The Changing Perspective Of Wellness And Fitness

The Changing Perspective of Wellness and Fitness: A Guide to Prevent and Overcome Depression as an Emotional and Mental Illness <First Name Last Name> <University> Wellness is an active, and dynamic process of becoming aware of and making decisions that will sustain a living with a more balanced and fulfilling life. As decades passed, the concept of wellness has changed and refined. During the 50th BC, Ancient Romans described it as the capability of an individual to be free from physical illnesses, and highly prioritized the idea of public health system focusing on preventing and treating diseases as key for a healthier population. However, as time passes by, medical practitioners in the US emphasized the holistic nature of wellness which encompasses several dimensions, including not only physical, but social, academic, spiritual, environmental, financial, and emotional aspects as well. Although physical health is central to a person's well-being, people realized the importance of the complete state of physical, mental, and social wellness to strive a sense of balance and harmony in life, particularly in the satisfactory condition of existence (“The History of Wellness”, 2016). Mental well-being, in comparison with other state, has been one of the essential tools necessary for establishing an overall wellness. The ability of our mind to maintain a positive outlook on life and to develop a preventive and coping mechanism to overcome stress allow an individual to also avoid the risk of physical sickness and social dilemmas. One of the most controversial and widely-spread emotional health problem in the world is depression. According to research, depression stands to be one of the most leading cause not only of emotional disorders but of serious physical health concerns often manifested in the forms of insomnia, poor nutrition, and heart diseases. In this article, depression as a mental illness will be explained including its causes and effects to an individual, especially the youth. Several ways of preventing and coping depression will also be discussed in the light of giving hope through effective methods to use for a continuous healthy growth and development. “Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer”. This quotation will be our motivation as we dig deeper into the core and nature of depression as a mental illness. Indeed, the best way to maintain a healthy well-being is to avoid any particular mental or even physical diseases through the wiser approach of learning its dirty tactics. Understanding how our body works and how depression strikes, plays a relevant portion in order to strategize oneself of how to overcome it or better yet prevent this from happening so to obtain a successful mental wellness. Let’s start by having a grasp of depression as an illness- its causes, effects, and symptoms. Depression, as known by many, is a common and crucial medical illness that harmfully affects a person’s emotions, thought processes, and behavior. According to the US, 10% of American adults over the age of 18 experienced depression annually and almost 16.6% encountered depression at some point in their life. Depression has believed to be caused by the combination of genetic, biological, environmental, and psychological factors. Depression may run in the family. Some people were born with a vulnerable tendency to acquire stress and depression in an easy manner. Biological as a result of chemical changes brought by abusive used of drugs and alcohol remained to be another cause. Lastly, a major life stress, which includes piled-up problems in the family, job, finances, chronic illness, and loss of a loved one constitute both the environmental and psychological factors resulting to depression (“Keys to Recovering from Depression”, 2017). Depression among teenagers has been the primary cause of attempting and committing suicide. It is very alarming how suicide turned to be the third leading cause of death from the youth aging fifteen to twenty-four years old. Thus, it simply emphasized how the destructive effects of depression go farther than a simple gloomy mood. This also broadens our horizon of how important that an individual should also recognize the presence of this anxiety into his/her life aside from just knowing the possible causes so to sustain a healthy well-being and promote a successful growth and development. Depression might sound terrifying among youths since it's hard to determine whether they are simply experiencing natural ups and downs as an adolescent or they already facing the anxiety. Thus, depressive symptoms should be carefully monitored if it’s already evident in multiple areas of the youth’s life. Changes in eating and sleeping habits, significant weight gain or loss, health complaints without physical ailments including insomnia, panic attacks, and hallucinations are some of the physically visible symptoms identified by experts. Withdrawal from friends and family, sadness, or hopelessness, a feeling of worthlessness and guilt, as well as irritability and lack of concentratio...