Depression: The Myth and the Fact

Depression is a potentially dangerous mental health condition that affects one’s ability to experience joy and happiness from life experiences. Despite the frequent featuring in the news stories, this disorder is not easily diagnosed by non-specialists. Misusing of the psychological terms in mass media frequently leads to false conclusions people make regarding others. When someone hears the word “depression,” they often imagine a sad, passive, and slow person. It is a myth that those characteristics are the only typical symptoms of the mentioned condition. Romantic films and books with tragic characters who experience challenging events also contribute to the false image of a depressed person. The storylines sometimes show people overcoming the severe mental problems after several encouraging words from friends or relatives. In reality, a simple short conversation is unlikely to affect the clinically depressed patient significantly.

The fact about depression affirms that it may have various symptoms either in combination with the mentioned ones or instead of them. The signs of this disorder may include trouble concentrating, irritability, overeating, or headaches (WebMD, n.d.). The potential danger for a depressed person is in common occurrence of some of the symptoms due to causes other than the mentioned condition. For example, they may appear for the reasons of young age, tension in the family, work overload, habit to eat much food, or the lack of sleep. In some cases, medical specialists could be the only people with the ability to diagnose depression accurately.

Reference

WebMD. (n.d.). Symptoms of depression. Web.