Our World On: Depression

Welcome back guys! I'm glad that people have been enjoying my blog so far, even if it was only the introduction. I really appreciate that people are interested in my topic.

To start off my first disorder blog, I'm going to talk about depression. I chose to talk about depression first because this topic means a lot to me, I know many people that have had experiences with depression and I, myself, have had some. As some people may know, depression is increasing in our society today. The statistics say that about 5-15% of our population has developed a major depression in their life-times. 

"Depression is a prison where you are both the suffering prisoner and the cruel jailer" ~Dorothy Rowe

To begin this blog, I will be talking about: the definition, causes, symptoms, personal experiences and treatments. In my opinion depression is what happens when someone feels stuck, doesn't know what to do, feels like they're empty inside, rarely show any emotion, have trouble thinking, are upset, etc. 

There is something in the body that is called serotonin that is also the happiness hormone, when a person becomes sad, the serotonin goes down. In that case, when a person is depressed, it means they're sad, which means the serotonin diminishes.

I have heard that most of the causes of depression are caused by either a loss of a loved one, genetics, over thinking, bullying stress, when they don't feel like they are good enough for themselves and for other people.

On most websites, they say that the symptoms of depression are: feelings of hopelessness/helplessness, lost of interest, changes in appetite, changes in the sleep pattern, reckless behavior, etc. In my opinion, I see these with people that I know that have depression or that had depression. I know many people who have this disorder and the symptoms are very noticeable. For example, one of my friends won't be very motivated to do anything a lot of the time, she won't eat like she did before, she'll look upset and her sleep pattern is off and finally she'll have a lot of trouble thinking plus a lot of over thinking. 

There are not a lot of treatments for this disorder, there's only a few but that's okay because there is something to help this. I heard from a lot of people that antidepressants are the kind of medication that help with the symptoms. An antidepressant is a medication that helps the serotonin balance itself out so that the mood can be improved. 

When talking about depression, a lot of people don't go asking for help. Instead, they do the opposite and think suicidal. I think when people are depressed, the first thing they think of is "no one cares, I'll just help myself on my own terms" and they go straight to suicide. I know a couple of people that have self-harmed because they didn't know what else to do. I can give you a couple ways to help:
-get some happy music and sing along;
-work out more;
-tell them to see a counselor, they are there too listen;
-etc.

"Maybe you have to know the darkness before you can appreciate the light" ~Madeline L'Engle 

There is always a way to help people, you just have to do your research, think hard and set your mind to it. I hope this blog helped. I will be back soon with my second disorder blog: Anxiety. Please comment if you want me too change anything. I am sorry if this blog looks really upsetting, but the subject is. I hope too see more people reading and following! 

Until next time...

Sources:
1. http://www.webmd.com/depression/guide/causes-depression
2. http://www.helpguide.org/articles/depression/depression-signs-and-symptoms.htm
3. Google Images
4. My brain
5. Things I've learned about in my life-time.