What are the symptoms of depression and how is it treated?
Depression, a serious but treatable mental illness, manifests itself with physical, mental and emotional symptoms. The most distinctive feature of depression is decreased pleasure and bad mood. A person who is depressed is pessimistic, hopeless and emotionally unhappy. He constantly feels lonely and sad. In a person whose interest in his environment decreases, feelings such as restlessness and boredom come to the fore. These emotional states, which become so severe that they interfere with daily life, last for months and begin to negatively affect the person’s mental activities as well as his general health.
Causes of Depression
The causes of depression cannot be fully explained scientifically. Although they are clearly distinguished from each other, the causes of depression are examined in 3 main groups: psychosocial, genetic and biological.
Psycho-Social Reasons: People who are constantly exposed to stress in daily life are more prone to depression. Loss of parents at a young age, exposure to violence, and traumas increase the likelihood of depression in later ages. Again, failure to meet basic needs such as being loved, belonging, trust, and success at a young age can lead to psychological injuries and therefore depression in the future.
Genetic Causes: Research on depression has revealed that there is a genetic predisposition to the disease. The prevalence of depression in first-degree relatives of patients with severe depression is quite high. Another reason for this situation may be that those with psychological disorders reflect their situation on their family life.
Biological Causes: Studies on depression have found that some hormones in the brain, such as norepinephrine and serotonin, are related to depression.
Depression Symptoms
- Extreme fatigue, slowing down in daily activities due to reluctance, lack of enjoyment of life
- Avoiding sharing your problems and avoiding social relationships, social phobia
- Loss of sexual desire
- Weight loss due to loss of appetite or weight gain due to tendency to overeat
- Excessive desire to sleep and difficulty waking up in the morning or insomnia and difficulty falling asleep
- Forgetfulness, distraction
- Stomach and intestinal problems, neck, back, head and joint pains
- Panic attack
- Feeling worthless, helplessness and guilt, anxiety disorder
- Thinking about death or suicide, severe sadness and anxiety disorder
Depression Treatment
Depression, which is a serious problem that needs to be treated, can cause the individual to acquire harmful habits such as alcohol and drugs or to harm himself if left untreated. In the treatment of depression, a holistic approach method is used in which medication and psychotherapy are used together. Depression medications, known as anti-depressants, are given to the patient in appropriate dosages by a doctor specialized in psychiatry. It is important to use antidepressants regularly, which usually start to show their effects after 2-3 weeks. The aim of psychotherapy combined with medication is for the patient to move away from negative thoughts and behaviors and become more active. In addition to these practices, the hypnosis method is also among the ways to get rid of depression.
