A study of depression among Russian doctors showed a terrible result

Psychology

30 November 2020, 14:42

• Evening depression concept
• Symptoms of evening depression

Depression is a human condition characterized by constantly low mood and inhibited body reactions. This concept is classified as a serious mental illness, so this problem definitely requires a solution . But there are also periods in life when you feel sad only after a working day, and not on an ongoing basis. In this article we will tell you what evening depression is and how to deal with it.

Dangers of Depression

Some people do struggle with depression throughout their lives, but the reasons why this happens are not known. The phrase “fight depression” really holds true in this case.

The disease is quite complex and can take various forms and directions. Patients diagnosed with chronic depression often experience mild to moderate depression. Patients suffering from attacks of the disease may recover from the illness and quickly regain a stable good mood, but then fall back into a state of apathy. Today, many people suffer from just such wave-like attacks of depression.

Depression is a difficult illness to treat because it is associated with a genetic predisposition to perceive stress. But genetics is still an area that has not been thoroughly studied by science.

People with wealth, fame and success are not completely protected from this disease. Even with a seemingly happy and carefree life, a person may become deeply depressed, and all attempts to get rid of it may be ineffective or provide only temporary relief.

What can make depression worse?

Physical illnesses, particularly chronic illnesses, can make depression worse. In 2009, Robin Williams underwent heart surgery. However, it is not known whether this affected his struggle with depression.

Alcohol and drugs can also worsen a person's emotional state. Constant and clear monitoring of people who previously suffered from alcohol or drug addiction is necessary.

Williams did not hide his stay in clinics for the treatment of alcohol and drug addiction. Earlier this summer, Williams reportedly visited health centers twice.

Depression is often part of bipolar disorder. Bipolar disorder is characterized by significant changes in mood, energy, and activity levels. People with this diagnosis are more likely to experience bouts of depression than to commit suicide. It is not known whether Williams suffered from bipolar disorder.

Williams also showed early signs of Parkinson's disease. His wife confirmed this, however, the actor was not ready to share this news with the public and receive the necessary support.

People strive to understand the motives for suicide. Physical illnesses can indeed aggravate depression, but a cause-and-effect relationship has not yet been proven.

Doctors also claim that patients are taking medications incorrectly. The reason for this is the fear of side effects. People don't want to be labeled as mentally ill. Moreover, if it is necessary to constantly take special medications, many patients begin to feel like that.

Sometimes it happens that patients start taking medications, but as soon as the disease begins to manifest itself less, they stop. In such cases, depression returns, but takes on more acute forms.

The risk of suicide may increase even when you start taking antidepressants. Many patients begin to think about suicide when drug withdrawal occurs.

Acute depression (clinical depression)

Are you sad and feeling helpless? You may have acute depression or, as it is also called, clinical depression. People suffering from acute depression have a deep and persistent feeling of helplessness and despair.

When symptoms of acute depression occur, it becomes difficult to work, study, sleep, eat, and enjoy time with friends. Some people experience acute depression only once in their life. The rest suffer from it several times.

What is acute or clinical depression?

Every person, due to certain life circumstances, feels sad or depressed. But the state of acute depression is characterized by the manifestation of depressive moods throughout the whole day, especially in the morning. In addition, as stated in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Volume IV, acute depression exhibits a number of other symptoms. These symptoms include:

• Almost daily fatigue and loss of vitality
• Almost daily feelings of worthlessness and guilt
• Difficulty concentrating and indecisiveness
• Almost daily insomnia or excessive sleepiness
• An almost daily noticeable decrease in interest in favorite activities (so-called anhedonia, a symptom whose presence can be learned from the words of acquaintances and friends)
• Psychomotor agitation or retardation (restlessness or lethargy)
• Recurrent thoughts of suicide or death (not just fear of death)
• Significant weight loss or weight gain (weight change of 5% of total body weight over the course of a month)

To recognize acute depression, symptoms such as depressed mood and loss of interest must be present. They should also be active either most of the day or every day for two weeks.

