Why Do People Get Depressed?

Depression is very common in teens. It affects people of every age, economic situation, and race.
So what causes it? Why do some people get depressed but others don't?

No One Reason for Depression

Lots of things play a role in whether a person gets depressed. They include things like our genes, brain chemistry, and medical conditions.
In addition to physical causes, there are other, more surprising things that can lead to depression. They include daylight and seasons, social environment, and life events. Why can these things play a part in someone getting depression? They can affect the brain's neurotransmitters (chemicals in the brain that regulate mood).
A person's outlook also can influence depression. Are you a glass-half-full or glass-half-empty kind of person? Do you get easily upset or do things roll off your back? The way that people think about (and react to) the events in their lives also can affect depression.
As if that's not confusing enough, sometimes there's just no obvious reason why some people get depressed. But their depression can still be very real and upsetting. Depression is a health condition that needs treatment, just like asthma or diabetes.

Genes

Research shows that depression runs in families. Some people inherit genes that make it more likely for them to get depressed.
Not everyone who has the genes for depression actually gets depressed, though. As with other health problems — like diabetes — just having the genes doesn't mean someone automatically gets sick. It just means there's a chance of it.
Many people who have no family history of depression still get depressed. So although genes are one factor, they aren't the only thing that can cause depression.

Brain Chemistry

Depression affects the brain's delicate chemistry. Here's how: Chemicals called neurotransmitters help send messages between nerve cells in the brain.
Some neurotransmitters regulate mood. When someone is depressed, these neurotransmitters might be in low supply or not in proper balance.
Genes and brain chemistry can be connected: People who have a genetic tendency to depression may be more likely to develop the imbalance of neurotransmitter activity that is part of depression.
Lots of things can affect the production and balance of neurotransmitters — including surprising things like stress and exposure to daylight. Using alcohol and drugs also can cause chemical changes in the brain that affect mood.
Medicines that doctors use to treat depression work by helping to restore the proper balance of neurotransmitters.

Seasons and Daylight

Daylight can affect how the brain produces some neurotransmitters, like melatonin and serotonin. When there is less daylight, the brain produces more melatonin. When there is more daylight, the brain produces more serotonin.
Melatonin and serotonin help regulate a person's sleep–wake cycles, energy, and mood. Shorter days and longer hours of darkness in fall and winter may cause increased levels of melatonin and decreased levels of serotonin. The change in balance can create the biological conditions for depression in some people who are sensitive to seasonal changes in daylight. This is known as seasonal affective disorder (SAD). Exposure to light can help improve mood for people affected by SAD.

Life Events

The death of a family member, friend, or pet can go beyond normal grief and sometimes lead to depression. Other difficult life events — such as when parents divorce, separate, or remarry — can trigger depression. Even events like moving or changing schools can be emotionally challenging enough that a person may become depressed.
Sometimes, though, a person may have depression without being able to point to any particular sad or stressful event. And many people go through difficult life events without becoming depressed.

Family and Social Environment

For some people, a negative, stressful, or unhappy family atmosphere can affect their self-esteem and lead to depression. Other high-stress living situations — such as poverty, homelessness, or violence (in a person's family, relationships, or community) — can contribute, too.
Dealing with bullying, harassment, or peer pressure can leave someone feeling isolated, victimized, or insecure. Situations like these don't necessarily lead to depression, but facing them without relief or support can make it easier to become depressed.

Health Conditions and Hormonal Changes

Certain health conditions change the balance of hormones in the body, affecting a person's mood. Some conditions, such as hypothyroidism, are known to cause a depressed mood in some people. When these health conditions are diagnosed and treated by a doctor, the depression usually disappears.
Because hormones affect mood, the normal hormonal changes that go along with puberty can make some people more vulnerable to depression.
For some people, health conditions may cause depression even though the condition itself doesn't physically change the body's hormones. For example, undiagnosed learning disabilities might block school success and lead someone to become depressed. Or illness might present challenges or setbacks that escalate into depression.
Whether or not these things lead to depression can depend a lot on how well a person is able to cope, stay positive, and receive support.

Reacting to Life Events

Life is full of ups and downs. Stress, hassles, and setbacks happen (but hopefully, not too often!). How we react to life's struggles matters a lot. A person's way of thinking can contribute to depression — or it can help guard against it.
Research shows that a positive outlook acts as a protection against depression, even for people who have the genes, brain chemistry, or life situations that put them at risk for developing it. The opposite is also true: People who tend to think more negatively can be more at risk for developing depression.
We can't control our genes, brain chemistry, or some of the other things that contribute to depression. But we do have control over how we see situations and how we cope.
Making an effort to think positively — like believing there's a way around any problem — can help ward off depression. So can developing coping skills and a support system of positive relationships. These things help build resilience (the quality that helps people bounce back and do well, even in difficult situations).
Here are three ways to build resilience:

1. Try thinking of change as a challenging and normal part of life. When a problem crops up, take action to solve it.
2. Tell yourself that setbacks and problems are temporary and solvable. Nothing lasts forever.
3. Build a support system. Ask friends and family for help (or just a shoulder to cry on) when you need it. Offer to help when they need it. This kind of give and take creates strong relationships that help people weather life's storms.

