or as if “empty inside”. Often sadness is also replaced by attacks of strong anxiety or unreasonable tension.
3. Depression is a disease of the mind (only).
It is difficult to deny that many symptoms of depression occur in the patient's head. These are all sorts of emotions and mental states, such as sadness, anxiety or tension, but not only. Depression is also accompanied by somatic (physical) symptoms from various systems. These include, for example, constipation, shortness of breath, a feeling of constant fatigue, pain in muscles or joints. By the way, this is why a balanced diet and physical activity during the treatment period are so important.
4. Patients with depression should take medicine for the rest of their lives.
Pharmacological treatment is actually an important part of treatment, and is usually recommended for most patients. But the most important thing in this is psychotherapy and independent work of the patient. In addition, even if medication is needed, it is not for life, but for a while, until the main symptoms disappear. Therefore, it is worth looking for a real specialist in this area, because then you can be sure that if the drugs have been prescribed, this means that they are necessary.
5. Depression affects people with a weak temper.
This myth is especially unfair to patients with depression, because the fear of this kind of stigma prevents them from seeking help. Meanwhile, to speak about a patient suffering from depression, that he is weak psychologically is the same as talking about patients with diabetes or atherosclerosis, that they are physically weak. Depression affects very different people, and even more often strong people suffer from it, so this generalization is a mistake.
6. Depression is a hereditary disease.
The fact that previously there were people in the family who suffered from depression does not mean at all that it will appear in subsequent generations. The risk, however, is increasing, but mainly because of being in a “depressed” environment, and not because of heredity.
There are undoubtedly more myths about depression. But a very important truth: depression is a SERIOUS DISEASE, which, if left untreated, can lead to very unpleasant consequences, both for the patient and for his family. One of them is often suicide, so do not ignore depression.
On this topic:
How to cure depression at home
