Socio-economic status, trauma or loss, personality problems, stress and anxiety are some of the chief contributors of depression.
Recently, the spate of suicides in cities like Mumbai, India, point to the fact that depression is becoming more and more common among the young.
Psychiatrists attribute suicide to be a consequence of severe depression.
Depression can occur due to various reasons – it can be genetic, bio-chemical or even environmentally induced. The recent spate of suicides, according to health professionals, is a result of being in an environment that induces undue stress and pressure in the lives of youngsters, leading to depression.
Socio-economic status, trauma or loss, personality problems, stress and anxiety, aging are some of the chief contributors of depression, among both the young and old.
People of all age groups encounter depression – women, for instance, especially in various stages of hormonal changes in their bodies, experience depression – puberty, post-pregnancy (known as postpartum depression) as well as pre and post menopausal phases. The elderly, especially those in the twilight phase of their lives, are known to exhibit symptoms of depression, and suicide may often be a resulting consequence of depression in them.
Often people confuse sadness with depression. While any low emotional state of mind may be referred to as depression by many, clinical depression is different.
Signs and symptoms: Signs of clinical depression are a persistently sad, anxious, and empty state of mind; reduced appetite and weight loss, or increased appetite and weight gain; a constant feeling of guilt and restlessness and recurrent thoughts of death and suicide.
Understanding when sadness transforms into a depressive disorder is crucial to the treatment of depression.
Early recognition and treatment of depression is the only way to prevent depression from transcending into suicide.
Coming back to identifying whether it is chronic depression or societal stress transforming into depression and leading to suicides among the young, health authorities are planning to renew a decade-old study carried out in Mumbai, to find remedies to curb this social problem.
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