Being positive and resilient isn't a magic shield that automatically protects us from depression. But these qualities can help offset the other factors that might lead to trouble.

Source:  http://kidshealth.org/en/teens/why-depressed.html#

Understanding depression

In its mildest form, depression can mean being in low spirits, but at its most severe, major depression (clinical depression) can be life threatening and highly distressing.

Some people suffer from Seasonal affective disorder (SAD), which sees them become depressed during winter due to lack of daylight, and many new mothers suffer from Postnatal depression any time between two weeks and two years after the birth of their baby. But depression can arise from any number of problems.

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What are the symptoms of depression? 

Depression can affect everyone differently. Some symptoms and signs include:

• being restless and agitatedrestless and agitated
• sleeping problems
• feeling tired and lacking energy; doing less and less
• crying a lot
• difficulty remembering things
• feeling low-spirited for much of the time, every day
• being unusually irritable or impatient
• losing interest in your sex life
• finding it hard to concentrate or make decisions
• blaming yourself and feeling unnecessarily guilty about things
• lacking self-confidence and self-esteem
• being preoccupied with negative thoughts
• feeling numb, empty and despairing
• feeling helpless
• distancing yourself from others; not asking for support
• taking a bleak, pessimistic view of the future
• experiencing a sense of unreality
• self-harming (by cutting yourself, for example)
• thinking about suicide

How can I help myself? 

Fight negative attitudes - Try to recognise your negative thinking pattern and replace it with a more constructive activity. Look for things to do that occupy your mind.

Care for yourself 

Look after yourself by eating healthily. Oily fish, in particular, may help alleviate some symptoms of depression. Don’t abuse tobacco, alcohol or other drugs which can make your depression worse.

Alternative therapies 

Acupuncture, massage, homeopathy and herbal medicine can all be beneficial.

Self-help groups 

Talk to your GP or visit MIND, the National Association for Mental Health at www.mind.org.uk.

What treatments are available? 

Antidepressants

• Antidepressants work on chemical messengers in the brain to lift your mood. The usual recommendation is that you stay on them for six months. There can be some unpleasant side effects, which are worse to begin with.
• Of the various different types available, SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors) are usually better tolerated.
• When coming off anti-depressants, it is important to reduce the dose slowly over a period of weeks to avoid withdrawal symptoms.

Psychological treatments

• Counselling can be short or long-term. It involves talking with someone who is trained to listen with empathy while you express your feelings and find your own solutions to your problems.
• Cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) identifies and helps change negative feelings affecting behaviour and may last up to 12 months.
• Interpersonal psychotherapy (IPT) focuses on relationships. Therapy often continues for six to 12 months.
• Psychodynamic counselling or psychotherapy focuses on how past experiences may be contributing to experiences and feelings in the present.
• Psychotherapy is not usually available on the NHS. It is more frequent and intensive than counselling. For lists of qualified and regulated therapists, visit the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy at www.bacp.co.uk.

Source:  http://www.retailtrust.org.uk/products/retailhub/emotional-support/understanding-depression?gclid=CMekr5CZjs0CFRG3GwodQSsHeA

Social Causes of Depression

Many people suffer from depression at one point in their life. It is inevitable, the feeling of hopelessness, sorrow, or being alone. These are all common emotions associated with depression. For a select few, depression can be hard to overcome, and this is where depression becomes a disorder that requires active treatment. Those 'selected few' account for over 100 million people worldwide and result in 75% of all psychiatric hospitalizations (Gotlib & Hammen, 1992). Yet the question remains, why did these people become depressed? How did they become depressed? One of the answers that lead to the cause of depression would be a person's interpersonal relationship with their surroundings and the people around them. There are many interpersonal instances that can have the ability to lead to the onset of depression, such as the family environment, the socialization setting, and the discrimination against gender in certain cultures and instances.

