Causes of Depression

Rather than look at the causes of depression as though depression were a fully understood condition, let’s look at it in manageable packets. Exploring and understanding risk factors related to depression can go a long way toward making decisions about treatment and acceptance of a bout of major depression.

Also, as everyone is different, so to are the factors or causes of any one case of depression. For one person depression may have a side effect of increased sleep and fatigue, while another person may respond to depression with opposite symptoms of excess energy or overdrive modes of behavior.

Risk factors related to depression:

• Age

Though major depression typically occurs in people between the ages of 25 and 50, those over the age of 65 are particularly vulnerable for various reasons.

• Gender

Women are about as twice as likely as men in the United States to be diagnosed and treated for depression. About 20-25% of women and 12% of men will experience a serious bout of depression at least one time in their lifetimes. Among children, depression seems to happen in equal numbers of boys and girls. Then, as the sexes reach adolescence, girls tend to become more depressed than boys do. This gender imbalance with major depression continues into older age.

Women are both historically more likely to seek treatment for depression and negative feelings that may be occurring, such as feelings of hopelessness or worthlessness, though even more recent stats show an increasing number of men seeking self improvement therapy sessions.

• Marital Status

People who are unhappily married, separated or divorced have high rates of major depression. The rates of major depression are considerably lower for those who are happily married.

Risk factors do not ensure that someone will develop a depressive episode, and everyone has the susceptibility of developing depression from time to time. Risk factors are just a way of saying that of those that had the worst depression symptoms the listed features were present as well.

• Environment

The environment of where you work with and who you stay with played a great part on the effects on the person concerned. If you have good people around, it is good for your mind and health. If you have negative people around, it is much worse for your mind and health.

Depressive illnesses often interfere with normal functioning and cause pain and suffering not only to those who have a disorder, but also to those who care about them. Serious depression can destroy family life as well as the life of the ill person. But much of this suffering is unnecessary.

Most people with a depressive illness do not seek treatment, although the great majority-even those whose depression is extremely severe-can be helped. Thanks to years of fruitful research, there are now medications and psychosocial therapies such as cognitive/behavioral, “talk,” or interpersonal that ease the pain of depression.

Unfortunately, many people do not recognize that depression is a treatable illness. If you feel that you or someone you care about is one of the many undiagnosed depressed people in this country, the information presented here may help you take the steps that may save your own or someone else’s life.