We all feel depressed from time to time. There’s nothing wrong with that but the issue arises when this feeling persists and interferes in our day to day task. The person suffering from depression don’t perform at their best, they lose focus, they don’t share feelings.

World Health Organization shows that more than 350 million people suffer from depression and very few of them ask for help. Depression could lead to suicide. Around 800,000 die from suicide every year. Suicide is the leading cause of death in 15-26-year-olds. Many teenagers suffer from depression but they don’t admit.

There are various types of depression. The main two are:-

1. Recurrent Depressive Disorder

   This kind of disorder is difficult to find due to their ability to hide. This kind of depression comes and goes. People suffering from this kind of disorder have episodes of depression. Where they feel a lack of confidence, loss of interest in work, they may have a feeling of guilt, low self-esteem, no ability to focus. There are various severity levels. In low to moderate severity level person is able to socialize and performs tasks but in high severity, the person loses interest in socializing and can’t perform tasks.

2. Bipolar Depressive Disorder

   

This disorder has mainly two phases maniac and the depressive phase. The manic phase involves inflated self-esteem, elevated mood. Patients feel like they are having a party. Everything around them is very great. They don’t complain about anything. They feel happy even when there is no reason. This phase can be easily recognized by their close friends and family. The patient may not find the need for sleep and yet be full of energy. This phase may lead to psychosis(loss of touch with reality). The next phase lead to depression may or may not follow the normal phase. During the depression phase, patients have various problems like a problem with sleep, they may try to sleep are not able to sleep. Sometimes there is a reversed effect which means sleeping excessively. They start to feel hopeless and they will not be able to focus on anything.

Treatments

Depression is a treatable disease. This can be treated in various ways. To treat depression the first step must be taken by the patient himself. He has to first recognize what the patient is suffering from.

1.Lifestyle

You might not know but the lifestyle has a very significant effect on the health, wealth and success of a person. Lifestyle can not just make depression go away but stop it from ever coming back again.

2.Exercise

Include exercise in your daily schedule and lifestyle. This has been said many times it will improve your health drastically. Doing exercise will release all the good chemicals. Exercising is liking having drugs except instead of harming you it will increase your health dramatically. Even half an hour exercise daily will do your work.

3.Human Help

One of the leading reasons for depression is social isolation. To avoid this kind isolation you should have a strong social network, well I don’t mean having friends on Facebook or followers on Instagram, In some cases that can hurt. What I mean is having friends and family nearby and always be engaged in doing something. Volunteering for some work is also a good way to gather friends, be engaged and can be productive also.

4.Eating

Change your eating habits. Start with something nutritious and healthy. At the end of the day, it all comes down to what we eat. To explain you this I will give you a simple analogy, think of airplanes they require a specific type of fuel even though the fuel petrol but it is not regular petrol which is used in cars. If you give an airplane car petrol it will not function properly. The same applies to humans as well. We have been evolved to eat fresh food, not fried junk foods.

5.Sleep

Well, sleeping more and less both are one of the symptoms of depression. But my focus is on getting a regular amount of sleep that is from 6 to 8 hours of sleep. Think about it for a moment sleeping is only time when the most important part of your body gets time to relax. Your brain which worked the whole needs some time off. The brain is just a muscle that eventually gets tired and it needs to relax.

6.Psychotherapy

If changing lifestyle doesn’t help. Then you must go to psychotherapy. Many people think that psychotherapy is for someone who is mentally disturbed or not capable of proper mental functioning. This kind of mentality is not right just like all the body parts we have psychology. Which can sometimes interfere with our functioning and it needs to be fixed. There is no shame if you are visiting a psychologist, it’s just like visiting a doctor.

7.Transcranial Magnetic Simulation Therapy

In the end, when you have tried all medication, self-help, and depression is resistant to all that. Then is the end you can try Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation. This is a totally non-invasive and painless technique. This not actually treating your depression but makes you good enough to function and remove the underlying cause of depression. In this method, an electronic coil is placed against your scalp. Trust me they will not shock you. The coil is isolated. It produces an electromagnetic field that simulates the nerve cells in a certain region of your brain which reduces the depression. I hope you enjoyed reading and made you more informed.

Want External Help

UK: Call NAMI Helpline at 1-800-950-6264

US: Call Mind Helpline at 0300 123 3393

India: Call Vandrevala Foundation at 1860 2662 345 or 1800 2333 330

Australia: Call SANE Help Center at 1800 18 7263