Depression is a serious illness that causes prolonged feelings of sadness, hopelessness, and lack of interest in life. It affects people both emotionally and physically by causing symptoms like fatigue, changes in appetite or sleep, and pain. While anyone can develop depression, certain factors like genetics, gender, and life stress increase one's risk. There is no single cause of depression but it is thought to involve biological changes in the brain. Treatment options include psychological therapies like cognitive behavioral therapy which aim to change negative thought patterns, as well as antidepressant medications which target chemical imbalances in the brain. Finding the right individualized treatment is important to recovery.

1. Depression
By Tom McCarthy

2. What is Depression?
• While we all feel sad, moody or low from time to time, some people
experience these feelings intensely, for long periods of time (weeks, months
or even years) and sometimes without any apparent reason. Depression is
more than just a low mood – it's a serious illness that has an impact on both
physical and mental health. (Beyondblue.org.au, 2015)
• You may have trouble doing normal day-to-day activities, and depression
may make you feel as if life isn't worth living. Depression is not a sign of
weakness or a negative personality. It is a major public health problem and
a treatable medical condition.

3. Symptoms

4. Emotional Symptoms
• Depression effects people in many different ways,
some people experience sadness and lose of interest
in life, others are plagued by sense of worthlessness,
guilt, lack of hope or suicidal tendencies. It is not as
simple as just feeling sad.

5. Physical Symptoms
• Unfortunately emotional pain can translate to physical
pain when one is depressed, it is not uncommon for
some one experiencing depression to have;
• Low energy and fatigue
• Insomnia
• Excessive sleep
• Persistent aches or pains, headaches, cramps, or
digestive problems that do not ease even with treatment
• Increased/decreased appetite

6. Who is at risk?
• The vast majority of people have experienced some
kind of depression in their life, whether it be from the
day to day stress of work or something else.
• According to scientists, genetics have a role to play in
it, having a parent or sibling with depression increases
your risk of developing the disorder.
• Women are twice as likely to develop depression as
men.

7. What causes Depression?
• There is no definite answer to what causes
depression, doctors believe that our brain
structure and chemical functions are the key.
• Scientists believe one must be biologically prone
to develop the disorder in the first place to
experience real depression. certain medications,
alcohol or substance abuse, hormonal changes, or
even the season can trigger depression within any
given person.

8. Treatment
• There are many ways people can deal with
depression whether it be through themselves,
others or the help of medication.
• The importing thing is to find out what
treatment suits the individuals needs.

9. Psychological Treatment
• Also known as talking therapies are designed to help the
patient change negative patterns of thinking and
behaviour and teach them ways to develop better coping
skills. This may not only help a person recover, but can
also stop depression reappearing down the track.

10. Cognitive behaviour therapy
• This is where the therapist identifies and
changes the way the patient thinks and deals
with stress and depression. This encourages
patients to think rationally about common
problems to help encourage a more realistic,
positive and problem solving approach to life.

11. Interpersonal therapy
• Where the therapist focuses on the
relationships in the patients life and finds out if
there are any links to the depression through
these.
• Recognising patterns in relationships can help
the patient understand what makes them
vulnerable to depression and understand the
link between the two.

12. Behaviour therapy
• Focusing on increasing the activity of the
patient, trying to get them more active and
enjoy being physical , in an effort to stop the
patterns of avoidance, withdrawal and
inactivity that make depression worse.
• This does not focus on changing the patients
beliefs or attitudes, instead on participating in
activities that have rewarding results.

13. Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy
• Involving pleasant thoughts and meditation to
stop patients minds wandering onto negative
thoughts to exacerbate depression.
• This is thought to be helpful in preventing
depression from returning because it allows
people to notice feelings of sadness and negative
thinking patterns early on, before they have
become fixed.

14. Medical Treatment
• The main medical treatment for depression is antidepressant medication.
The types of antidepressants are:
• SSRIs
• SNRIs
• RIMAs
• TCAs
• NaSSAs
• NARIs
• MAOIs
• There is a lot of negative and positive information about these treatments
out there. Some people believe it is bad to mess with your hormones while
others stick by it, at the end of the day it is up to the patient and how they
respond to it all.

15. Conclusion
• Depression is a hard thing to describe to someone who
has never truly experienced it. It is normal for a person
to feel down every now and then, but if this feeling
lingers there for an extended period there may be
more to it. Treatment will never be the same from
person to person, it is up to the individual to find what
suits them best.
• The fact is Depression needs to be spoken about, even
now it still doesn't get the coverage it needs. People
are to scared or ashamed to speak out about it and this
needs to change now.

16. References
• Beyondblue.org.au, (2015). beyondblue. [online]
Available at: http://www.beyondblue.org.au/the-
facts/depression [Accessed 17 May 2015].
• Mayoclinic.org,. (2015). Depression (major
depression) - Mayo Clinic. Retrieved 17 May 2015,
from http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-
conditions/depression/basics/definition/con-
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