Depression Blog

Youngsters today are experiencing high levels of stress. The sources of stress are diverse for youngsters in different age levels.

Among 13-17 year olds, academics is by far the most commonly mentioned source. Among 18-24 year olds, it is jobs and financial matters. Academic and career related pressures are ruining the life of young people. An average teenager today wants to excel in school, perform well in sports, keep up with the latest trends and choose the right higher education stream. Youngsters in there 20’s want a well paid job, they want to start saving for buying assets and also want to choose the right life partner. Added to this is the pressure to try and meet the expectations of the parents.

Another type of stress which is latent in the minds of youth but still present is the threat of terrorism and vandalism. Females particularly feel unsafe in many public places and this adds to their stress level. After a series of terrorist activities which have rocked the world, the fear is nagging in the minds of young people who find themselves helpless and not able to contribute towards its eradication.

According to surveys young females are more stressed out then males and incidences of high stress level are more in urban areas. The incidences of anxiety and depression are rising at an alarming rate and we keep hearing of teenager suicide cases around the world. Cut throat competition to keep up with peers is robbing youngsters of the pleasures of being young and healthy.

Via:MSNBC

Image1

Image2

Do you depend on antidepressants to see the world in psychedelic colours instead of shades of Blue? Do you know that exercise is the best and the cheapest antidepressant? Exercise is the last thing on your mind you are down and anxious but research has shown that even a 10 minute walk down the block could help you feel better and lift your spirits.

A study was conducted by Italian researchers on the effects of exercise on people who are suffering from depression. About thirty women aged between 40 and 60 who had been diagnosed with major depression were randomly assigned to stick with antidepressants alone or to include exercise twice a week while taking antidepressants for eight months.

It was found that women who exercised showed remarkable improvements in their depression symptoms when compared to those women who were in antidepressants alone.

It’s not a magic bullet, but increasing physical activity is a positive and active strategy to help manage depression and anxiety

says Kristin Vickers-Douglas, a psychologist at Mayo Clinic.

How does exercise help?

* Exercising when you are depressed firstly helps you get distracted as you concentrate on your workout instead of life’s misery.

* If you are out taking a walk, you get to interact with people, which may help you forget your worries and make you feel better when you know that you are not the only person in the world having problems.

* Identify the activity that you enjoy most or you are likely to give up the instant you hit the blues.

So, get going and the next time some one asks what stands for D - Say Dance and not Depresssion!


Image

Source

Statistics say that apart from the youths, another age group that is particularly vulnerable to suicide is the people in the age bracket of 65 years and above. The overall U.S. suicide rate is 11 per 100,000 people. But for those 65 and older, that figure rises to 14 per 100,000, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Hyperactivity among young girls when not controlled poses serious risks when they get older. As they reach adulthood, they tend to suffer from poor lifestyle by getting low profile jobs, being involved in violent relationships and early pregnancies.

Such observations were seen in a study involving 800 girls aged 21 who were identified to be hyperactive. This is quite strange since boys are usually branded as more ‘hyperactive’ than girls.

But this study by the Canadian and UK researchers and their findings reported to the Archives of General Psychiatry is a good eye opener. This will help to treat young girls who seem to behave like naughty boys.

With depression making rounds in the society in a grand manner, scientists may be on the verge of discovering a bio-chemical indicator for the assessment of depression. A condition which hitherto was diagnosed solely on the subjective opinion of a practitioner may now have a ‘lab test’ to determine the severity of the condition as well as the effect of different treatments and therapies on a particular patient.

Scientists at the Interdisciplinary Neuroscience Program at the University of Illinois suggest that depression involves a bio-chemical process wherein the brain releases specific substances which can be detected by laboratory tests. The researchers conducted a post–mortem study of depressed people who committed suicide and compared their findings to that of normal people. They established that a certain protein called Gs alpha which relays information between the brain cells and the neuro-transmitters seemed to have been less effective in depressive people.

According to the Canadian Institute for Health Information (CIHI) estimations it has been observed that ECT (Electroconvulsive Therapy) or Electroshock has been used in Canada to treat severely depressed patients more than 15,000 times in 2007. This treatment involves subjecting the brain of the depressed patients to electric shock. It is known to cause serious and irreparable damages like memory loss and other impairments to the brain. Moreover the patients who have undergone this treatment have described their experiences as traumatic.

What do you do when you see your child is feeling low frequently and is oblivious to the excitement around her? Do you brush it off and think it is normal for kids to have mood swings? It’s time you don’t ignore the child and check if any symptoms of depression.

