Mental illness

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Depression
Mental depression is one of the biggest health problems which have been on the fore front of the public domain across the global world. Depression can be described as a form of mental disorder which affects a person’s thoughts, moods and feelings (Bowes, 2000, 16). It starts as a respond to failure in achieving personal goals and if left unattended, it propagates and can render the individual less effective in performing normal daily activities and inability to appreciate a person’s identity and self worthy. Depression is venerable to people at all stages of growth but the extent to which the impacts are felt and dealt with varies from one individual to the other (Watson, 2005, 46). The complexity of depression arises when the victims fail to realize that he or she is depressed. As a consequence therefore, they fail to seek or get the help they deserve. The impacts accumulate and the situation becomes worse and last longer. Subsequently, the victim becomes less active and rendered less capable of achieving the best out of life. In this context therefore, the issue of depression is worthy to discuss (Stern, 2003, p.23). This essay seeks to highlight why depression is one of the biggest health problems facing the world today.
Top on the list of the reasons why depression is one of the biggest health challenges in the modern society is that unlike many other health hazards, the effects of depression are felt by not only the person but also the family and friends. Interacting with a depressed person is challenging and can amount to depression which has several negative impacts to the human body. This is because it is extremely difficult to predict the actions they are capable of doing at any moment. Victims of extreme cases of depression are venerable to committing suicide and can get involved in violence, drug taking and alcohol (Watson, 2005, 47). These activities have far reaching effects to health and can amount to death.
Another worthy noting effect of depression which puts it on the lead of health hazard s is a condition termed insomnia. Insomnia is defined as the inability to get enough sleep. A depressed person experiences irregular pattern of sleep which might involve waking up at the middle of the sleep, waking up early and failing to sleep again as well as a feeling of restlessness. Failure to get enough sleep dictates that the person has not had enough rest hence he/she is incapable of executing their responsibilities and daily task. The victim is always tired and incapable of coordinating and making as well as executing sound decision (Davidson, et al, 2002, p.62). The situation worsens if left unattended and the victim can commit suicide which is a common in the modern society.
Still to be noted here is the effect of depression on body weight. A depressed person finds it difficult to stick and adopt a healthy eating habit. This is evidenced by people who forego food amounting to loss of weight. On the other end, depressed people can also start overeating resulting into overweight and obesity at worse (Hurt, 2007, 6). As a consequence therefore, the individual’s physical appearance changes and the situation become more complex and can amount to suicide and drug taking if the individual does not appreciate the state. Obesity which occurs due to over eating imposes threats to health because it leads to heart diseases which are fatal.
In addition to this, depressed people consume most of their time and effort thinking about their lives. Thoughts of gilt worry and helplessness drains ones potential and the victim’s becomes less physically active (Benek, et al, 2008, p.3). When this situation is compounded by over eating, the victim can be overweight and can suffer from obesity which again has negative impacts both emotionally and physically.
Depression still has severe damages to physical health. This includes but not limited to body ache, fatigue and digestive related problems. These are unhealthy feelings which impose a lot of pain to the human body rendering the victims less effective and incapable of executing their daily activities (Davidson, et al, 2002, p.66). Digestive related complications like ulcers are fatal and their treatment is involving and expensive. In this context therefore, depression is a main challenge to health.
Depression as a condition can affect any body at any stage of growth. However, the effects vary from one individual to the other along the stages of growth (Watson, 2005, 49). For instance, young children and the adolescent who are depressed develop a feeling of insecure, gilt, demanding and irritable. Subsequently, they become afraid of doing challenging activities like studies. Consequently, they drop out of school and or indulge in abusing drugs and alcohol to counteract their feelings and to escape disturbing thoughts hence creating dependency on drugs which again damages the body physically and emotionally. Depression among the older people can lead chronicle physical disorders like stroke and cardiovascular diseases which are fatal.
Scientific research shows that there is a direct connection between depression and thyroid diseases. Thyroid diseases are characterized by abnormal production of thyroid hormones which have many far reaching physiological effects on the body. Top on t...