My Speech: Kept Under Wraps: A Hidden Epidemic

Imagine if you will, a teenage girl preparing for a date, a businessman sitting in a board meeting, or a grandmother waiting for her grandchild to arrive. These people appear to have nothing in common. Looking past the surface you find that they have one all too common link many Americans share. Depression affects millions of people with no regard to age, sex, race, religion, or social status. I am one of them. While I have never been formally diagnosed, I have researched this disorder for five years. I am here today to help you understand what depression is, what the warning signs are, and what is being done to treat it.
A major misconception is that depression is something a person could help if they really wanted to. Most, if not all, depression sufferers would be glad to tell you just how wrong that statement is. There are many theories as to what triggers depression but all lead back to a single cause, an imbalance of chemicals in the brain. Yes, the Zoloft commercial may indeed prove to be true. Triggers are thought to include stress, various medications, and certain diseases. Stress is, by far, the most common trigger for depression sufferers. Chronic stress often leads to longer and more frequent depressive spells and is the hardest to treat. If the main trigger is a medication, stopping use of the offending drug will usually clear the symptoms. Diseases that can trigger depression include hypothyroidism and anemia.
Symptoms of depression are often mild and may include: concentration problems, slowing of speech or thoughts, difficulty with things you do every day, and sleep pattern changes. Depression in children shows itself in even subtler ways than in an adult. A child may complain of vague pains, cry over small things, or even lose weight. Doctors often do not even recognize these as being symptoms of depression so it takes diligence to get a sure diagnosis. Seeing signs of depression in a loved one is often easier than realizing your own. Because symptoms are mild and generally internal it is easy for individuals to hide their depression from others even though it is detrimental to their mental and physical health. While doctors are unsure as to why, untreated depression increases the risk of stroke and possibly heart disease.
Methods of treatment vary based on the type and severity of an individual’s depression. Psychotherapy, more commonly known as talk therapy, is considered the first step of treatment. Often taking place in groups, an individual is encouraged to talk about what they are feeling in hope that they will be more able to deal with their feelings in a healthy way. Medications are considered a last resort no matter how dramatized their usage has become. Recent studies have shown that children and teens have a higher risk of suicide when first starting or stopping the usage of medications. All medications work by correcting the imbalance that causes depression. The most commonly recommended medications are SSRIs. That is short for Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors. They have the fewest and most tolerable side effects. A notable SSRI is Zoloft. Another type of medication is monoamine oxidase inhibitors or MAOI. They have the highest amount of side effects and are most often prescribed after other medications have failed to work. There are no notable names in this group because of this. Herbal remedies are not recommended by the FDA but we all know how their track record has been recently.
In conclusion I hope you now know what depression is, what the warning signs are, and what is being done to treat it. Studies have shown that less than one-third of people suffering from depression actually seek treatment for it. If you or a loved one is suffering from depression I encourage further study.