Are You at Risk of Depression?

When thinking about someone we don’t really think about their mental health or what they might be going through. The battles people go through within themselves is something that we don’t really don’t talk about. Anyone could be at risk of depression, there are a majority of risk factors to being diagnosed depressed. This could be based on family history, chronic physical or mental disorder, life changes, stress, no social support, and etc. So when you’re meeting someone for the first time think about how they might be fighting a battle that most people don’t see. Depression is something that many people don’t talk about but by discussing the risk factors of depression it shines a light on what might be causing people to develop depression in their lives.

The risk factor is something that might increase your likelihood of getting a disease or condition. The risk of depression can be related to a combination of genetic, physical, psychological, and environmental factors. However it could also be possible to develop depression with or without the risk factors. The more of these risk factors that a person has the likelihood of developing depression is greater.

A risk factor of depression could be family history. People with family history of depressive disorder have a higher chance of developing depression. This could also be attributed to a major life change. This could be serious loss, a difficult relationship, trauma, or financial problems. Based on an article by Everyday Health the depression rates in the United States are increasing. It states “Research published in The American Journal of Psychiatry found that major depression rates for American adults increased from 3.33 percent to 7.06 percent from 1991 through 2002. Depression is also considered a worldwide epidemic, with 5 percent of the global population suffering from the condition, according to the World Health Organization.” (Everyday Health, Chris Iliades). With the increasing rate of which depression is increasing, we should look into the risks of depression.

In a Vox article Zack talk about his experience with depression how he dealt with it and what it feels like to have depression. “Depression, for me, wasn’t sadness. Sadness is a feeling, and my depression was the opposite of feeling — a numbness, a sense that all value in the world was snuffed out. In order to feel sad, you have to care about something: My depression annihilated the very idea of caring.”(Vox, Zack Beauchamp). Zack says that he was 25 when he was going through depression and he found that there was almost nothing he could do, he felt hopeless. However Zack didn’t have a risk factor that caused him to have depression, as we can see depression could happen to anyone and not everyone has a risk factor that causes them to have depression. But these risk factors could increase your chances of developing depression and many people could be showing signs of depression that they might not know of.

 

These statistics show that there was increase to the amount of people that are depressed over the last year and based on the article by PSYCOM states that “According to the Journal of the American Medical Association, the lifetime incidence of depression in the United States is more than 20-26% for women and 8-12% for men.” (PSYCOM, Arnold Lieber, MD). He states that one of the major causes of depression could be found in the family tree. This means that your genetic is a big determining factor to you developing depression. This is a risk factor for a lot of people and their chances of developing depression.  It is said that 50 percent of adults with depression reported some degree of difficulty with work, home or social activities because of their depression. Depression affects a person’s life in many ways, by looking at these statistics we can see that depression is prevalent in our society and we need to address these issues to help people that may be dealing with this.

Another risk factor to depression is little or no social support. Having relationships with people is important to us as humans, we are social beings and not having social support or the feeling of being isolated could increase your chances of developing depression. “However, rates of depression have been found to be higher in women who are at home with young children, and those who describe themselves as isolated, compared to women who are working or have a supportive social network. In many cases, restricted social networks have been found to precede the onset of depression.” (Psychcentral, Ben Martin). Having social support and a social network might help a person battling depression but in a New York Times article they found the opposite. They said that Darwin used depression to succeed in his work and he used his depression to further his work. “For Darwin, depression was a clarifying force, focusing the mind on its most essential problems. In his autobiography, he speculated on the purpose of such misery; his evolutionary theory was shadowed by his own life story. “Pain or suffering of any kind,” he wrote, “if long continued, causes depression and lessens the power of action, yet it is well adapted to make a creature guard itself against any great or sudden evil.” And so sorrow was explained away, because pleasure was not enough. Sometimes, Darwin wrote, it is the sadness that informs as it “leads an animal to pursue that course of action which is most beneficial.” The darkness was a kind of light.”(New York Times, Jonah Lehrer). However this maybe Darwin’s way of dealing with his depression but it is still a risk of developing depression. Little or no social support could be a risk factor for developing depression. Not having someone to support you when you are going through something could be the catalyst for depression. Maybe Darwin didn’t have anyone to support him but his work speaks for itself. Many people that work through depression had someone to support them and help them through the difficult time.

