Depression Overview

Throughout the course of our lives, we all experience episodes of stress, unhappiness, sadness, or grief. Often, when a loved one dies or we suffer a personal tragedy or difficulty such as divorce, loss of a job, or death of a loved one, we may feel depressed (some people call this "the blues"). Most of us are able to cope with these and other types of stressful events.

Over a period of days or weeks, the majority of us are able to return to our normal activities. But when these feelings of sadness and other symptoms make it hard for us to get through the day, and when the symptoms last for more than a couple of weeks, we may have what is called "clinical depression." The term clinical depression is usually used to distinguish the "true" illness of depression from less difficult sadness or the blues.

Clinical depression is not just grief or feeling sad. It is an illness that can challenge your ability to perform even routine daily activities. At its worst, depression may lead you to contemplate, attempt, or commit suicide. Depression represents a burden for both you and your family. Sometimes that burden can seem overwhelming.

There are several different types of depression (mood disorders that include depressive symptoms):

• Major depression is a change in mood that lasts for weeks or months. It is one of the most severe types of depression. It usually involves a low or irritable mood and/or a loss of interest or pleasure in usual activities. It interferes with one's normal functioning and often include physical symptoms. A person may experience only one episode of major depression, but often there are repeated episodes over an individual's lifetime.
• Dysthymia is less severe than major depression but usually goes on for a longer period, often several years. There are usually periods of feeling fairly normal between episodes of low mood. The symptoms usually do not completely disrupt one's normal activities.
• Bipolar disorder involves episodes of depression, usually severe, alternating with episodes of extreme elation called mania. This condition is sometimes called by its older name, manic depression. The depression that is associated with bipolar disorder is often referred to as bipolar depression. When depression is not associated with bipolar disorder, it is called unipolar depression.
• Seasonal depression, which medical professionals call seasonal affective disorder, or SAD, is depression that occurs only at a certain time of the year, usually winter, when the number of daylight hours is lower. It is sometimes called "winter blues." Although it is predictable, it can be very severe.
• Psychotic depression refers to the situation when depression and hallucinations or delusions are experienced at the same time (co-occur). This may be the result of depression that becomes so severe that it results in the sufferer losing touch with reality. Individuals that primarily suffer from a loss of touch with reality (for example, schizophrenia) are thought to suffer from an imbalance of dopamine activity in the brain and to be at risk of subsequently becoming depressed.

Adjustment disorder is distress that occurs in relation to a stressful life event. It is usually an isolated reaction that resolves when the stress passes. Although it may be accompanied by a depressed mood, it is not considered a depressive disorder.

Some people believe that depression is "normal" in people who are elderly, have other health problems, have setbacks or other tragedies, or have bad life situations. On the contrary, clinical depression is always abnormal and always requires attention from a medical or mental-health professional. The good news is that depression can be diagnosed and treated effectively in most people. The biggest barriers to overcoming depression are recognition of the condition and seeking appropriate treatment.

Depression Facts/Statistics/Survey

A third indicated that they had lost one or more extended family members. Just under half of those interviewed admitted to having entertained thoughts about ending their life.

Mental health and physical well- being are deeply interwoven, affecting the functioning of the individual and his/ her place in society. In traditional societies, cultural influences often mean that the very idea of admitting to a psychological problem is anathema. A person suffering from a bipolar disorder or schizophrenia would more likely be dubbed as insane than as someone with a treatable mental disorder. Besides, mental illness is often stigmatised as bringing shame.

Culture certainly impacts how individuals from a given society perceive, communicate and manifest their symptoms; how they cope with the illness; how their family and community supports the individual; and finally how willing the individual is to seeking treatment. Source? Or is this an opinion from the writer? If so it should be clear that this is an opinion! Cultures also vary with respect to the meaning they impart to illness, their way of making sense of the subjective experience of illness and distress ( Kleinman, 1988). The meaning of an illness refers to deep- seated attitudes and beliefs a culture holds about whether an illness is “ real” or “ imagined,” whether it is of the body or the mind ( or both), whether it warrants sympathy, how much stigma surrounds it, what might cause it, and what type of person might succumb to it. Cultural meanings of illness have real consequences in terms of whether people are motivated to seek treatment, how they cope with their symptoms, how supportive their families and communities are, where they seek help ( mental health specialist, primary care provider, clergy, and/ or traditional healer), the pathways they take to get services, and how well they fare in treatment. The consequences can be grave - extreme distress, disability, and possibly, suicide - when people with severe mental illness do not receive appropriate treatment. Mental Health: Culture, Race, and Ethnicity ( supplement August 2001) Publications and Reports of the Surgeon General.

In Kashmir, the prolonged exposure to stress that the insecure situation has engendered means that the coping mechanism of individuals is impaired or dysfunctional. This raises the issue of structural support for the community. The substantial need for psychological and psychiatric support can only be addressed through a strong community- based mental health system. Regretfully, though this type of service is clearly advocated in the Indian Mental Health Program, in Kashmir, community psychosocial services are absent and psychiatric services outside Srinagar remain almost non- existent.

Before the conflict in Kashmir erupted on to the main stage in the late 1980s, there was little awareness in the state of what mental health constituted or how this could impact on the individual’s physical well- being. A good pointer would be the number of patients registered in the outpatient department of the only government psychiatric hospital in Srinagar. While before 1989, there were only a few hundred patients registered with the department, since the 1990s, this number has risen to several thousands.