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Depression

Depression is a serious mental illness - serious both in the consequences that it can pose for individuals as well because the number of individuals who are affected with the condition, which has a number of different causes.

The causes of depression cited in the DSM-IV include both biological and possibly genetic causes as well as a range of environmental ones. In many individuals, depression is caused by an interaction between biological and environmental (both personal and general) factors. Depression is categorized as an affective disorder, which means that it is one of the forms of mental illness in which the defining characteristic is a mood disturbance. The affective changes in depression is a feeling of sadness (which matches with the popular understanding of the disorder) but it is also marked by feelings of guilt, as well as helplessness and hopelessness. It is these last three that are at least as debilitating as the sadness itself.

Mental illness is far more common than many people realize, which makes it all the more important that we each be able to recognize it in others and be able to offer at least some help for the condition. It is impossible to know exactly how many people are afflicted with mental disorders. Certainly, we can gain some sense of the problem from the numbers of admissions to psychiatric facilities, but many, many people who suffer from mental illness never seek treatment. This may be especially true in minority populations in which there is prejudice in the community against being treated for such conditions as well as lack of good information about treatment possibilities (Hickey etal, 1996).

Depression does not all segments of the population equally: Adolescents and minorities are especially at risk, which is why this research is aimed particularly at discovering possible ways in which adolescents can reduce their risks for depression (Goodman, E. & Whitacker, 2002).

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Depression. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 18:58, March 28, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1688364.html