Essay On Depression | Depression Essay In English {Step by Step Guide}
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Essay On Depression | Depression Essay In English
Introduction
We are in an era where depression seems to be at its peak. Everyone knows at least one or two persons that are close to them dealing with depression.
When you look at this, it feels quite alarming that the number of depressed people is growing day by day. But what is most alarming is the fact that despite depression having coverage for the past two decades, almost nothing has changed. I would even argue that things became worse!
Common Knowledge about Depression
Let me tell you what most people know about depression.
We are sad. Extremely sad. It is a genetic gene that gets triggered by tragic events (like the death of one’s love). We lose touch with reality in such a way that it might even be challenging to focus on our lives.
We are stuck in bed, incapable of making efforts because we aren’t motivated enough. We feel exhausted.
This is roughly what we are taught of depression. I have heard it from friends talking about it over coffee. Or from coworkers. At school. From psychologists. And so on.
Yet, despite the coverage of depression with campaigns by the government or organisms. Despite the coverage on the media and social media. We are, however, still extremely depressed.
And this means that there is a lot about depression that we do not understand yet. We do not know precisely where it is coming from. We have a lot of theories on it. Like genetics, or environment, social status, poverty, violence.
But then, when you look around you, when people talk about their life, it feels everyone has somewhat of depressive manners. Thoughts. Behaviors. Why?
Now, depression is many things. It includes sadness, but it is not just about being sad. It is about being sad to an extreme level. Some people have described it as a slow path to death.
Let say it is a sadness that brings such great emotional pain within a person that it can push him or her to harm oneself (like cutting the skin with a knife) or to suicide.
What Is Depression Actually?
I think there is more to this intense sorrow… I would like to point out, even from personal experiences, that more often than not, we have delusions that make us sad.
Thoughts that pop in our head and that just seem not to go away and that we started to believe because we hear those thoughts repeatedly over and over and over.
You’re pathetic. Nobody loves you. You are alone. And it goes on like this. It’s easier to help schizophrenics who perceived
that there is something foreign inside of them that needs to be exorcised. But it’s difficult with depressives because we believe we are seeing the truth.
But the truth lies. I became obsessed with that sentence but the truth lies. And I discovered as I talked to depressive people that they have many delusional perceptions.
Those delusions mean that it is a distorted vision of our reality. Those delusions are mostly based on our feelings, because
our emotions override, most of the time, our rationality.
And I think the most fascinating part of it all is that we tend to justify those delusions. Either by thinking “rationally” or by feeding our delusions with more delusions.
It ends up with a blended and mixed cooked right on point for a recipe that makes us and keeps us depressed.
“I am alone because no one loves me. No one understands me. I am gonna be such a burden to everyone around me. I feel so helpless. There is nothing that can be done”.
Explanation of the effect of Depression
Now let’s talk a bit scientific. Depression also has cognitive effects on us. When we talk about cognitive, we talk about what is going on between the neurons of our brain.
Those are the roads that our thoughts take, our concentration, and many other things so that we can normally function in our day-to-day life. Let me give you a simple example…
when you have a headache or migraine, there is a lot of things that stop working fine. Like your eyes can be sensitive to light. You can’t understand what someone is saying to you, or you simply feel like you lack focus at work or in class because your brain is distracted by this pain in your head.
Now, let’s understand from a depression point of view. A lot of depressed people experience similar problems. They would say that “We can’t think as straight as before and we can’t focus. We can’t seem to remember the important stuff or just even general stuff. And I can’t seem to take any good decision or even just take any decisions”.
This is my personal opinion, but I think that these cognitive dysfunctions increase the impact of the delusion we have during depressive moments. And this all leads to how it affects us physically.
Depression does affect our health, our body. You would feel low energy and probably would want to sleep more than usual. Heck, when I was depressed, I could not even get out of my bed.
I would just lay there for hours and on. And that’s where health problems can start appearing. Since our body does not move
as it used to, we become weak. Pain in joints like the knees or wrists.
Pain in the back, pain in the neck. When we say that depression can increase heart condition, it’s because if you don’t move all day for 6 months, well, your heart is not able to pump as it used to. And slowly slowly, your own heart becomes weak.
Now, considering all this. You might have heard that exercising helps you feel better. And also your appearance maybe would need a little exercise (you either became fat because you binge-eat a lot or you became too skinny
that you want to gain some muscles and weight).
In short, you probably got motivated, and you probably tried, because you want to feel better. you want to look good. Who doesn’t? But then you realize … heck it hurts.
Every portion of your body hurts. You can’t breathe properly, and your heart is pounding like crazy. Since your heart is not used anymore to working like it used to, he is like, “what am I supposed to do? What am I supposed to do now! I can’t pump!”
All that to end up to a loss of interest, motivation, and just going back to your depression, welcoming you with arms wide open.
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Explanation of Depression from a Neurological point of view
In our brains, we have a lot of parts like the cortex or the thalamus But the most powerful part of the brain is this tiny little part called the amygdala.
Now, to think rationally, we need our cortex. Or Cerebral Cortex. This big boi here is what we use to process information from the outer world. Like hearing, touching, smelling.