Who is most prone to acute depression?

According to statistics provided by the National Institute of Mental Health, more than 6.7% of the total US population over the age of 18 suffers from acute depression. In general, about 25% of the population experiences one episode of acute depression in their lifetime.

Acute depression affects adults, adolescents, children and the elderly. Most often, this disease is not detected, and therefore not treated, in children and the elderly.

Who is more susceptible to the disease: women or men?

Women are more prone to this disease than men. Statistics show that women get sick twice as often as men. It is believed that this is due to hormonal imbalances that accompany such stages of a woman's life as puberty, menstruation, pregnancy, miscarriage and menopause.

Other reasons that cause acute or clinical depression include a feeling of constant responsibility, both at work and at home. By combining raising a child, a career, financial obligations and caring for sick parents, a woman puts herself at risk of developing acute depression. Single mothers are also at risk.

What are the signs of acute depression in men?

Depression in men, although common, is poorly reported. If a man suffers from acute depression, then it is most likely that he will not seek professional help and will not be able to openly admit his illness.

Signs of depression in men most often include irritability, anger, or alcohol or drug abuse. Suppressing feelings can cause harsh behavior both towards yourself and towards people around you. It can also lead to complications of chronic diseases, suicide or murder.

What causes acute depression?

Not all people are susceptible to this disease, but the most common causes of acute depression include the following factors:

• Feelings of grief at the loss of a loved one due to death, separation, or divorce
• Lack of communication, leading to social isolation or feelings of ostracism
• Important life events - moving, graduating from school or university, changing jobs or retiring
• Constant conflicts in personal relationships
• Physical, sexual or emotional abuse

There is also evidence that acute depression can run in families. Although this disease can occur without a genetic link.

How to diagnose acute depression?

A doctor - your family doctor or psychologist - will conduct a thorough examination. He will definitely ask about your family and relatives' history of mental illness. He may also ask you to complete a depression test.

There are no special blood tests, x-rays, or other laboratory tests that can accurately diagnose acute depression. Although, your doctor may order a blood test to rule out any possible other diseases with similar symptoms to depression. For example, low thyroid function has symptoms similar to depression.

How is acute depression treated?

Although acute or clinical depression is a complex illness, it can still be treated. Most likely, your doctor will prescribe you to take antidepressants. He may also advise you to have several psychotherapy sessions. Sometimes additional medications are prescribed to enhance the effect of antidepressants.

The selection of medications in each case is strictly individual. It is very important to choose a medicine together with your doctor. Your doctor may prescribe several medication options to see which is most effective. Unfortunately, there is no other way to determine which medicine is best for you.

Can acute depression be prevented?

If you have experienced an attack of acute depression at least once in your life, then there is a high risk that the disease will return again. The best way to prevent a recurrent attack is to know the main causes of its occurrence and always monitor them. It is also important to know all the symptoms of acute depression and, at the slightest manifestation, consult a doctor.

Why does depression become fatal?

The pain of mental illness, often incomprehensible to healthy people, can become unbearable. Such patients develop a feeling of hopelessness, an emptiness that they cannot fill with anything or anyone.

Some people commit suicide not with the goal of leaving life, but to get rid of unbearable, systematic, psychological, and sometimes physical pain. Even with treatment, pain may persist. And some people develop a form of depression that cannot be treated, addiction to medications occurs, and the patient does not receive relief from suffering even for a minute.

Even doctors can find it difficult to determine whether a person is suicidal. However, there are certain warning signs that may indicate a person is suicidal. Experts identify the following main signs of suicidal behavior in depression:

• Talk about hopelessness, helplessness and worthlessness.
• Being in a constant depressed mood or sadness.
• Irritable behavior and anger.
• Loss of interest in life and loved ones.
• Sleep problems.
• Constantly trying to say goodbye or ask for forgiveness when meeting people.

