1. Depression is the “cold of the soul”
This analogy is not appropriate, the cold is a self-limiting disease, usually you do not care about it, as long as you drink more water and rest properly, it can get better by itself. Although depression is periodic, the ongoing pathological changes in the brain are there, but you can’t see them. Moreover, as the number of episodes increases, the period of episodes will become shorter and the symptoms will become more and more severe, and of course, the organic damage to the brain will become more and more profound.
2, depression is a purely “psychological”, “mood” problems, is the result of psychological entanglement
In other words, it is a product of character deficiency, weak willpower, internal conflict, life stress and poor interpersonal relationships. This view is only a small part of the truth.
Those factors mentioned above may sometimes be the triggering cause of depression, but they are not the real core cause, many people have those undesirable factors, but they do not suffer from depression. This mechanism is professionally called the “ignition effect”, which means that once a certain factor is “activated” by some environmental triggers at the beginning, it will continuously “ignite” the program of subsequent episodes. In a sense, this program is genetically “set”.
3. “I understand everything, so I am not depressed”
People with depression usually do not have obvious cognitive problems, that is, they are always “awake”. Therefore, depression is not a disease of the mind, but a disease of the emotions. Being awake and recognizing that you are in a bad mood is itself a characteristic of mild to moderate depression.
4. “I have nothing to worry about, I just can’t sleep well, so I am not depressed”
There are some patients with depression who do not have an obvious low mood, but usually feel a loss of original interest. The vast majority of patients experience sleep disturbances or a variety of physical complaints, such as headaches, back pain, gastrointestinal discomfort, etc. Many of the physical discomforts that are not substantiated are related to emotional problems (depression, anxiety), and these people are bounced around major hospital polyclinics, wasting a lot of medical resources that are actually caused by problems such as depression and anxiety.
5. How common is depression
Taking one year as the span of statistics (annual prevalence), conservative survey results show that 3 to 4 out of 100 people suffer from depression, so you can calculate for yourself how many depression patients there are in China. Among them, the prevalence rate of women is double that of men.
6. How many people with depression commit suicide
A conservative estimate is that about half of all depressed people have suicidal ideation or attempted suicide, with about 280,000 people committing suicide and more than 2 million attempting suicide in China each year. Most of these people can be diagnosed with depression.
7, depression is a disease of the brain
There are many scientific studies that confirm the existence of organic brain alterations in depression, only the existing tests are not sufficient to routinely detect these alterations. These changes include certain chemicals in the brain, and even many studies have found pathological changes in the structure of the brain.
8, depression does not require medication
Although there is evidence that psychological counseling and therapy can also alleviate and treat depression, psychotherapy usually requires more complex and continuous intervention techniques, and under existing conditions, it is still difficult to obtain such medical services in China, and psychotherapy is only for those with mild to moderate depression. For severe as well as with suicidal ideas and behaviors, and those recurrent depression, psychological conflict is not obvious, physical symptoms are severe or even with psychotic symptoms, timely and effective drug treatment must be carried out.
9. Many people believe that medications can have serious side effects and harm the brain
In fact, there is a lot of evidence to confirm that drugs can protect brain cells from damage. Any medication will have some side effects, but the incidence of fatal danger is usually not much greater than the odds of an air crash. Regardless of the trade-offs, timely medication is necessary. There are also many people who are only superstitious about Chinese herbal treatments, and as far as research findings go, no herbal medicine has been shown to have a definite therapeutic effect. The side effects may be small (and may not be), but no effect is the same as useless.
10. Finally, depression is a treatable disease
Most patients can significantly improve their symptoms or be cured through systematic treatment.
I always thought that with the development of information, people should know a lot about depression, but in fact, it is not. There are many misconceptions about people’s knowledge about depression, so I have written this short article. For detailed and specific knowledge about diagnosis and treatment, those concerned can consult their local specialist.
In addition, depression medication is very crucial, but practitioners should not think solidly. Another form of depression that can manifest itself is the absence of overt depressive mood, which has the name “insidious depression”. Depressive symptoms are hidden, and such patients do not do well with other non-psychiatric treatments, while antidepressant treatment is effective.