If you thought depression hits only the adults, think again and childhood depression is as serious as adult depression. Statistics reveal shocking facts. One in thirty three children and one in eight teens suffer from blues. If unchecked this could pose to be a mammoth problem in the coming days.

The exact correlation between depression and Alzheimer’s disease has baffled the medical community for a long time. Whether Alzheimer’s disease is triggered by depression or whether depression is a symptom of Alzheimer’s was not clear. Two recent studies seemed to have solved the puzzle to some extent.

The first study was carried out by the researchers from Erasmus Medical Center, Netherlands. The study published in the journal Neurology assessed 503 individuals between 60 and 90 years without any symptom of dementia in the beginning of the study. 134 participants had a history of depression. After a six-year follow-up 33 people developed dementia. The study showed that people who had suffered from depression before 60 had four times more the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease than a person without a history of depression. In case of a person developing depression after 60, chances of developing Alzheimer’s disease increased by 2.5 times compared to a depression-free individual. The MIT scan of the hippocampus and the amygdala regions of the brain showed no change in size with the onset of depression or Alzheimer’s disease refuting the common belief that Alzheimer’s disease is linked to brain shrinkage.

Every blessing comes with a price and so is the whopping advancement of human civilization. Today we live in a high tech, highly sophisticated society, where we have everything at our service. Labour saving devices, electronic gadgets, and all other amenities that our ancestors could never have imagined also. So apparently we are living in a happier world. We are having a tech savvy life, that’s all right, but the price we are paying is worth more than this bit of happiness.

We are losing our family life, and children are the worst sufferer. A recent survey has proved it and has created great anxiety among parents all over the world. The report revealed that children who spend too much of their times watching television or surfing Internet are greedy and unhappy.

The report also says:

These children argue more with their families; have a lower opinion of their parents, and lower self-esteem than other children.

The problem starts as early as among the students of the primary schools but remain suppressed till they enter their teenage. When the symptoms get prominent, the entire war has been lost. UK has been flooded by terrific teenage drug addiction, drinking, and under age sex problems. Before the matter goes out of control, it is high time we find out the deep rooted cause behind this problem.

The main reason is parental negligence. The lifestyle of parents has changed a lot during the years and that has seriously affected the time they share with their family. But the fundamental needs of children have not changed during these years. They still require food, shelter, and sleep. But moreover, they need an adult supervision to grow up. They need to know that there is someone caring for them while they grow up. But here we leave everything to the machines, like electronic baby sitter and in a later stage we depend on the kindergartens to help the kids grow up. But as they grow up, they need more attention and company of their parents, but parents need to rush through their daily life for earning more and more comforts for their families. And, they’re able to achieve it also, but at what cost?

This parental carelessness is the prime cause of increasing child depression. But at the same time they also have no option but to rush at break neck speed. They are also confined in some new age troubles like inflation rate, high mortgages, lower quality of living, and long working hours. To survive in this corporate world, they need to follow exactly the same regime everyday, resulting to their isolation from their own family. It is observed in nuclear families today that all members live under same roof, but they are very much isolated by heart. The emotional bond that keeps a family together is vanishing rapidly. Children spend their entire day mostly gazing on TV, or playing games at game station. This is certainly not what we call a life.

Sociologists all over the world have expressed deep concerns over this matter. But the solution is quite complex. We just cannot drop our lifestyle all of a sudden. At the same time, if this tendency prevails, then there will be a time when there will be no family at all. Children are having a tuff time these days in a social scenario like this and we need to take care of them. Otherwise the next generation will not be intelligent and bright enough to go forward and bring glory to our country.

Source: Dailymail

Quitting smoking, losing weight, and renouncing alcohol and cocaine may lead you to the risk of depression and even the chances of suicide. Now, it’s so very evident that the pills like Chantix, Rimonobant, and Taranabant are not free of offshoots as they lump pleasure centers in the brain that offer the feel-good response from smoking or eating.

Chantix, a hyped quit-smoking pill from Pfizer Inc. has been allied to several reports of suicides or suicidal behaviors. In February, the FDA said a linkage between Chantix and psychiatric problems appear ‘gradually more liable.’ Though it is believed that risks about Chantix will prove manageable because they mark nicotine pleasure switches and the side effects vary from person to person. Nicotine extraction and even quitting smoking can cause temper swings and depression. The risk-benefit quotient is seriously supporting use of the medication as the alternative, smoking, is comparatively highly risky.