What is depression.

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Depression is the leading cause of disability in the world; in the United States, close to ten percent of adults struggle with the disease. But because it’s a mental illness, it can be a lot harder to understand than, say, high cholesterol. Helen M. Farrell examines the symptoms and treatments of depression, and gives some tips for how you might help a friend who is suffering.

Transcript

00:00Depression is the leading cause of disability in the world.

00:05In the United States, close to 10% of adults struggle with depression.

00:09But because it's a mental illness,

00:11it can be a lot harder to understand than, say, high cholesterol.

00:15One major source of confusion

00:17is the difference between having depression and just feeling depressed.

00:22Almost everyone feels down from time to time,

00:25getting a bad grade, losing a job, having an argument,

00:29even a rainy day can bring on feelings of sadness.

00:32Sometimes there's no trigger at all.

00:34It just pops up out of the blue.

00:36Then circumstances change, and those sad feelings disappear.

00:40Clinical depression is different.

00:42It's a medical disorder,

00:44and it won't go away just because you want it to.

00:46It lingers for at least two consecutive weeks

00:49and significantly interferes with one's ability to work, play, or love.

00:55Depression can have a lot of different symptoms,

00:57low mood, loss of interest in things you'd normally enjoy,

01:00changes in appetite, feeling worthless or excessively guilty,

01:04sleeping either too much or too little, poor concentration,

01:09restlessness or slowness, loss of energy, or recurrent thoughts of suicide.

01:14If you have at least five of those symptoms,

01:17according to psychiatric guidelines, you qualify for a diagnosis of depression.

01:22And it's not just behavioral symptoms.

01:25Depression has physical manifestations inside the brain.

01:29First of all, there are changes that could be seen with the naked eye and x-ray vision.

01:34These include smaller frontal lobes and hippocampal volumes.

01:38On a more micro scale, depression is associated with a few things.

01:43The abnormal transmission or depletion of certain neurotransmitters,

01:47especially serotonin, norepinephrine, and dopamine.

01:50Blunted circadian rhythms, or specific changes in the REM and slow wave parts of your sleep cycle,

01:57and hormone abnormalities, such as high cortisol and deregulation of thyroid hormones.

02:04But neuroscientists still don't have a complete picture of what causes depression.

02:09It seems to have to do with a complex interaction between genes and environment,

02:14but we don't have a diagnostic tool that can accurately predict where or when it will show up.

02:20And because depression's symptoms are intangible,

02:23it's hard to know who might look fine but is actually struggling.

02:26According to the National Institute of Mental Health,

02:29it takes the average person suffering with a mental illness over 10 years to ask for help.

02:35But there are very effective treatments.

02:37Medications and therapy complement each other to boost brain chemicals.

02:41In extreme cases, electroconvulsive therapy,

02:45which is like a controlled seizure in the patient's brain, is also very helpful.

02:49Other promising treatments, like transcranial magnetic stimulation,

02:53are being investigated, too.

02:56So if you know someone struggling with depression,

02:58encourage them, gently, to seek out some of these options.

03:03You might even offer to help with specific tasks,

03:05like looking up therapists in the area,

03:07or making a list of questions to ask a doctor.

03:10To someone with depression, these first steps can seem insurmountable.

03:15If they feel guilty or ashamed,

03:17point out that depression is a medical condition, just like asthma or diabetes.

03:21It's not a weakness or a personality trait,

03:24and they shouldn't expect themselves to just get over it,

03:27any more than they could will themselves to get over a broken arm.

03:31If you haven't experienced depression yourself,

03:33avoid comparing it to times you've felt down.

03:37Comparing what they're experiencing to normal, temporary feelings of sadness

03:41can make them feel guilty for struggling.

03:43Even just talking about depression openly can help.

03:47For example, research shows that asking someone about suicidal thoughts

03:51actually reduces their suicide risk.

03:54Open conversations about mental illness help erode stigma,

03:57and make it easier for people to ask for help.

04:00And the more patients seek treatment,

04:02the more scientists will learn about depression,

04:05and the better the treatments will get.

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