In this BBC documentary it says that only someone who has had it can really know the truth about depression. Depression causes such a turmoil of emotions that is can be completely debilitating for the person who clinically depressed. As the documentary says there is a one in four chance that a person will be affected by depression at some point of their lives. Depression does not worry about age – it can get you at any time of your life. And as if the symptoms of depression are not bad enough, it is also the stigma that is associated with depression that can cause terrible upset to the depressed person.
Truth about Depression
In Northern Ireland where this documentary is featured people with depression have to hide their illness as they are regarded a weak. In this report a 40 yer old man describes his first experience with the illness. He was a young student and he started to feel very anxious and had to get off the bus on a motorway and he called his father to pick him up. He had no idea what was wrong with him. He spend the next year unable to go out of the house and has battled for over 20 years with mental health problems.
Fortunately thanks to the development of neuroscience, brain imaging can be used in the test for depression and its affects on the brain. These test show that in a depressed person their hippocampus, the area of the brain associated with emotion and memory, is at lest 25% smaller than a non-depressed person. This is encouraging research as it proves depression is real. Some people do not believe there is such a thing as depression and people that say they have it are faking. But thanks to resent research there is now scientific proof that depressions is a real phenomena. It is also good for the suffers of depression as they now know they are not suffering from what the doubters called a non-existent illness. Although the fact that the hippocampus is 25% smaller in a depressed person is proof the disease exists is encouraging. What is even more revealing is that the 25% reduction in the hippocampus can be brought back to normal size if treatment is received. This treatment can be through the talking cures of psychotherapy, psychology, counselling and other therapy methods.
It is a great video about the truth about depression as it describes what people have experienced through the ages. It talks about the use of lunatic asylums to the modern day discoveries within medicine.
If you don’t believe there is such an illness as depression – watch this and reflect on how you feel t the end of it.
If you are a suffer of depression – watch this and know that you are not alone and every day more and more is being discovered which will help find a cure for this disease.
Related Articles:
: Executive Coach & Leadership Consultant