By: María Mier y Terán
Depression is a mental sickness, that consists of having negative effects on how you
feel, the way you think and the way you act, it also makes you feel sad, and you lose
interest in the activities or thinks you just like. But these aren’t all the effects that
depression can bring, it can also make you lose or gain weight, it affects the sleep. The
people that have depression aren’t able to sleep or they sleep more than usual and
sometimes it can bring thoughts of suicide, but how much time does a person have to be sad for it to be considered as clinical depression? The symptoms have to last at least two weeks, in other cases, it is called a sting sadness. To prevent or go out of depression is very important to have an active life and a positive attitude.
Having an active life can prevent depression because people that suffer from
depression usually isolate themselves. Like Daniel G. Amen said, “the more isolated
a person becomes, the less bonding activity occurs. This worsens the depression
and increases the likelihood of further isolation.” What Daniel G. Amen tries to say is
that when a person isolates herself, the bad thoughts come to their mind and cause the
depression to be stronger. When a person has depression, they tend to isolate themselves and stop doing the things that interest them, so their active life becomes null and gives space for depression. How can depression be stopped?
One of the first things that a person with depression has to do is receive help form a
psychiatrist because the psychiatrist is the person that can give medicine, the
supplements, and medications that help to support a healthy mood. Some of them are
omega-3, and S- adenosylmethionine. But to overcome depression medicine is not the only
thing, Daniel G. Amen also recommends practicing gratitude and appreciation, there’s a
study that proves that when a person has gratitude it brings happiness. It is also
recommended to surround yourself with positive people and having healthy
physical contact, finding a purpose and passion, and doing acts of kindness makes the
person happy.
A study has proven that physical exercise and antidepressants medicine work exactly
the same to go out from depression, and being physically healthy can help to have a mental
health and live a more positive and healthy life.
Sources:
Amen, D. G. (2016). Change your brain, change your life. London: Piatus.