Clinical Depression: a school assignment

[Jennifer5]

I had to choose a problem to write a series of essays on, I chose clinical depression. Essay one has us define the problem, the second presents solutions, third tries to solve the problem and the fourth and final essay puts them together as one thorough essay.

I'm doing alright on sources and I'm about to begin writing, but I only have one person to interview that I know will come through. The other man can be rather flakey. If there is anyone on the forums who has clinical depression and is willing to help, I would love to email you the interview questions.

If you're willing to help, please let me know. The information shared can remain completely anonymous, so there is no need to worry about that part.

:rainbow:

[Gennee]

I don't know much about clinical depression. I wish you the best in your project.

Gennee

[Jennifer5]

I don't know much about clinical depression. I wish you the best in your project.

Gennee

Thank you. I was able to get two interviews and I'm still waiting for someone to get back to me with the third. I think that will probably be enough.

I'm grateful to those who have helped me, I'm learning a lot. It's gotten a little more personal than I expected it to, so it's an eye-opening experience.

[offog]

Hi, Jennifer5. Are you still working on your essays? I haven't visited Soulforce for a couple of weeks, so I'm just looking at your post today. I've struggled with depression my whole life, and if you're still sending out your questions, I'd be happy to help you out. Either way, best wishes with your assignment.

[Jennifer5]

Essay one will be complete by the end of the night. There will be two others though and then the final. I'm hoping to ask more questions (assuming I will have more questions) for the next two essays and would love to send those to you.

Thank you :)

[Alecto]

Don't suppose we could see the product when you're done?

[Jennifer5]

Don't suppose we could see the product when you're done?

Seeing that it doesn't identify anyone, I suppose that would be fine. I'm still a bit insecure about the quality of the paper; it a was hard to get it to come together. I hope it's good enough. :rainbow:
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"Sometimes we put up walls. Not to keep people out, but to see who cares enough to knock them down."

Have you ever had someone you love push you away when he or she was going through a hard time? Well, I have. He thought that he was being a burden and that distance would be best for everyone. This was depression talking. No one was going to benefit from distance.

The dictionary definition of clinical depression is a depression so severe as to be considered abnormal, either because of no obvious environmental causes, or because the reaction to unfortunate life circumstances is more intense or prolonged than would generally be expected (Dictionary.com).

This definition is far too simple to explain the behavior of the people that we know and love. Clinical Depression is something that anyone from any ethnicity, gender, or walk of life can battle ("Clinical Depression"). It is the primary cause of disability for people under the age of forty-four in the United States (NIMH) and according to Finkelstein “only arthritis causes more chronic pain.” Approximately 6.7 percent of the people over the age of eighteen battle depression (NIMH). Depression may last for weeks or even years.

There are many types of depression: bipolar disorder, which is depression alternated with extreme highs; dysthymia, which is a milder form of major depression; SADD, which is depression as a result of inadequate amounts of sunlight or vitamin D; then there is major or clinical depression, which is the most severe and is what the four people that I interview have.

Symptoms of depression take the joy out of many things in life that would normally be pleasurable: work, sleep, sex and many other things ("Clinical Depression"). When I asked the four men if depression made personal and affectionate relationships more challenging; they all said yes. Jeff said, "Sometimes I push people away without meaning to hurt them. Sometimes I isolate myself. Low self-esteem is another huge factor in how I deal with people. I feel unworthy of love."

“Unlike normal stress and sadness, the symptoms of clinical depression persist and do not go away no matter how much the individual wants it too ("Clinical Depression").” For instance, when it comes to clinical depression, as a result of a chemical imbalance, there is no way that someone could pull himself out of it without medication.

Stress is commonly linked to depression. In any given year, approximately 12% of women in the United States are diagnosed with depression as well as 7% of men ("Clinical Depression"). It is suspected that this difference is based purely on the individual’s ability to recognize and admit the symptoms. Depression is not a weakness, yet many men fear it will be seen as one.

The four men I talked to took a while to acknowledge that they needed help, and to acknowledge that it is ok to need help. When each of them was asked how long they battled symptoms of depression before getting help two said about five years and two said they waited nearly ten years. Why? I asked them. They said they didn’t realize that it was a real issue that would not go away on it’s own, fear and social stigma were also issues. One person simply stated, “I was afraid.”