Also being in a low socioeconomic group is a risk factor for depression. This could be due to low social status, cultural factors, financial problems, stressful environments, social isolation, and daily stress. In the article “Neglecting New Moms’ Health and Asians’ Mental Health.”  By The New York Times it discusses the lack of mental health services for the Asian community in New York. Being in a low socioeconomic group could increase your risk of developing depression. For instance it says “Yu Fen Wang’s family saw the signs of an impending breakdown, but they lacked the resources to find her the help that she needed. Cultural stigma prevents open discussion of mental health issues like depression in the Asian community. Even if a patient is willing to seek treatment, there are few hospitals and clinics equipped to offer culturally appropriate mental health services.” Yu Fen Wang’s families are in a low socioeconomic group and because of cultural factors they could get help for families’ depression. Being in an Asian community is what made it hard Wang’s family to find help with their breakdown in their family. There weren’t enough hospitals or clinics that were able to help them because the communities’ mental health services were not culturally appropriate. Also because of their environment they were not able to find help for the problem they were going through. This shows that being in a low socioeconomic group is risk factor for depression. Be an Asian American myself I can see that how this may be an important risk factor for depression, I can see why being at an disadvantage in society could put pressure on people leading them to develop depression.

Lastly having anxiety could increase you risk of developing depression. This is one of the psychological factors that could increase your risk of developing depression. “Certain psychological factors put people at risk for depression. People with low self-esteem, who consistently view themselves and the world with pessimism, or who are readily overwhelmed by stress, may be prone to depression. Other psychological factors, such as perfectionism and sensitivity to loss and rejection, may increase a person’s risk for depression. Depression is also more common in people with chronic anxiety disorders and borderline and avoidant personality disorders.” (Psychcentral, Ben Martin). Anxiety is when a person feels anxious in situation in their everyday lives and there is nothing they can really do about. Anxiety not only affects how person functions it is important to understand that anxiety can’t really be dealt with so people with anxiety tend to develop depression because they feel that nothing could be done with their condition. I have dealt with anxiety I can see why it is a risk factor of depression because it feels like you can’t do anything about the situation that you in right now. Other psychological factors could be changing your appetite, overeating or under-eating. Also deregulating your sleep schedule could be a psychological factor that may increase your risk of depression. A person habits and personality could be factors in which it might increase their risk of depression. If you’re a perfectionist having no control of your life could drive you to become depressed or if you recently loss someone important to you, these are just some examples of psychological factors that increase the risk of depression.

However it may seem like that there are a lot of risk factors for depression Joy Keller’s article states that when kids exercise it reduces their risk of getting depression. This is because it gives the kids a chance to work out their problems and help them figure out what might be brothering them in the life. “Participants (4,594 Minnesota students) were asked if they got 20 minutes of exercise at least three times a week; they also took a standard test for adolescent depression. Higher levels of physical activity at the start of the seventh grade were tied to lower levels of depression at the same point, and increased activity over the next 2 years was associated with reduced depressive symptoms at the end.” The study shows that exercising can reduce the stress levels in a child. Although we discussed a lot about the risk factors of developing depression, it is also important to know that there might be ways to prevent it and if you are showing signs of depression, you seek professional help.

In conclusion based the risk factors of depression you should ask yourself are you are risk of depression. You may feel depressed and not even know it, but mental health is complex and you should talk to a professional about it. Having an episode of depression is something we should be talking more with the increasing rates of depression in the United States, we should be looking at mental health as a whole and discuss it more often.

 

Bibliography

1) Martin, Ben. “What Are the Risk Factors for Depression?” Psych Central, 17 July 2016, psychcentral.com/lib/what-are-the-risk-factors-for-depression/.

2) Iliades, Chris. “Stats and Facts About Depression in America.” EverydayHealth.com, 23 Jan. 2013, www.everydayhealth.com/hs/major-depression/depression-statistics/.

3) Lehrer, Jonah. “Depression’s Upside.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 25 Feb. 2010, www.nytimes.com/2010/02/28/magazine/28depression-t.html.

4) Keller, Joy. “Exercise decreases risk of depression in kids.” IDEA Fitness Journal, Oct. 2004, p. 21. Academic OneFile, https://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/A123676585/AONE?u=cuny_ccny&sid=AONE&xid=057f3510. Accessed 18 Oct. 2018.

5) “Neglecting New Moms’ Health and Asians’ Mental Health.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 24 Oct. 2018, www.nytimes.com/2018/10/24/opinion/letters/birth-centers.html?rref=collection/timestopic/Mental Health and Disorders&action=click&contentCollection=health®ion=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=1&pgtype=collection.

6) “What Is Major Depression? The Signs, Symptoms & Treatment.” PsyCom.net – Mental Health Treatment Resource Since 1986, www.psycom.net/depression.central.major.html.

7) Beauchamp, Zack. “‘I Had Suicidal Depression. I Got Better. Here’s How.”.” Vox, Vox, 8 June 2018, www.vox.com/first-person/2018/6/8/17441450/anthony-bourdain-kate-spade-suicide-help.