What exactly causes depression and why do a lot of people suffer from this mental ailment? A lot of people live in a life that is full of stress and sometimes, they experience difficulty in handling these stresses. Situations in one’s life can cause depression, but it is not the only one that causes this problem.
What Can Cause Depression?
- Some people are said to get their depression from their parents, and this may be true since depression can be hereditary. While it is not assured that just because a parent or a relative suffered from depression, you will too, chances are high that you might get depression due to your genes.
- Certain personalities are also prone to getting depression. People who have low self-esteem, who are ultra-dependent on other people, who are pessimistic or dwell too much on negative thoughts, have a superiority complex, or are worriers often prone to getting depression.
- People who are also into substance abuse can become depressed or can have clinical depression.
- Medical conditions, medications, and even deficiencies in your diet can cause depression as well. People who find out that they have serious medical conditions can fall into a state of depression. People on certain medications can experience the same thing. Lack of certain nutrients in your body can push your psyche into depression too.
Clinical Causes: Reasons for major depression also called as clinical depression are alcoholism, migraine headache, hyperactive nature, physiological diseases, ailments like peptic ulcer and heredity.
Chronic Depression: This type of depression causes due to stressed life, chronic diseases, medicine consumption, work related issues and relationship problems like break-up, loss of social network.
Depression in Teenagers:Teenage depression causes due to sexual abuse, loss of dear ones, and physical disorders. Other possible reasons are unhealthy relationship with parents, impractical expectations and decreased self esteem.
Symptoms of Depression
How can a person tell if he or she is having a bout of depression? Aside from the constant feeling of being down or sadness and hopelessness that may pervade a person’s mind, there are other symptoms that can point to depression. Here are some of them:
- Some people say they are depressed when they are feeling down for a day but true depression is actually a condition that lasts for days, weeks, months, and even years. Oftentimes, when a person is truly depressed, he might find himself unable to perform daily tasks like go to work, take care of family matters, and even eat.
- Some of the other symptoms include feelings of irritability or agitation, loss of energy or constantly feeling tired, feelings that revolve around thoughts of inadequacy and incompetence, and the general feeling of sadness.
- You can also find yourself losing interest in the things you used to enjoy doing, losing your appetite for everything including the foods you used to love to eat, and the need to just cry your eyes out. You may also find that you welcome thoughts of suicide.
- Physical signs of depression include loss of weight or increase in weight, sleeplessness, and the need to find comfort in food or to continuously eat.
- Signs of clinical or major depression are restlessness, loss of self image, irritation, sudden interest loss in daily activities, and difficulty in taking decisions.
- Signs of dysthymia are constant feeling of sadness, over or little sleeping, insomnia, guilty feeling, difficulty in concentrating at particular problem.
- Signs of depression in adolescence are severe anger and irritation, increase in sleeping hours, absentism in school, death thoughts. Most of the depressed child symptoms are similar to adults while few differ.
Depression Prevention
How can one prevent going into a depressive state? Is there something you can do to avoid sinking into a state that leaves you feeling hopeless and sad for no particular reason? Here are some preventive measures you can try. . .
- When you are stressed out from work, from problems at home, and from the other parts of your life that may be problematic, it would be easy to slip into a depressive state. You can avoid depression from these things if you practice some of the well-known relaxation techniques that people often use. Yoga, meditation, and even acupuncture can help release some of the stress you are feeling.
- Exercising can also help you prevent getting depressed. Exercise releases endorphins into your system which then makes you feel good about yourself. When you feel good about yourself, you won’t be feeling depressed.
- Eating right and getting enough rest can also help you avoid some of the more common types of depression. Some depressions are brought about by lack of certain nutrients in your body. Eating a well-balanced meal should take care of that problem and help you avoid depression.
- To prevent depression; always think positive, take adequate sleep and keep yourself occupied. Drinking plenty of water every day and adopt healthy eating habits. Consume fresh vegetables and increase the intake of essential minerals and vitamins. Flushing out toxins from the body is necessary for reducing risk of getting depression. Get yourself involved in social activities, listen music and join dance class and create interest in some kind of hobbies. Other ways for depression prevention are reducing cortisol levels, and maintain level of thyroid and sugar normal.
Depression Home Remedies
What can you do to help ease yourself out of depression even from the comforts of your own home? How can you treat yourself and get yourself out of your depressive state without having to go see a doctor? With the help of family and friends, you can follow some of these home remedies to help you with some of the most basic problems with depression:
- One of the home remedies you can try to treat depression with is the remedy that uses Ginkgo Biloba and St. John’s Wort herbs. These are mood-altering herbs that can be taken by those who are feeling depressed.
- Another herbal home remedy used for treating depression is the mixture of rosemary leaves, some mild soap, and some chlorine in a warm foot bath. Simply soak your feet in this warm footbath for at least 20 minutes then massage your softened feet afterwards to help you relax.
- Some teas are good at getting you to calm yourself and this includes lavender tea. Drink a cup of warm lavender tea at least three times in one day to calm your nerves and yourself. Licorice tea is also a good choice for this problem since it is said to ease a depressed mind.
- A simple remedy to help cure depression can be found in a single apple that is eaten with some milk and some honey.
- To treat depression, is the intake of boiled water with rose petals and sugar added to it or having fresh amla juice three times in a day. Neutral immersion bath and intake of dried asparagus root powder is effective in curing depressed person by uplifting his mood.
- Consuming warm with added cardamom and sugar or having soy milk mixed with oatmeal, almonds, dried nuts and honey helps in curing depression.
Depression Diet and Food
When you want to avoid depression with the help of a proper diet, here are some suggestions that may prove useful.
- A diet that is high in nutrients will help your body feel well and will help with healing any problems you might have physically. When you fall ill, you can feel depressed about it. Eating well and eating a balanced diet that has all the nutrients you need will help you avoid illnesses and the probable depression you might feel if you were to get sick.
- Eat foods that are full of anti-oxidants to help your brain function at its best. Foods that have high anti-oxidant content and help the brain avoid damage from free radicals include foods that are high in vitamin A, vitamin C, and vitamin E.
- Vitamin A foods include green leafy vegetables, carrots, peaches, cantaloupes, sweet potatoes, and pumpkins. Vitamin C rich foods include fruits like oranges, kiwi, and strawberries and vegetables like potatoes, broccoli and peppers. Vitamin E can be easily found in nuts, seeds and wheat germ.
- Eat foods that can boost your alertness like healthy protein sources. Included in this list are yogurt, beans and peas, low-fat cheese, soy products, and lean beef. Fish, the white meat of turkey and chicken, and milk are also good sources for protein.
- Food to relieve depression must be low in sugar content as this increases level of blood sugar and later brings down mood. Reduce consumption of caffeine, its products and alcohol as its intake initially uplifts the mood which after a short period of time subsides and can also result in anxiety and mood swings. High intake of Vitamin B6 and magnesium is recommended diet for depression as mood enhancer’s neuro-transmitters i.e. serotonin and dopamine are produced.