DEALING WITH NEGATIVE EMOTIONS (3)

Depression

It’s another Monday and we continue with our weekly series for the month. In the first post, we introduced the series, dealing with negative emotions and I did a broad overview by way of introduction to emotions and their classification. In the last Monday post, we talked about anger and how it can be best managed. If you read that post, I would like to know what stood out for you from the various takeaway points there.

In this post, our focus is on a negative feeling so bad it has now been classified as an illness. It is the second feeling I would talk about and is often borne out of the first one we had talked about, anger. It is a serious threat to social and emotional existence and the quicker people that are affected by it learn to deal with it, the better it would be for everyone.

In this post, you would be reading about depression. It’s not a strange word, is it? You must have heard of it, maybe even felt it somewhat, which is becoming increasingly normal today. One thing you would agree with though; is that the place of depression is never a good place to be. This post should walk you through the basics, helping you understand what depression is, how to identify it and how to deal with it.

A 27-year-old man was found dead in his apartment in the United States after no one heard from him for four days and he didn’t pick up his phone when he was called, nor did he return the calls. His friends said he had been muttering continuously about how the end of the world had come and how humanity was going to be wiped out. Nobody paid him any serious attention when he said he had to escape this coming annihilation and that the others would be sorry.

They didn’t notice his growing withdrawal since the nationwide lockdown was lifted, but now that he was dead, his suicide note made more sense to them.

Stories like these are becoming commonplace around the world, especially in advanced countries; suicide is the 4^th leading cause of death in the world today, and a strong cause of suicide and thoughts of death is depression, but what is depression?

Depression, according to Psychiatry.org is a common and serious medical illness that negatively affects how you feel, the way you think and how you act. 

Depression Statistics from Multiple Sources

1. About 300 million people (5% of the earth's population) are suffering from at least one form of depression right now
2. Depression is a leading cause of over 800,000 deaths annually to suicide
3. More women are affected by depression than men
4. The average age of onset of depression is 32 years
5. Within the last year, about 16 million Americans reported at least one major case of depression
6. One out of eight adolescents have major depression
7. Fifty to 75 per cent of eating disorder patients will have episodes of depression.
8. Rates of depression by race or ethnicity demonstrate that 6.4 per cent of white Americans are diagnosed with depression as compared to 7.2 per cent of Hispanics and 4.2 per cent of African Americans

The statistics above tend to present a gloomy situation and a bleak look at the future, especially as the world is still creeping out of the effects of the coronavirus pandemic, which is expected to last globally till 2050.

People even feel entitled to be afraid, get angry and eventually get depressed. In a number of Western countries, including the United States, it is common to have people get depressed and eventually get into a perceived state of hopelessness and helplessness because they cannot understand how they feel and haven’t found a way to understand their depressed state or deal with it. It has not been helped by the enlisting of the services of professed therapists, a number of which eventually suffer from depression themselves.

While there are those who believe that depression is usually a phase and some are lucky if they cross it while others are not if they don’t, let me already state that depression is totally curable and that people who weren’t able to break out of that state just didn’t get the cure on time.

We’d get around to the way to deal with depression towards the end of the post, but let us dispel a few myths that exist around depression.

Myth #1
Depression is Random

Depression isn’t random at all. It is almost exclusively a product of the effect of the person’s response to accumulated negative events that the person hasn’t learned to control. Most people who suffer from depression can always trace it to at least one event that planted the seed, and one event that triggered the feeling.

Myth #2
If it came by itself, it will go by itself

Depression isn’t a phase. If it isn’t dealt with, it would remain and display a tendency to produce toxic effects in the life of the affected person. Even when it looks like it has gone, if it wasn’t dealt with, it would just hang around and can produce a compound effect on the person later in the future.

Myth #3
I can’t control it if I feel depressed

It might be difficult, but you can control how you react to the feeling of depression. If you have a strong character, it is easier to detect the feeling and deal with it. A weak-spirited person, however, would have quite the struggle to make this happen.

Types of Depression

Healthline, in an article on depression, presents that depression may exist in several forms including the following:

1. Major depressive disorder
2. Persistent depressive disorder (dysthymia)
3. Bipolar disorder
4. Seasonal depression
5. Postpartum depression
6. Psychotic depression

Causes of Depression

There are four accepted major causes of depression, according to an article by MedicineNet, and they are:

1. Family history 
2. Illness
3. Substance intake and abuse
4. Personality

Other minor causes could include, but is not restricted to:

1. Poor emotional awareness
2. Significant emotional blow, such as a divorce, loss of a loved one etc.
3. A traumatic experience
4. Emotional abuse, especially in early life
5. Social and financial pressure

You might notice that this list shares similarities with the common anger triggers. If this is still a surprise, you should probably start this series from the beginning for better clarity.

How Do I Know If I Am Depressed?

As all illnesses have their symptoms, depression is no exception. A number of factors display as symptoms that indicate depression in an individual. Depressed people are typically sad and carry a heavy mood that reflects a lot of loneliness and desolation. This feeling and mood of gloom and emptiness lasts for around two weeks or more, and the affected tends to be easily irritated or nonchalant.

Here are a number of other symptoms that shows that an individual is going through a depression phase:

1. Sudden changes in energy level, including restlessness, fatigue, or a sense of being slowed down
2. Unusual mood swings without any definite reason
3. Loss of enjoyment in your usual interests, including hobbies or spending time with friends and loved ones
4. A tendency to dwell on mistakes of the past and also display apprehension over the future (with uncharacteristic uncertainties about the future).
5. Brain fog, or difficulty concentrating and making decisions
6. Suicidal thoughts
7. Insomnia
8. Loss of appetite
9. Feelings of guilt
10. Withdrawal, and random memory loss

If you display more than half of these at once, there's a high chance you can be classified as clinically depressed and you need help real quick.

How to Overcome Depression

This is probably the most important part of the post, and I'm glad you've followed through. 

There are a number of steps you should take if you find that you are poor at managing your anger. I'd give you seven tips I am sure would help you greatly. You won't learn to apply them all overnight, it could even take years, but consistency and persistence would get you there. 

1. Pray

This might sound awkward and maybe a bit religious, but it is a trick that has worked for me and for countless others around the world. People who engage in healthy spiritual practices are less likely to fall into depression and are more likely to come out of it faster than others who don’t. Christians who read their Bible and pray as a lifestyle have been found to be in a healthier mental state and with less depressive tendencies.

For more on this point, I would recommend the teaching; Joy and your Mental Health by Dr Karis AmehWealth, or you read up on the entire series on the Economy of Joy. That teaching does a lot of good and throws a lot of light on how to live in constant joy.

2. Therapy

Depending on what type of depression you might be going through, you might have to consult with a therapist to help you come through your depressive state.

This might not always be a solid professional, sometimes it just has to be someone who cares enough to listen and is wise enough to help out with suggestive ideas.

3. Avoid Isolation

People who isolate themselves when they feel depressed tend to accelerate the rate at which their depression sets in. Depression works best in the lives of isolated people and if you are depressed, you should avoid staying away from others and get into healthy groups as soon as possible.

Try to hang around people who are more positive and engage in fun activities

4. Medication (Antidepressants)

This should be done after a professional check-up and according to the prescription of your consultant.

5. Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT)

6. Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS)

That’s about that on depression in this post. I would be happy to answer your questions and also look forward to your comments, especially if you have a story for us.

Next week, we will talk about frustration and how you can deal with that. Now, imagine living a life that is free of anger, depression and frustration, wouldn’t that be nice?

Well, till I come your way again, stay smart!