It is what we are using to reason and perceive the world that surrounds us. It is also the most conscious part of our brain. And this is something to note!
Now, with that said, the cortex also has other tasks. Like it attaches meaning and memories to our perception of the world.
Now before we get into our little scientific talk, I would like you to know that what we hear the most about depression is that it
is triggered by a certain kind of trauma.
And that trauma is so emotionally hard for us that it can bring us down emotionally. Death of a loved one. Violence in childhood. Neglection in childhood. Oppression. Isolation.
And much more trauma. Anything that is emotionally powerful enough can even overpass our ability to move on from this bad situation. And this ability of adaptation is mostly coming from our cortex.
Which helps us understanding and making logical decisions that are beneficial for ourselves. Even though our cortex can
act a little bit distorted sometimes.
More about the Amygdala: (Essay On Depression)
So when it comes to the amygdala, it is a part of our brain that is mostly unconscious. So we do not have any actual thought process in that part of the brain. Obviously, all the thoughts that you are having typically are coming from the cortex. Your neurons basically.
Now the amygdala mostly controls the release of hormones and activates areas of the brain that can trigger a physical reaction. So that’s why this bad Boi is extremely powerful. Because it has this shortcut to our body.
Also, our buddy, the amygdala, is the source of many of our emotional reactions. Whether they are positive or negative.
What you can do to Rewire your Brain?
Depression is vicious, not because we are extremely sad and that an event has been created. But it is vicious because we have no idea what the amygdala has associated an event with sorrowful and painful emotions.
When we say that childhood has a strong influence on how we are in adulthood, we mostly refer to the amygdala that shapes our emotional responses to the outer world.
The solution for depression, in my opinion, is first to understand the triggers that make the amygdala recall emotional memories.
Notice when you start feeling heavy-hearted or that tears are coming up. That your throat is sore. When you start feeling so empty inside.
Numb even! Why? What was the trigger? When you understand this trigger, you need to rewire your brain. Those triggers are usually called “stimuli”. Basically a stimulation.
Either from the eyes (what you see), or nose (what you smell), or skin (what you touch). And those things come from objects, events, or situations that you see, hear, feel, smell or experience.
And by doing so, the formation of emotional memory is basically learning how to be sad. Or how to fear. How to be anxious. It’s our amygdala that is learning all those negative feelings.
As said before, it is not supposed to be logical. But, lucky you. Your cortex is here to help you understand yourself to be able to cope with the amygdala. And that is by having an in-depth understanding of your own triggers. Of your own emotions.
And to train your brain in rewiring the amygdala in an effective way, knowledge of yourself is the key. That means facing yourself. You face it and analyze why it is there.
Don’t try to justify it because you will surely want to. But try to understand the root. And that is basically called, in the psychological, neurological field “exposure-based treatment”. This is all to give new experiences to the amygdala to associate with. And that is the first step to recovery.
Now let’s talk a bit about another thing that will help you along the way. Your cortex also has a role in your depression, and you need to take care of it. By doing so, understand your thought patterns. If you are having more negative or pessimistic thoughts, what started those chains of thoughts?
Understand, it is mostly the negative thoughts that you have, which creates this feeling of discouragement and wanting to give up. Remember when you tried to workout but got discouraged because your body is too weak… Well, your cortex is probably working in a pessimistic way at that moment.
To counter this, you will need to keep on doing your workout. Despite the physical pain. Remind yourself of the benefit in the long term. Remind yourself why you are doing it.
Rationalize your thoughts on the positive side. Don’t try to be perfect. And I underline this. Don’t. Try. To. Be. Perfect. Don’t rely
on motivation. Not at the beginning at least.
You need to make yourself disciplined and when you will see results, in your mood or your body, then you will naturally get more positive and motivated to continue.
But just hang in there until this moment! The first step is always the hardest, but don’t let your negative thoughts stop you. Push through the waves, and you will be proud of yourself when the storm of negativity slowly fades away!
Valuing one’s depression does not prevent a relapse. But it may make the prospect of relapse, and even relapse itself, easier to tolerate.
The question is not so much of finding great meaning and deciding your depression has been very meaningful. It’s at seeking that meaning. I’m thinking when it comes again, this will be hellish but I will learn something from it.
I had learned in my own depression how big an emotion can be. How it can be more real than facts. And I have found that that experience has allowed me to experience positive emotion in a more intense and more focused way. The opposite of depression is not happiness… but vitality.
Depression Essay Conclusion {The reality of our world today}
We just started understanding how to deal with our emotions and yet, there is not a lot of people aware of the technical part of our brain and emotions.
Why do certain pills do make us feel better? And why aren’t we taught about how to get in touch with ourselves in more depth Instead of trying to work onto ourselves and understanding,
we have machines that keep us in a wrong behavioral pattern where everyone seems oblivious to their own improvements!
It might take some years before we finally start being able to have an emotional grip on our amygdala. But trust me, if we begin by changing ourselves now, even just with our own depression, we will be able to change so much more in the future.
And your brain, trust me, your brain will be your best ally…
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