Depression is now considered as the most common mental illness. As of September 20, 2012, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reported that about 9 percent of Americans are experiencing depression and 90 percent of suicidal reports are commonly caused by depression. The brain has a certain chemicals that work to keep your moods balanced. When your brain is not generating enough of these chemicals, there’s a tendency for you to become depressed. Depression is commonly referred to as mood disorder. Everyone occasionally feel sad or blue, but these feelings are usually short-lived and pass within a couple of days. When you have a depression, you just don’t feel sad; it’s an intense feeling of grief that can stay for even a couple of years.
According to the experts, depression is most likely caused by a combination of genetic, biological, environment, and psychological factors. Researches have noted differences in the brain of people who are depressed as compared to people who are not. For instance, a small part of the brain that is vital to the storage of memories called hippocampus appears to be smaller in people with a history of depression than those who’ve never been depressed. A smaller hippocampus has fewer serotonin receptors. Serotonin is a calming chemical known as neurotransmitter that allows communication between nerves in the cells and the body. Some types of depression tend to runs in families. However, it is possible that depression can occur in people without family histories of depression. Some incidents that are happening at puberty can trigger a hereditary propensity for depression; such as difficult relationship, influence of environment, social and physical stress, trauma, loss of a loved one, and may even occur without an obvious trigger.
People with depressive illness do not all experienced the same symptoms. The severity, frequency, and duration of symptoms vary depending on the individual’s particular illness. To