What is depression and what can cause it?

What is depression?

Depression can be caused by multiple factors. Someone suffering from depression is more depressed than just downcast. Some symptoms of depression are:

1. Negative mood for virtually the entire day, almost every day.
2. Little to no interest in or enjoyment of (almost) all activities, for virtually the entire day, almost every day.
3. Unintentional, significant weight loss or unintentional weight gain, or a decrease or increase in appetite.
4. Sleep complaints: inability to sleep (sufficiently), needing to sleep too much, almost every day.
5. Psychomotor agitation or retardation, almost every day.
6. Fatigue or loss of energy, almost every day.
7. Feelings of worthlessness, or severe or inadequate feelings of guilt.
8. Reduced ability to think, concentrate, or indecisiveness.
9. Feelings of despair, suicidal thoughts, fantasies about suicide without specific plans, a suicide attempt, or a specific plan for suicide.

Causes of depression

Genetic factors

Research on twins has shown that there is a 65% chance of a mood disorder if one half of an identical twin pair suffers from it. For fraternal twins, this chance is approximately 14%. Children of parents with depression are almost three times more likely to develop depression themselves. Having a hereditary predisposition to depression does not mean that the depression will actually be present. Environmental factors also play a role in the development of depression. To what extent the genetic origin is the cause compared to other or similar circumstances is not entirely clear from the studies mentioned.

Social and environmental factors

A loss, psychological impairment, or other traumatic life circumstances are examples of social or environmental factors that can lead to depression. If social support is lost or someone faces social rejection, they may end up in social isolation. By not being socially active, depressive behavior can spread, and the depression ultimately persists. The lack of social contacts lowers self-esteem and increases the fear of not achieving life goals.

Chemical disruption

Whatever the cause of depression, abnormalities can always be found in the brain's neurotransmitters. It makes no difference to the body whether inflammatory reactions arise in the body due to stress, environment, anxiety, or diet, and consequently the depression.

Depression and evolution

In nature, withdrawal behavior, which often occurs in depression, is a natural mechanism to spare other individuals in the group from potential diseases that trigger inflammation. Only once the individual has recovered from the illness and, consequently, the depression, is it safe for the group to take back the recovered depressed individual. All of this is done to increase the group's chances of survival. The body makes no distinction between whether the depression is caused by diet, stress, or anxiety; hence the withdrawal behavior in every form of depression.

How do you get rid of depression?

Depression is almost always the result of an inflammatory response in the body. The source is, in principle, only relevant if the depression needs to be combated through depression treatment. Everyone who wants to recover from depression benefits from good nutrition, exercise, increased self-esteem, and reduced stress by combating anxiety. In this way, the source is addressed instead of treating symptoms in the form of medication.

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