HELP ME CHANGE
Depression

Almost 10 percent of the U.S. population, 20.9 million people, suffer from depressive disorders. Depression is more than a passing bad mood. It’s an illness that involves body, mood and thoughts. Depression interferes with normal functioning and causes pain and suffering to people with the disorder and to those around them.

People with depression cannot merely “pull themselves together” or wish away their illness and get better. Without treatment, symptoms may last weeks, months or years, affecting eating, sleeping, thinking, relationships and self esteem. The cost in terms of human suffering and productivity is enormous.

Women are twice as likely as men to experience depression. Men often mask depression with drugs, alcohol, or the socially-acceptable behavior of overwork. Children and adolescents may use illness or conduct to mask depression. Elderly people frequently accept depression as a normal part of aging, which it is not.

Depression can be linked to events in life, such as the death of a loved one, a divorce or job loss. Some depressive disorders run in families. Severity and symptoms of depression vary with individuals. Not everyone who is depressed experiences every symptom. Common signs of depression include:

Adults:

A nationwide shortage of mental health professionals exits, meaning that primary care physicians have become a patient’s first line of defense against depression. Doctors are trained to diagnose and treat depression but can’t always “intuit” what’s wrong just by looking at you. Ask your doctor for help with depression.

National Institue of Mental Health
www.nimh.nih.gov/publicat/depression.cfm

American Academy of Pediatrics
www.aap.org/healthtopics/depression.cfm

American Academy of Family Physicians
www.familydoctor.org