The term "depression" has changed its meaning in recent years. Once it meant simply a bad mood, a temporary ailment, today - a serious illness that prevents normal life if it is not treated. Certainly, depression prevents you from living normally. Therefore, it is necessary to fight with it, and here a variety of methods can be used.
"I want to get dressed, but I do not remember how to do it," "I'm dying of hunger, but I do not have the strength to stretch out my hand and take a sandwich." "I saw my son climbing into the cupboard, I wanted to get up and take it off. But I was not able to do anything except to silently observe his fall and cry ... "This is not a dramatic work. This is a real description of real people suffering from depression. The World Health Organization believes that by 2020, depression will become the second most common disease after cardiovascular diseases. And it's really scary. For healthy people, this is all like watching horror movies. For patients, the world in which they must live. People who suffer from depression do not believe that their condition ever changes, that they can feel joy and energy. Then the relatives should remind them that it is self-deception to see only the dark side of the world. This suggests that the disease has taken possession of thoughts, but you can and must fight the disease.
Of course, every case of depression is individual. Some go through life with one or two signs of this disease, and the disease persists even after treatment. Others successfully heal, but then experience relapses. The most important thing is to accept the fact that depression has affected you. Do not write off illness on the weather, family problems and lack of money. Depression is a disease not related to external factors. It happens even with the most outwardly successful people. Do not blame yourself, relatives, circumstances. It only prevents to cope normally with treatment.
Why does depression occur?
In the emergence of depression, there are both genetic factors (there is a certain predisposition), and features of the organism acquired during life. The tendency to depression may be due in part to our character traits, a sense of self-worth. What matters is how we respond in difficult situations, what we think about ourselves, how we evaluate and perceive other people. Sometimes we oppress ourselves, exposing a lot of demands, and then, without coping, we are hard at experiencing failures.
More susceptible to mood disorders are extremely vulnerable layers of the population, with little resistance, which overload and stress react with fear and anxiety. People who are predisposed to depression often use the words "I can not", "I should not," "I'm not worthy." Depression comes gradually or can suddenly attack. Sometimes it is difficult for patients to understand why in the past, when they had more troubles, they did not have depression, and now it is. Especially when there is nothing wrong with their life. They have work, money, healthy children, a beloved and loving partner in life. But something happened - and depression began. Something must have happened, psychiatrists say. Depression usually precedes the loss of someone or something (work, property, freedom and time), this is part of the depression when people react to mental exhaustion after excessive mobilization. It is interesting that depression does not necessarily arise only because of a bad life experience. In its formation, it is important to expand the participation of mental and physical processes, in which people simply can not treat the situation positively.
The disease has a thousand faces
Not all patients suffer from the same symptoms. Not always patients have a depressed mood, a feeling of emptiness or the presence of factors that interfere with normal living. Some of the main symptoms are sleep disorders, some physical illnesses (for example, headaches, back pain, lower abdomen).
In the light of recent studies, depression is associated with the defective functioning of at least three neurotransmitters (substances that allow the formation of connections between nerve cells) in the brain: serotonin, norepinephrine and dopamine. The spread of these substances in the brains of patients is simply not enough. Unfortunately, it is still unclear what mechanisms cause it.
Depression is caused by exogenous (external) factors, which is caused by reaction to dramatic events, such as death of a loved one or somatic disease. Or endogenous (internal) factors, if the patient suffers for no apparent reason. The latter is more difficult to cure, but this does not mean that treatment is impossible. Depressed mood and grief after the death of a loved one is a natural reaction. But when the grief becomes too long (for example, several months of mourning) and causes severe depression, preventing you from living normally, you should immediately resort to treatment.
Important! During the period of depression, one should not make important decisions in life, because our perception of the world is changing. The patient has a depressed mood, a pessimistic worldview, least of all connected with the duties of the world around him. He is constantly tired, he can not use household appliances, can not normally service himself. This condition can last for years. The diagnosis is difficult to put, because the patient, as a rule, is able to function and fulfill his duties, but the quality of his life deteriorates noticeably. In addition, such people do not seek the help of a specialist, because their symptoms are treated by them and their relatives as personal traits.
Is it a depression?
Patients often ask: are frequent mood changes a depression or not? Depression from ordinary spleen and spleen is distinguished by the severity and duration of the symptoms. They can be repeated or persisted for a long period of time, which leads to difficulties in solving everyday duties. In the worst case, depression (especially associated with fears or unpleasant obsessive thoughts) can lead to suicide.