There are many ways that life stresses can ultimately lead to major depression. Unfortunately, one reason that depression gets over-looked, is because it can be challenging to differentiate between symptoms of stress and something as serious as clinical depression – this is improving thanks to public awareness of the issue. The modern stress theory states that one stressful event leads to another until they all blend together and you are always stressed about something. This alters the way you think and feel, which can easily lead to depression (Soares). According to the Monroe and Reid, writers from University of Notre Dame and University of Oregon, 50-80% of depressed people report a recent, severely stressful, life-event prior to onset.

When asked how stress affected each of them they described feelings of “wanting to escape”(Anonymous 3) or “wanting to run away” (Jeff). One man mentioned drinking and gambling as his escapes (Anonymous 3). Others mentioned fatigue, trouble sleeping, over eating, headaches (Jeff) and getting overly anxious (Anonymous 2) as other results of stress. Many of us have felt the desire to escape at one time or another, in fact many have probably felt that way just because of finals. Can you imagine how extreme it may be if you battled depression?

Next I asked them “how much do people in your life, and their attitudes, affect the way you feel?" To this, I got a variety of answers. Jeff stated, "I've found that negative people are best avoided." Another said, "I want them to appreciate and accept me for the way I am" (Anonymous 1).

Only 20% of people who face these overly stressful periods in their lives develop depression though. This leads to the questions about an individual’s past. "Childhood abuse and early trauma have been associated with heightened risk for depression later in life... social support has been found to buffer depression." Trauma in an individual’s childhood is suspected to be the cause of the hard to explain depression that some people will face later in life, "sadness without cause." In other words, someone may suffer from one depressive episode early on in life, which can be triggered later in life without reason, "sadness without cause," or without obvious causes. When someone seeks help early on and works on identifying what triggers their depression, there is potential to "prevent" it by learning how to cope with such triggers (Monroe and Reid 70-71).

The idea that depression would be preventable sounded rather strange to me so I asked those I was interviewing if they believe it is possible. One told me that depression is genetic (Jeff), but I was hopeful when two of them agreed that it could be preventable (Anonymous 2 and 3). One of them responded, "Sometimes? Absolutely. I haven't seen a good therapist since I left school, and I'm certainly not on my meds anymore. If prevention weren't possible sometimes, I'd be sleeping sixteen hours a day and finding it impossible to hold a job (Anonymous 2)."

Wanting to know more about this idea of prevention I asked if they felt that the support someone receives in a time of trauma can affect how they would later react. Overall they said it matters to some degree but they did not give any suggestions on how support could have changed the outcome (Anonymous 1, 2, and Jeff). One man said that during hard time in his childhood, he was always looking for a stable person for that sense of security; always looking for the father figure that he didn’t have (Anonymous 3).

Possibly thinking that there was a concrete explanation for depression I asked, "Do you think if some event in your life had gone differently would things have been different?" One pointed to bullying and homophobia as primary contributors to his depression (Jeff), but the over all response was that depression would have been an issue anyway (Anonymous 1-3).

I was shocked to learn that less than a third of the people suffering from depression seek the help they need and it makes me wonder how many people each of us knows that are not getting help? Perhaps this is because many of them do not know that treatment is 80-90% successful (Finkelstein) or maybe it's because of the stigma regarding depression that they don’t seek help but far too many people still see depression as a weakness.

Harvard Mental Health did a study titled, "How Much Does Depression Cost Society?" The results were alarming, an estimated $44 billion. Most of this is due to the lowered productivity of a depressed person in the work place; about 17% of this money is due to the cost associated with suicide. The studies show that the overall cost of clinical depression is as high as the cost of heart disease or cancer. In the long run the calculations show that supplying health care for a clinically depressed person would be a lot cheaper than cost of ignoring the issue (Finkelstein).

I asked if the expenses of therapy and medications are issues. Most agreed that therapy was not because they are receiving care and are charged according to what they could afford. Medication on the other hand can be an issue and one said, "I quit my medication because I could no longer afford it. Other expenses, including college, made it impossible to afford medication (Jeff)." They all agreed that these expenses are part of the reason that some people never seek help.

It seems logical that suicidal thoughts would be common amongst depressed people, but just how common I wondered? So I asked, "In the time that you had battled depression before you recognized it, did you ever think about suicide?" Whether seriously or hypothetically each had thought about it at some point. Overall they said that once medicated, suicidal thoughts reduced and in some cases disappeared completely.

Think about that last time you were pushed away. The last time someone seemed upset and was to the point that they no longer want to talk; or the last time you had a hard day and wanted to run away from the world. Then imagine that these are extremely common feelings, imagine that they occur frequently.

I believe that we can help, because there are options out there, but will we?