Depression

What is depression?

According to English mini dictionary is defined as " A period of unhappiness or low morale which last longer than several weeks".

It is virtually impossible to go through life without having this experience. It is a part of the human existence.
So being depress not the problem but the real problem is, how do we overcome depression?

First, i want to say that the first step to coming out of this state is knowing the cause , medical science will say identifying the etiology.
From research some notable conditions have been proven to be the cause of depression in majority of cases . This causes could be medical or non medical.
Some non medical causes of depression are as follows:

1. Poverty: I would not want to "beat around the bush" studies have shown that those living in poverty tend to become more depressed than others.
   This is true owing to the fact that the poor don't feed well, can't access proper medical care, they don't have access to proper formal education.
   With all this challenges they tend to have a low self esteem and this will eventually lead to them becoming depressed.

2. Racism and Discrimination: This is a very common cause of depression world wide.The discriminated persons tend to have a sense of worthlessness and over time this drives them into depression. This will usually result to a good number of this persons having suicidal thought and some of them may even go ahead to carry out the act.

3. Life experience: Many at times people come down with depression because of the things they've been through ,This experiences could be ; frustration from several job interviews, relationship breakups, bereavement,academic failure, shattered political ambitions, Lost of Job ,to mention but few.

4. Area of residence: Studies have shown that 39% of persons living in an urban area are more prone to becoming depressed as Urban dwellers tend to be involve in a lot of activities in the part of the brain regulating stress and increase stress level is being associated with psychotic disorder in which depression can be one of them.

Some of the medical causes of depression include:

1. Thyroid disease: The thyroid gland is a butterfly shape gland located in the neck and it produces the Thyroid hormone.
   The thyroid hormone is said to be a multifunctional hormone that acts as a neurotransmitter and regulate serotonin level.
   In disease conditions that result in hypothyroidism, depression is usually one of the outcomes.

2. Sleep deprivation can result in irritability as well as depression .Lack of adequate sleep leads to poor functioning of the brain cells and this is one of the factors that could trigger depression.
   For this reason, it is advise that we have at least 6 hours of sleep everyday.

3. Side effect of drugs:
   Studies have shown that some medications such as oral contraceptive pills can cause depression as it side effect although the reason is still unknown but some school of thought have claimed that it may be due to the progesterone contained in the pill.

4. Fish deficient diet: Funny right, but studies have shown that depression was observe in women who had not taken adequate fish in their diet. The reason was that fishes contain omega-3- fatty acids and this also plays a role in serotonin regulation in the body.

I could go on and on but these are the common causes of depression. But how do you overcome depression. If it is medically related then you'll need to see your doctor proper advice .
For the non medical causes of depression i will be listing some of the possible solutions in my next article.