Depression is a type of depressive disorder (depressive disorder also includes poor mood) and is a chronic recurrent illness with symptoms including low mood, reduced interest, slowed thinking, reduced attention and memory, self-denial, poor appetite, and reduced activity. The prevalence of depression is on the rise, and now depression has become the fourth most common disease in the world disease list, with a conservative estimate of 350 million depressed people worldwide, and according to World Health Organization statistics, the global prevalence of depression has reached 11%. And according to the conclusion of studies on depression, two-thirds of depressed people have had negative thoughts, and 10-15% of depressed people eventually die by suicide. Depression is usually associated with gender, genetic factors, social and environmental influences, early traumatic experiences, illness and medications. The prevalence of depression in women is more than double that of men, and the reasons for this may stem from endocrine differences and differences in socially stressful events. Depression can be inherited, with one parent having a 25% chance of having a child with the disorder; if both parents have the disorder, the rate rises to 50-75%. If a person is unlucky enough to experience more setbacks in life, such as divorce, illness, bereavement, financial hardship, and competitive stress, the likelihood of depression increases. People who have experienced childhood abuse will tend to deny themselves or others, and as adults, when they encounter setbacks, they will be prone to fall apart, deny everything, and even attempt suicide to get a “reshuffle”. Studies have found that patients with many diseases have a higher incidence of depression, such as Parkinson’s disease, cerebrovascular disease, hypothyroidism, rheumatism, and early dementia. Many drugs can also cause patients to develop depressive symptoms, the common ones are lisinopril (compound antihypertensive tablets and other drugs contain the ingredient), cortisol, oral contraceptives, drugs, etc. Drug use can cause damage to the nerve center, and some drug users will still have residual symptoms of stubborn insomnia and depression after detoxification, and the incidence of depression in China is lower than the world average, and an important factor is that the use rate of drugs is much lower than An important factor that makes the incidence of depression in China lower than the world average is that drug use is much lower than in other countries. The symptoms of depression have been mentioned earlier, but is it necessarily depression if you have depression? The answer is no. Depression is a common emotional component, a compound emotion that includes sadness, shame, and pain. Normal people also experience depressed mood, but the symptoms are less frequent, mild, and do not last long, and they can usually overcome it by themselves or come out with the help of friends and family, and the mood will improve accordingly with the improvement of social environment. Only a few people have difficulty in coming out of depression with repeated efforts due to their personality, genetics and overly intense traumatic events: they do not feel happy even when there are good things going on, their sleep disorder gets worse day by day, their symptoms of reduced interest and energy are difficult to improve; their self-evaluation decreases and they even start to deny themselves and have negative thoughts; their weight often decreases as well, and many symptoms last more than two weeks and affect their social and work, is enough to diagnose depression. With depression, the patient seems to enter a one-way street, with poorer mood, self-blame, denial of self, reduced instinctive desire, softer voice, less speech, slower movements, poorer memory, and difficulty concentrating. In severe cases, depressive miosis occurs, with rigid expressions and postures, and even saliva that is not swallowed and allowed to escape. Some depressed patients can hardly tolerate the low mood, repeated self-blame and frustration and end their lives voluntarily. Therefore, we should not only be alert to whether we are suffering from depression, but also pay attention to whether our friends and relatives are depressed after greater stress and frustration in life. It is better to take the initiative to seek medical help after experiencing something or feeling something different about your mood, so that the doctor can look at you with professional eyes. When it comes to medication for depression, people are generally worried about the side effects and addiction of western medicine. As for addiction, it depends on the condition. As long as the drugs are applied reasonably and supplemented with psychotherapy, there is no need to worry about addiction. In fact, it has been found through research that the active ingredients in Chinese medicine and proprietary Chinese medicines are often similar to or the same as the active ingredients in Western medicine. It is now found that the efficacy of combining Chinese and Western medicine in the treatment of depression can be greatly improved. Although depression is self-limiting and will go into remission on its own within six months to a year without treatment, many things will happen during the depression process that will affect the patient’s work and life, and there will be some patients who will not be able to survive the remission and will end it on their own. The negative thoughts of the patient will be reinforced during the disease process, which will affect the patient’s life trajectory. And depression can recur, if the first attack is not enough full course of treatment, the risk of relapse is very high, after several repeated attacks, I am afraid that you have to take medication for life.