Depression wears many faces, according to Help Guide, a exceptional website that is out to help people understand their afflictions. Their guide to understanding depression is thorough and easy to read. They explain the symptoms, how to recognize it in your family and friends, how to treat it, and what associated conditions often cause it.
"ScienceDaily (Nov. 16, 2010) — A new animal study suggests the immune system plays a role in depression. The research was presented at Neuroscience 2010, the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, held in San Diego..."
We've known for a long time that depression was somehow linked to chemical activity, but this article goes further by giving more precise information about how the immune system is involved. Carrying that information further, we can safely guess that the immune system interacting with nerve pathways and brain chemicals have a greater influence on moods, their different varieties and their associated diseases than is commonly believed.
Based on today's research, the following are my thoughts on depression: Depression wears many faces, according to Help Guide, a exceptional website that is out to help people understand their afflictions. Their guide to understanding depression is thorough and easy to read. They explain the symptoms, how to recognize it in family and friends, how to treat it, and what associated conditions often cause it.
"Science Daily (Nov. 16, 2010) — A new animal study suggests the immune system plays a role in depression. The research was presented at Neuroscience 2010, the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, held in San Diego..."
We've known for a long time that depression was somehow linked to chemical activity, but this article goes further by giving more precise information about how the immune system is involved. Carrying that information further, we can safely guess that the immune system interacting with nerve pathways and brain chemicals have a greater influence on moods, their different varieties and their associated diseases, than is commonly believed.
Symptoms of depression vary. It is doubtful if the normal low moods that everyone has from time to time can be considered depression, but if the mood is down more often than it is up, deepens, then it is pathological. To distinguish the two conditions, feelings come into play. If in a normal low time one is not up to par on a particular day or for a particular reason, but the reason is understood, tolerated, it is not depression in the overall sense of the word; on the other hand, if feelings of helpless, of having nothing to look forward to, and there is nothing but despair, then its is depression.
Loss of interest, either sleeping too much, or hardly sleeping; eating too much or too little with consequent overweight or underweight; Agitated, always irritable and quarrelsome; low energy levels, fatigue, inability to do simple chores without feeling tired out and exhausted, explains severe depression.
When these symptoms, along with wrong thinking such as feelings of worthlessness or obsessive guilt, inability to concentrate, inability to make decisions, memory blanks, headaches, muscle aches, and other physical complaints, talk of self harm, then it is time for friends and relatives to get that person help. They will be unable to do it for themselves since their system, for whatever reason, will not be understandable to them.
Depression is actually a symptom of other illnesses, as a result of some chemical imbalance that in turn dismantles other systems to the point they are rendered ineffectual. It may also originate from wrong thinking that sends false messages to other parts of the body and therefore creating disturbing amounts of chemical activity whether it be too much or too little. Finding out the relationship between it and other conditions both physically and mentally, is basically how treatment starts.
Other than realizing that the problem is real and is not the fault of the one suffering from it, is the first step toward treatment. That is why headlines that tell of breakthroughs in the management of depression are so welcomed. In the latest one that traces depression to a chemical imbalance (Science Daily) they explain that "Activation of the immune system caused mice to learn to run less on wheels in their cages -- an activity they normally like. The mice resumed their normal activity when the action of interleukin-6, an immune hormone that carries "sickness" signals to the brain, was blocked."
That is what internal messaging systems are about, and when the necessary chemicals are missing, it is like trying to print out a sheet of instructions when the printer is out of ink. The body, believe it or not, functions inwardly and outwardly in much the same way. And in both cases, sometimes there is too much, too little, none, or surplus garbage being spread about causing problems.(My thoughts are also published on Helium.com)
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