Help Me, I'm Depressed: Questions Answered Regarding Depression.

Depression Statistics: 

• 14.8 million (6.7%) adult Americans are affected by Major Depressive Disorderin a given year.  (Archives of General Psychiatry, 2005 Jun; 62(6) : 617-27)
• Women experience depression at twice the rate of men.  (Journal of the American Medical Association, 1996)
• Depression is the cause of over two-thirds of the 30,000 suicides reported every year in the U.S.  (White House Conference on Mental Health, 1999)
• Despite its high treatment success rate, nearly two out of three people suffering with depression do not actively seek nor receive proper treatment.  (Depression And Bipolar Support Alliance, 1996)  

      As you can see from the statistics presented above, the pervasiveness of depression is highly significant among our population and it only gets worse as time moves forward.  I would like to start this series out by looking at why people with depression do not seek treatment or why they wait until the level of severity becomes so intense that it becomes much more difficult to treat.  

Question: If depression has a high treatment success rate, then why do people forego treatment? 

• When people are depressed, the motivation to seek help can evaporate.

     The paradoxical nature of depression is perhaps one of its most debilitating characteristics.  A person who is truly depressed can experience an almost complete reversal in behavior and personality traits.  When depression hits, instincts for self-preservation disappear, the panacea of sleep diminishes and biological drives such as sex and hunger become irrelevant.  Any enjoyment in life is replaced with the drive to intensify emotional pain and suffering.  For example, the depressed person will intentionally avoid engaging in behaviors or activities that will improve their situation.  Exercising, eating healthy and seeking out counseling or therapy are just a few things that will be avoided even though they are known to be helpful.  Escape, avoidance and withdrawal consume the depressed person.

     The motivation to seek help is absent because those experiencing depression become enraptured by pessimism and negative thought patterns. This in turn engenders beliefs that they deserve to be miserable and that they are undeserving of a happy and fulfilling life.  In other words, they do not seek help because they do not believe they are worthy of being helped.       

• Stigma in seeking help is still present.

     Even though counseling and psychotherapy have become much more accepted and mainstream since their inception, the stigma to seek out mental health services still presides.  Most people do not have a problem seeking out medical services when they are physically ill or having a medical crisis.  The same cannot be said for people experiencing mental illness or emotional crises.  Perhaps it is because people see that medical problems are outside their locus of control whereas emotional problems are not.  When it comes to emotional difficulties, many people feel that they should be able to handle them on their own without any outside assistance.  On a similar note, some even feel that they have some how failed in their personal lives if they have to ask for emotional assistance.  Not too many people feel guilty or ashamed to ask for help when they are afflicted with medical conditions like diabetes or cancer.  The fact remains that those who can humble themselves to seek help for their emotional and psychological problems are more likely to make improvements in their lives. 

For more information on depression, please visit http://www.thoughtperspectives.com.