| Clinical depression is a serious, often fatal illness that | | | | is different from that of other people; and it is |
| is so common that it's hard to see. Researchers | | | | possible to discover the same biochemical differences |
| estimate that more or less 20 percent of the | | | | in the brains of animals who seem depressed. On a |
| population meets the criteria for some form of | | | | human level, helping people who are depressed |
| depression at any given time. And that doesn't mean | | | | understand that they have a disease can free them |
| people who are momentarily feeling the blues and will | | | | from much of the guilt and self-blame that |
| be better next week, but people who are having | | | | accompanies depression. They can learn diverse |
| sincere difficulty functioning in life. | | | | ways of reacting to stress and learn to get involved |
| Depression is extraordinarily under-diagnosed. Sundry | | | | more quickly with medication so that the threat of |
| people don't recognize they have it. Often times, | | | | future episodes is greatly reduced. |
| people report they have disturbences sleeping and | | | | But if it's a disease, the question is, how do we catch |
| have other physical symptoms, feel nervous and | | | | it? The onset of depression is almost permanently |
| overcome, have lost determination and hope, feel | | | | connected with a particular incident in a person's life, |
| alone and alienated, are tormented by guilt or | | | | and not necessarily physical contact with another |
| obsessive thoughts, may have thoughts of suicide | | | | depressed person. It is consistently associated with |
| etc., but don't say they're depressed. They just feel | | | | old and upsetting memories, a history of abuse, and |
| that life is miserable and there's nothing they can do | | | | a failure in relationships. |
| about it. They go to their doctors for aches and | | | | Depression looks to be a disease both of the mind |
| pains, sleeplessness, lack of energy and they get a | | | | and of the body, the present and the past. In |
| ineffective prescription or medical procedure or get | | | | psychiatry, there are two sides of thought - those |
| dismissed as hypochondriacs. They may medicate | | | | who want to treat the brain and those who want to |
| themselves with alcohol and drugs. Their families don't | | | | treat the mind. Both sides have impressive motives |
| know how to comfort; neither sympathy nor | | | | for pushing their own theories, but unfortunately the |
| moralizing seems to have any impression. The | | | | patient is caught in the middle. The family doctor, |
| depressed person is stuck in in a wild circle from | | | | supported by the pharmaceutical industry, is likely to |
| which there appears to be no escape. | | | | say, "Take this pill", but when it doesn't work; the |
| While there are numerous things that can't be helped | | | | patient just has another in a long line of failures to |
| within mental health, depression happens to be one | | | | add to his baggage. The mental health professional is |
| thing that can typically be treated effectively and | | | | expected to say, "Let's talk about it", and the patient |
| efficiently. Estimates are that when people are | | | | is likely to feel patronized, misunderstood, because, |
| treated straightaway, 90 percent of them will | | | | how can purely talking cure such terrible pain? |
| recover. New medications are rather helpful, with | | | | It's not an either-or question. Both ways of thinking |
| hardly any side effects. Psychotherapy and | | | | are true. Both points of view have much to |
| medication together have been reliably determined to | | | | contribute to helping the depressed person and their |
| be more helpful than either alone. | | | | family. Both also have a lot to teach people who |
| Depression can be a confusing condition. There is a | | | | simply want to raise emotionally resilient children in a |
| great deal of value in thinking of it as a ordinary | | | | challenging world. |
| physical disease. For one thing, it responds very well | | | | There is a biochemical process in depression, but the |
| to medication. Seventy percent of patients who take | | | | individual has been made susceptible to depression |
| medication for depression state they begin feeling | | | | through life experiences. The current episode may be |
| better. Further supporting the disease model is the | | | | precipitated by an external event, but the event has |
| finding that the brain chemistry of depressed people | | | | set in motion a change in the way the brain functions. |