Sadness and fear are usually stronger in the morning. During the day they disappear, leaving only a state of anxiety or tension. Many patients say that this anxiety never completely leaves them. Note for the family: do not ask the patient "what are you afraid of?", "What worries you?". He can not answer, because he does not know this, because his fear is irrational.
With somatic symptoms of depression, patients think that they are seriously ill. They put themselves fatal diagnoses. Experts conduct dozens of studies that show that they are healthy. But since they still feel pain, they are steadfastly searching for its source. According to the research, those who are depressed have a lowered pain threshold. They suffer from the thought that if they get sick, they will feel pain. A symptom that speeds up the development of depression is insomnia. This is one of the most unpleasant symptoms of depression or symptoms that precede it.
For patients, relapses of this disease are the worst. When you have to deal with the first attack of depression, you are treated, then you are cured and you feel healthy. You stop treatment and suddenly, after a few months or even years, everything comes back again. Patients feel defeated by the disease. But with a relapsing form they can not cope, and also effectively cure it once and for all.
Treatment of depression
At the first stage of depression it is important to take all measures aimed at compensating mood (taking antidepressants or mood stabilizers). They should stabilize the volume of neurotransmitters in the patient's brain. Psychiatrists often send their patients to psychotherapy sessions. Drugs help to bring a patient with a serious condition (who still does not establish a relationship with a psychologist). Psychotherapy, in turn, will contribute to further combating diseases and, possibly, prevent relapse. They will give man strength to live normally. Good psychotherapy can even prevent depression.
On the account of doctors dozens of drugs for the treatment of depression. Among them, a new generation of drugs - selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, which increase the level of this substance in the brain. A new group of drugs are selective inhibitors of the reuptake of serotonin and norepinephrine. Older drugs include oxidase inhibitors that block an enzyme that breaks down serotonin and norepinephrine. Tricyclic antidepressants have a similar efficacy to modern drugs, but they cause many side effects.
New in the treatment of depression is an antidepressant that acts on receptors that produce melatonin and affects the normalization of human circadian rhythms. In addition to drugs that improve mood, depression also uses drugs that have sedative and anxiolytic effects. At their reception it is necessary to be very cautious because of presence of by-effects.
Many people do not want to treat depression with drugs, fearing that they can change their personality. It's impossible. Antidepressants only affect the symptoms of depression, do not "mix" in our heads, do not cause addiction. The truth is that with depression you are already another person. Patients repeatedly say that their view of life before and after the illness changes.
The problem in the treatment of depression is precisely in the tolerant attitude toward drugs, whose treatment begins to bear fruit - usually two weeks later, sometimes later. The effect of treatment can be determined after four to six weeks. This is a difficult time for patients when it seems that it seems that nothing helps. Patients believe that the drug does not work. They sometimes get the impression that it even worsens their condition during depression - it prevents them from living and working normally. Sometimes the patient feels very bad, then the recommended measures should be changed. Fortunately, there is plenty to choose from, and it is always possible to choose a drug that the patient tolerates well.
Attention! Do not stop taking the medication in the middle of the treatment! If you become worse - report your feelings to the doctor. He will determine whether to replace this drug with another, or wait until the situation stabilizes, and the measures will work. After treatment, the drug should also be discontinued gradually to avoid side effects. Medication should be taken 6-12 months after recovery. The frequency of recurrence of depression is 85%, precisely because of premature cessation of treatment!
Other treatments for depression
These include phototherapy (seasonal depression), sleep deprivation, electric shock, hypnosis in special cases. Electroshock is used for people who have not been cured by drug therapy. This method is used only in hospital settings. Treatment is carried out in full for several minutes under general anesthesia. It consists in the use of electrodes within two to three seconds, through which low intensity current flows to the brain. Although this sounds scary, many doctors are supporters of this approach, claiming that it sometimes gives excellent results.
Symptoms of Depression
- Depressed mood
- Feeling of sadness and indifference
- Impossibility to experience joy
- A constant sense of anxiety, fear
- Panic attacks
- Sleep disorders, insomnia
- Loss of appetite and weight loss
- Impaired memory and concentration
- Slowing down the pace of thought and speech
- Decrease in the speed of making simple decisions or the impossibility of this
- Unwillingness to move, in extreme situations even voluntary paralysis of the body
- Decrease or total absence of interest in sex
- Avoiding intimacy with loved ones