However, identifying potential suicide risk is only the beginning. It is difficult to determine for sure exactly when a person will attempt to commit suicide.

Relatives of a sick person need to insist that he seek psychological help and, best of all, inpatient help, where he will remain under observation 24 hours a day. In many cases, people simply don't know what to do or what to say.

You need to know the enemy by sight

Depression destroys a person from the inside. It gives no peace, dooms you to mental torment.

There is no need to fight for food and life.
When a person overcomes something, he simply does not have time to be depressed. And when life is peaceful and calm, some people have the feeling that something is missing, ” says psychotherapist Lyutsina Lukyanova.

Indeed, when you travel on the subway, you encounter indifferent glances and complete indifference to everything.
People automatically wake up, wash themselves, eat breakfast and go to work. Lucky are those who enjoy their work. This is a favorite thing, a friendly team, and an upcoming promotion. For most people, work is a daily routine. Day after day, an uninteresting and joyless action. In the evenings, the TV remote control and the mechanical clicking of channels await you at home, along with routine household chores. We have forgotten how to communicate, we have forgotten how to enjoy simple things, we have forgotten how to pay attention to loved ones. Family is the most valuable thing a person has. Family dinners with discussions of the day's events, retelling interesting moments that happened during the day and just sitting together with tea under a lampshade - all this is lost today. Without such energetic reinforcement, a person becomes more withdrawn and lonely. Most often, this is the path to depression, ” adds business coach Natalya Eponeshnikova.

The severity of the condition depends on the form of depression. If you give up and succumb to this destructive force, then there will be one outcome - suicide or disability from an unsuccessful attempt to commit suicide.

Understanding that a person is depressed is not easy. In order not to confuse it with a bad mood, you need to know not only the obvious signs, but also the hidden ones, which only a doctor can see.

It is necessary to separate melancholy and depression, because the first is ordinary sadness, and the second is a serious illness that needs to be treated.
And if in a state of melancholy they shed tears over the lines of poets to the sound of rain, then in a state of depression a person does not want to live. With the development of social networks, a fashion for melancholy has appeared. Taking a beautiful photo in a cozy sweater, hugging a cup of coffee with your hands is so easy to get the attention and approval of subscribers; today it is a social norm. Perhaps there is no more depression, but the taint of some shameful secret, something that was not customary to talk about, has been removed from depression. And there are more platforms and opportunities to talk about your suffering and receive support. With the growth of general and psychological culture, there are more visits to the doctor. The concept of quality of life has emerged, when you don’t have to heroically endure something that is being treated and corrected, ” says practicing psychologist Olga Alpeeva.

Psychotherapist Rebecca Parrish explains in her writings what depression looks like from the outside:

Many are sure that a loved one will constantly cry or behave aggressively with or without reason. In practice this is not the case at all. The disease can go undetected for years.

Main manifestations of depression:

• Exhaustion, fatigue. Depression takes away all the vitality, so a person does not have enough energy to solve everyday issues or participate in the lives of loved ones.
• Lack of motivation. Another sign of being tired of life. There is no motivation at work or in everyday life. There is no point in getting up early in the morning, cooking food, watching a movie, etc.
• Apathy. There is a complete loss of interest in everything, a loss of the ability to have fun and have fun.
• Emotional breakdown. Feelings of guilt, anxiety, melancholy, self-doubt appear, and self-esteem decreases.
• Insulation. There is a feeling of insignificance and uselessness. Solitude is needed to reflect on the meaninglessness of life.
• Changeability of mood. Depression takes a lot of energy and disrupts emotional balance. It is obvious that the person is behaving inappropriately. Instead of talking calmly, he starts shouting and arguing.
• Changes in appearance. Against the background of depression, health problems are possible - digestive disorders, metabolic disorders, weight gain or loss. A person does not pay attention to how he looks. There is no business, no desire.

Deep depression is manifested by a complete absence of any feelings.

How can you overcome depression without outside help?

