Depression - Past, and Present

Depression appears in ancient texts as early as the second millennium BC, is considered a disease of the spirit rather than the body. Hippocrates, the father of medicine, is the one who gives the first name to this disposition: melancholy, a term that referred to the emotional side of suffering.

Depression - little history

It was the Stoic philosophers who argued that mental and emotional disorders were caused by a misperception of one's own experiences and life situations. This early approach is very similar to the cognitive-behavioral therapy applied today; The purpose of this form of therapy is to help the sufferer to identify the wrong thoughts or, more correctly, irrational and to replace them with some that are consistent with reality, logically argued.

German psychiatrist Emil Kraepelin was the first to use the term depression, calling various types of melancholy depressive states. Later, the term "depression" began to be used in conjunction with "melancholy", replacing it permanently in the middle of the twentieth century.

Depression - common symptoms

Today, ICD-10 (International Classification of Diseases, 10th Revision) describes two main sets of symptoms that define a depressive episode: typical symptoms and common symptoms. Based on these two sets of symptoms, the three varieties of depressive episodes are defined: mild, moderate, and severe.

Thus, the typical symptoms of a depressive episode are depressed mood, loss of interest in previously enjoyable activities, and reduced energy levels, which leads to decreased activity and slowness in expression and movement. Common symptoms of a depressive episode include deep sadness and dissatisfaction, strong feelings of worthlessness and guilt, disturbed concentration and inability to make decisions, a desire for everything to end.

In addition to the multiple definitions, depression is a very intimate personal mental, and emotional disorder. Moreover, the way we all experience depression and how we interpret what happens to us is generated not only by our feelings but also by what our culture tells us that those feelings should mean.

Depression vs. sadness

Depression is not a temporary condition, it is a disorder of the body, thoughts, and mood. Depression undermines a person's motivation and affects his daily life in its most common aspects. Usually, it brings suffering to both the person concerned and those close to them.

Depression is often associated with silent despair. Depression is the sadness that has lost its source. A sad person knows the reason for his sadness, he can identify the triggering moment, while a depressed person does not.

People need to understand that it is okay to feel sad, sadness is an engine that helps us recover from certain situations, but if you are completely devitalized and become unable to function at some point in your life… then it may be depression.

Why does depression occur?

The predisposition to develop depression comes from several directions:

• brain biochemistry (imbalances in some neurotransmitters in the brain);

• genetics (depression can be inherited);

• personality (a person's way of being and looking at the world);

• environmental factors (exposure to violence, abuse, poverty, neglect).

With the COVID-19 pandemic, we are experiencing a dual crisis of physical and mental health. The mental health crisis is a real one and must be taken into account; mental problems should not be ignored; they are not a luxury, but they can be just as destructive and stressful as the virus.

Pandemic depression

Andrew Solomon, a professor of clinical psychology and writer, notes that there are four major types of reactions during the current pandemic:

• people with strong, vigorous mental health were not severely affected;

• worried and scared people - they need psychological first aid in these moments because they have to regulate their sleep, their diet, to make sure that they stay in touch with their loved ones;

• people who previously did not suffer from mental or emotional disorders and are now experiencing them for the first time;

• people who had been suffering from mental illness since before the pandemic and whose mental health has now deteriorated.

There are many ways to get depressed (prolonged stress, poor social and personal relationships, negative life events, loss of a loved one, and more). And suffering is found in everything. The most deceptive feeling that depression gives you is that what you are experiencing now is final and that you will never feel better.

To some extent, depression is caused by a person's inability to cope with his or her negative feelings. This is exactly what psychotherapy proposes, mental hygiene and tools to deal with these feelings.

Thus, it can be said that in the treatment of depression, psychotherapy is a discipline; the discipline of looking for a primary motive, of a beginning moment that short-circuited a person's idea of ​​meaning.