Stressful work and life, reluctance to share and confide in others can lead to people suffering from depression. So what exactly is the harm of depression? Most people think that depression is just a poor mood, so they just need to relax and do not pay attention to it. In fact, depression can also lead to brain atrophy. What exactly is depression? Depression is not ordinary sadness or loss, let alone pretentiousness or posturing. It is a systemic disease and there is now a large body of evidence that it has an organic basis and can also affect various organs throughout the body. If we follow the definition of depression, it is a common mood disorder that can be caused by various reasons, with significant and persistent depression as the main clinical feature, and the depression is not proportional to its situation, and in severe cases, suicidal thoughts and behaviors can occur. In other words, the main manifestation of depression is a persistent low mood, and the performance of this low mood cannot be improved regardless of the individual’s situation; in addition to low mood, the patient will also experience a series of manifestations such as lack of pleasure and loss of motivation; this low mood may be caused by various reasons, and a very clear cause may not be found. Is depression caused by a person being too pretentious, too weak, and unable to think about everything? Do you think a person who is in a bad mood, weak, or guilty of pretending to be sick, can these make his brain atrophy? Obviously not. Although this brain atrophy can be relieved and reversed after medication, it certainly proves from one perspective that this is an objective disease that can cause changes in brain function and depressed mood, rather than what people generally think of as “inability to think” and “moodiness”. It is not a “moody” disease as people generally think. So please don’t blindly tell depressed people to “be happy” and “be strong”, please understand them. Do you think it is pretentious for a heart patient to say that he or she “has no energy and is in a bad mood”? In fact, depressed patients are no different from other patients, they are sick, not deliberately emotional to show you. What is the cause of depression? The exact cause is still unclear, but the research on depression is getting deeper, and doctors have discovered some related mechanisms. The first is the hypothesis of a disruption of neurotransmitter balance in the brain, which, in layman’s terms, you can interpret as an endocrine disorder of the brain. Our brain secretes many neurotransmitters, which not only have a protective effect on the brain, but also play a mood-regulating effect, such as 5-hydroxytryptamine is a class of neurotransmitters that make people feel happy. When the secretion of these neurotransmitters has abnormal changes, your brain may lose the ability to “chase pleasure”. This is also a mechanism that is now of great interest. The second is the hippocampal regeneration disorder hypothesis. Isn’t it mentioned above that the hippocampal region of the brain shrinks in depression? This is a possible manifestation of hippocampal regeneration disorder. The hippocampus is an important functional area involved in emotion and cognitive regulation, and when it is abnormal, your emotional condition will of course be affected. The third one is the nutritional hypothesis. This hypothesis suggests that our brain produces some brain-derived neurotrophic factors during the metabolic process, and when the secretion of such factors is reduced, it may also cause abnormalities in mood regulation. However, according to the definition of depression, depression should actually have both a personal physical and psychological basis, as well as social and environmental factors, and it is often the interaction of several conditions that finally leads to the onset of the disease. Are introverted and pessimistic people prone to depression? Is the cheerful faction safe to pass? A person’s personality and cognitive characteristics definitely have an impact on the risk of depression, while depression itself can also affect a person’s cognitive patterns. For example, if a person is shown the “happy” and “sad” emoticons, a depressed person is often indifferent to the “happy” emoticons, but not to the “sad” emoticons. “This is the effect of different cognitive patterns on emotions. A person who is pessimistic by nature and always looks at the negative side of things, his mood is of course prone to the bad side, which in effect increases his risk of depression. Introversion itself is not a bad thing and does not necessarily mean that depression is likely to occur, but introverts tend to communicate less with the outside world, so when they encounter some big problems, it is not easy to seek help from the outside world, in this case, their risk of psychological problems or even depression will rise. However, personality and cognitive patterns are only a risk factor, does not mean that introverted, pessimistic people will necessarily occur depression; conversely, cheerful people may not always be safe. Look at the 3 hypotheses mentioned in the previous question, even if you are cheerful, you can’t influence your own brain neurotransmitter secretion, right? I can only say that cheerful and happy people are relatively less risky, but when depression really comes to the door, cheerful people may also be hit. To sum up, depression is not just synonymous with introverts and pessimists, but extroverts and cheerful people can also suffer from it. It is important to understand depression properly and pay attention to it, and not to think that it is just a simple emotional problem. It is important to find the relevant medical practitioner and get treatment in time.