Sometimes it seems that the situation has become hopeless, but this is only at first glance.

It is necessary to realize that there are many causes of depression, so this implies a number of other things that can improve the current situation. Open your mind, there is no need to drown in depression, believing that nothing will help. Awareness of the problem is the first step to solving it. The main importance in the fight against depression is the desire of the person himself to get rid of this condition, to break out of the current situation.

• Attention

Perhaps you just need more attention? This is a completely normal desire. There are many ways to win the attention of others. However, it is worth understanding that only by giving can you get something in return. Do what you do best, start helping people whose lives are deprived of many joys unlike yours.

• Lifestyle

Sometimes the causes of depression are a person’s lifestyle and diet. Depression can also be a sign that a person is “stuck.” People tend not to notice problems in the hope that they will disappear on their own. However, what happens differently is that problems accumulate like a snowball rushing, knocking down everything in its path.

• Listening skills

Many people also do not know how to listen, perceiving the advice of others as a threat or just another moral lesson. Listen to the advice of those who have already been in this situation and managed to get out of it.

• Breaking the Deadlock

Often a feeling of impasse comes in cases when a person has outgrown the environment around him. It may not be entirely correct to say this, but people often become depressed when they feel that all the peaks have been reached and there is no way forward. In this case, you need to think about your capabilities and achievements; perhaps you are simply beginning a new stage in your life.

• Check how much sugar you consume

Numerous studies have proven that sugar does not help get out of a state of depression, but puts a person into a state of chronic depression, making a person more dependent on its consumption, and also has a detrimental effect on general health and appearance.

• Do something

Any physical activity stimulates the release of endorphins, in which case depression simply has no chance. Start actively playing sports 2-3 times a week. If you are a fan of “sitting on the couch,” well, then the cause of depression is obvious.

• Try to get out into the sun more

Exposing your skin to sunlight helps produce vitamin D, another weapon in the fight against depression. In some cases, when solar activity decreases, experts advise resorting to the services of a solarium.

• Change your thinking

It is very easy to focus on the problem, but in the same way you can focus all your efforts to get out of depression. Sometimes you just need to change your attitude towards a problem, and it will lose its significance. Often, with the help of depression, people try to attract attention to themselves - understand, this is doomed to failure.

• Watch your diet

Often it is the way a person eats and the foods he eats that plunge him into depression. Try to reconsider the foods you eat. When choosing products, pay attention to the content of omega acids and vitamin D. It is worth considering that certain substances are absorbed only in combination with others, for example, fats.

• Laughter is the best medicine

Laughter itself releases endorphins. Of course, if you've hit the rock bottom of depression, this may not help. However, sometimes you just have to look at negative things with humor and everything will work out. There is always a “sunny side of life”.

• Yawning can also have a positive effect

This may seem completely stupid to some, but it's worth a try. If you think that yawning in the presence of strangers is indecent, then do it in private. There is research that says yawning relaxes and calms the brain.

Evening depression concept

Many people live at a crazy pace, often experience stress, and do not have time to rest. As a result, at the end of the working day they have a state where nothing makes them happy. A person wants to be alone, experiences apathy, melancholy, and emptiness. Often in this state, people feel helpless, as if they do not see any way out of this problem.

What could be the causes of evening depression?

1. Fatigue from daily stress. Most often these include work issues and stress. With the help of apathy, the body tells you that it is time to stop and relax.
2. After work, the rest of the day is free. During the day you are busy with work and household chores, but in the evening you most often have nothing to do. And if you have an anxious character, then there is a high probability that you will spend this time on soul-searching.
3. Lack of a clear daily routine, bad habits. Improper regimen and harm to health destroy the nervous system and further aggravate melancholy.

Evening depression
events also affect your emotional state . For example, if something unpleasant happened to you a couple of weeks ago, then there is a high probability that you are still experiencing negativity. Often people scroll through these thoughts in their heads when they have free time, thereby plunging themselves into a pool of despondency.

