Depression happens to almost everyone at one time or the other. While it might prove difficult to navigate yourself or watch someone close to you struggle with the condition, there are mechanisms in place to cope and get over depressive disorders. I am getting over depression, tips, and tricks.
Is Depression Genetic?
More often than not, you might have witnessed a loved one or family member going through feelings of severe despondency and dejection. That might sometimes lead to self-doubt, low self-esteem, and general loss of interest in anything and anyone around you. Do not confuse this with stress, which is simply a normal human reaction that happens to everyone. The human body is designed to experience stress and react to it. When you experience changes or challenges, your body produces physical and mental responses. That’s stress. Stress responses help your body adjust to new situations.
While it can be difficult having someone close to you, a family member in this instance, go through depression, watching them degrade mentally and acting usual, it does not necessarily follow that you will also suffer from such a condition.
Medically, a mental health disorder characterized by persistently depressed mood or loss of interest in activities, causing significant impairment in daily life, is a major depressive disorder known as clinical depression.
Possible causes include a combination of biological, psychological, and social sources of distress. Increasingly, research suggests that these factors may cause changes in brain function, including the altered activity of specific neural circuits in the brain.
While this form of depression is most likely hereditary as a person related to someone who once suffered from a depressive disorder has a five percent probability of suffering from depression. However, this is not always the case in all instances.
According to the Wexner Medical Centre, Columbus; Depression is a common condition that can affect people from any background in any walk of life, anywhere in the world. You don’t necessarily have to be related to someone suffering from depression to go through depressive disorder. While genetic and family history is you cannot rule out one of the factors contributing to depression, other physical and environmental factors
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A comprehensive read of the research made by Stanford Medicine on Genetic and Brain function shows that at least 10% of people in the United States will at some point in their lives experience some major depressive disorder. The paper also posits that two times as many women as men do experience significant depression.
Research Analysis
Worldwide research has shown that depression is a common illness, with an estimated 3.8% of the population affected, including 5.0% among adults and 5.7% among adults older than 60 years.
Approximately 280 million people in the world have depression or one form of anxiety disorder. Depression is different from usual mood fluctuations and short-lived emotional responses to challenges in everyday life. Especially when recurrent and with moderate or severe intensity, depression may become a painful health condition. It can cause the affected person to suffer greatly and function poorly at work, at school, and in the family. At its worst, depression can lead to suicide. Over 700 000 people die due to suicide every year. Suicide is the fourth leading cause of death in 15-29-year-olds, according to online health-line researches.
Although there are known, effective treatments for mental disorders, more than 75% of people in low- and middle-income countries receive no treatment. Barriers to effective care include a lack of resources, lack of trained healthcare providers, and social stigma associated with mental disorders. In countries of all income levels, people who experience depression are often not correctly diagnosed. Others who do not have the condition are too often misdiagnosed and prescribed antidepressants by untrained health care practitioners.
Causes of Depression
Genetic Link
There are a series of factors contributing to the development of the depressive disorder. Aspects include genes, family history, Life occurrences and trauma, chronic stress, specific brain activities, illnesses, and medications. These forces interact to bring about or maintain an episode of depression for a particular person as our genes and environment interact in complex ways to give rise to our experiences.
While your genetic makeup can make you more likely to experience depression, it does not guarantee that you will. It is also quite possible to find out that you are depressed and not pinpoint the environmental factor that triggered such depression. Depression is a complex medical illness, as several factors can come together to lead someone down its rabbit hole.
Research has shown that while genetic link constitutes factors contributing to depression in about 40% of patients, Environmental and other factors make up about 60% of forces contributing to depression.
Other contributory Factors
Environmental factors like living with or watching a person suffering from chronic depression might make someone susceptible to the illness. As such circumstance affects the way the person pictures life and behaves under certain conditions. A person who watched his parent or friends spend days in bed without associating with anyone might think it is customary to follow suit.
Gender also plays a contributory role to depression as research has shown that women tend to go through chronic depression than men.
Serotonin Level
Serotonin, medically known as the “happy” or “feels good” chemical, has been clinically proven to be a critical link that allows genetic connections and communication between brain neurons.
An imbalance in serotonin level can lead to anxiety or mood disorder and, in some cases, stress, panic attacks, compulsive-obsessive disorder, depression.
Finding a Cure to Depressive Disorder
In most cases, it is advisable to seek professional help from medical professionals who specialize in treating depression and other forms of anxiety disorder.
Experts advise people who suspect that they or a loved one are suffering from depression to seek professional help to be correctly diagnosed and treated. In particular, anyone with suicidal thoughts, experiencing psychosis, or whose safety might otherwise be compromised is urged to get help immediately.
Treatments vary based on factors ranging from the depression type, symptoms and severity, and individual preference. The most common forms of treatments are:
- Short-term talk therapy focused specifically on reducing depressive symptoms.
- Medications.
- It stimulates specific parts of the brain to alter the functional brain circuits.
Whether a person is selecting a therapist or therapeutic approach or trying different medications, it can take time to find the right fit. Even then, as with drugs, results aren’t instantaneous. For example, it generally takes at least a couple of weeks before antidepressants begin to work.
Conclusion and Takeaway
It is wise to know that not all treatments work for all. If one treatment is not adequate for a particular person, several alternatives likely would be. The most important thing if you start to experience symptoms of depression is to take them seriously and talk with a doctor or mental health professional about the signs and tell them how you feel.
Research has proven that no one gene puts someone at risk of depression. Depression is a complex illness that happens as a result of a combination of factors and experiences. So there is no point worrying whether a person is susceptible to depression because a family member has experienced the same.
Be that as it may, there are several treatments available to those experiencing symptoms of depressive disorder. The advice is to seek medical help in time. You can place a call through to an available professional health line or walk into a professional’s office to get help.