If you do not get rid of depression, then over time it will cause not only emotional, but also physical harm to the body.

Getting rid of this habit is difficult, but possible. If you try not to focus on this, do not touch this wound at least temporarily and be distracted by other emotions, then negative experiences can be avoided.

Symptoms of evening depression

Signs of this condition:

• constant sadness and depression;
• lack of interest in life;
• feeling of hopelessness;
• vulnerability, the ability to get angry or cry over little things;
• desire to withdraw into oneself;
• lethargy, slow speech, absent-mindedness;
• stiffness in movements, weak reactions of the body to external stimuli;
• decreased libido;
• low self-esteem, the appearance of complexes;
• sleep disorders;
• health problems (weight loss, etc.).

Sadness and despondency

Instead of conclusions

There is no generally accepted opinion as to what causes depression. Various factors contribute to the development of this disease, here is what you should pay attention to if you have the first signs of depression:

• Biological differences. People suffering from depression have physical changes in the brain. The significance of these changes is still being determined, but it may help identify the underlying causes of the disease.
• Chemical composition of the brain. Neurotransmitters are natural brain chemicals and likely play an important role in the development of depression. When this chemical is imbalanced, symptoms of depression may occur.
• Hormones. Changes in hormonal levels can cause or contribute to the development of depression. Hormonal imbalances can be caused by thyroid problems, menopause, or a number of other conditions.
• Heredity. Depression most often develops in people whose biological relatives suffered from this disease. Researchers are trying to find genes that contribute to the development of depression.
• Events in life. Traumatic events such as the death or loss of a loved one, financial problems, stress or childhood trauma can also cause depression in some people.

Causes of depression

No matter how strong and smart a person is, he may be affected by this problem. Depression does not select victims based on gender, age or social status. Everything is at risk.

But there are some populations that are most at risk. First of all, these are people who are constantly in a hurry and don’t have time. Their body is subject to severe stress, so the nervous system may not be able to withstand it.

It's hard to keep up with the frantic pace of life. The world a few decades ago was completely different. Life was more stable, less stress. What now? There is competition everywhere, only the one who runs faster reaches the finish line. Nerves give way especially to those who have low self-esteem, a high level of self-criticism and a pessimistic attitude. The chances of developing depression are high.

The source of stress can be any reason, any situation from which you cannot quickly find a way out: loneliness, an unexpected promotion or dismissal, a quarrel in the family, unfulfilled dreams.
First of all, prolonged stress is indicated by an obsessive thought, thinking about the same problem, without making a decision. This is also indicated by the sudden appearance of absent-mindedness, nervousness, frequent mood swings, irritability, redness or excessive pallor of the skin, explains business coach Alexey Churin.

Also at risk are teenagers, young women in the postpartum period, men over 40, people living in poverty or who have been victims of violence.

Problems in the family, at work, rejection by society or a constant need for something forces you to fall into depression. But it is men who often become victims, because unlike women, they do not try to find a way out, but drown all their problems in alcohol. This only worsens the emotional state.

Women are more susceptible to depression than men due to hormonal changes in the body: menstruation, pregnancy, childbirth, menopause.
Physiological factors include debilitating chronic diseases, side effects after long-term use of medications, heredity, and temperamental characteristics, ” adds practicing psychologist Olga Alpeeva.

Social factors also influence mental health:

• loneliness, especially among women raising children on their own;
• unemployment, lack of money;
• loss of loved ones;
• aggressive or visually poor environment;
• violence, threat of violence.

Heredity plays an important role in depressive predisposition. At risk are the relatives of those who committed suicide and became addicted to alcohol and drugs.

There are other causes of depression:

• chronic fatigue;
• severe psychological stress (death of a loved one, news of a serious illness, violence);
• brain injury;
• severe diseases of internal organs;
• undergone surgery, which led to disturbances in the functioning of the brain;
• self-rejection, social rejection (due to excess weight, physical defects).