Family

One could argue that out of all the interpersonal cases that can contribute on the onset of a depressive disorder, the ambiance of a family has the most weight and impact on a depressed individual. In the case of spouses, the well being of one spouse will have a notable impact on the other spouse and on the welfare of their marriage. For example, in 30% of all marriage problems, there is one spouse that can be described as clinically depressed. The reason why a spouse might have a unipolar mood disorder could be due to their relationship being "characterized by friction, hostility, and a lack of affection" (Gotlib & Hammen, 1992). Martial distress can also be caused by the impact of having a child. When a woman is pregnant, she can experience a whole range of emotions due to the changing of interpersonal relationship with husband and the building of a new relationship with the unborn child. For example, the building of a new interpersonal relationship with the child can be very tasking and become a major stressful life event that can cause a mood disorder to develop (O'Hara, Lewis, Schlechte, & Varner, 1991).
Aside from the martial distresses of spouses, the impact of depressed parents can have an effect on their children as well. In a study on the relation between depressed adolescences and depressed mothers (Hammen & Brennan, 2001), they found that the depressed children of depressed mothers had more negative interpersonal behavior as compared with depressed children of non-depressed mothers. This is reinforced when a study (Chen & Rubin, 1995) shows that the parents of depressed children are less warm and caring and more hostile than parents of non-depressed children. Because of this negative interpersonal relation between kids and their parents, children can develop a negative view of their family. This negative view can lead to the feeling of lack of control and having a high risk of conflict, rejection, and low self-esteem (Asarnow, Carlson, & Guthrie, 1987).
Cummings (1995) stated that any changes in a family environment due to parental depression increase the risk of developing a mood disorder in children. The result of this can be found as early as preschoolers and infants, due to the insecure attachment they develop with their parents. The emotional distress of children can also have an effect on their parents, causing depression that in turn will also affect the children, theoretically creating a never-ending cycle unless they seek treatment. Sometimes It is not the depressed parents that lead to the onset of depression in their children, but rather it is the change in the family environment that stems from the parents' depression that causes the children to become depressed. Some studies suggest that martial troubles are a better predicator for the onset of depression than the depression of the parents or the children themselves (Cummings, 1995).
Experiencing depression while as a child or an adolescent can also lead to reoccurring slips as an adult. Depressed persons often perform poorly in marriage and relationship with family members and they also might respond negatively to others, which have the ability to create stressful life events, which as a result might drive the person further into depression. Depressed people are dependant on other people and constantly seek reassurance in such a way that drives people away. Hammen and Brennan (2001) found that 13% of the sons and 23.6 % of the daughters who were depressed had depressed mothers as compared to 3.9% of the sons and 15.9% of the daughters who were depressed lacked a depressed mother.
Many people believe that children and parents suffer differently from depression, but not so. Depressed children can be like depressed parents, expressing sadness, anger, shame, and self-directed hostility (Brown & Siegel, 1988). Just like adults, depressed children tend to blame themselves for bad events and accredit the environment for good events--they do not give themselves credit when due (Blumberg & Izard, 1985). This is why oftentimes, children will feel guilty if their parents get divorced and they believe that they were at fault but realistically, it was the parents' martial distress that was the cause of the divorce, not the children's depressive mood disorder.

Socialization

As in the family environment, socialization is key to maintaining healthy relationship and feeling well deserved and part of someone's life. Depression can have an adverse effect on the social capacity of depressed persons, affecting their social functioning and ability to react and deal with stressful situations. Gotlib and Hammen (1992) discussed the social functioning of people with depressive disorders and found that people with the symptoms of depression are found to test low in social activities, close relationships, quality close relationships, family actives, and network contact, yet they test high in family arguments. One major part in the development of mood disorders in a social setting would be how well one could deal with stressful events. Normally, this is called coping strategies and it allows a person to manage their troubles and not be overwhelmed. Oftentimes, people can become depressed when unable to deal with "drama" from their friends-especially in children. Depressed children reported significantly higher level of hopelessness, lower general self-esteem, and lower coping skills than non-depressed children. Their ability to be unable to cope with stress can lead to fewer and less adaptive coping techniques (Asarnow, Carlson, & Guthrie, 1987).
Social settings can also include one-on-one interactions and the rejection that occurs. In a study performed by Joiner, Alfano, and Metalsky (1992), they tested whether a depressed individual would have an affect on other people in one-on-one interactions and they found that affected people did have such an influence on other people. This influence could be described as responding negatively to their constant searching of reassurance and rejecting them, which in turn will "confirm" the affected person's belief that he or she is unworthy as a person.
A depressed individual can impact their social settings by exhibiting a lack of self-esteem, becoming more sensitive to the opinions of others, and more importantly (and interestly), become less physically active (Lewinsohn, Gotlib, & Seeley, 1997). This means that they will not want to go out, that they do not want to exert themselves. A prime example of this would be an athletic in school that becomes depressed. He does not want to participate in athletic activities because he is depressed, but his coach forces him to. As a result, he performs poorly, and his teammates heckle him for his poor performance. As an affected person, the athletic becomes overly sensitive to his teammates' heckling and his self-esteem plummets and he drops out of sports and begins to withdraw and fight with everybody he knows.
The social class can also have a subtle effect on depression. Brown and Harris (1978) reported that the females with children in the working class were more prone to depression than females with children in the middle class. This can be attributed to the working class mother having to leave home to work, having to leave her child alone. This interpersonal relation can cause excessive worry and guilt that the women is not being a good mother as compared to the middle class mom, who can afford to stay at home and take care of the children/her family.
Okazaki (1997) found that Asian Americans are more depressed in a social and academic setting because they have to face more pressure than their white American peers due to the fact that they are part of a visible minority that has different culture values than others. This interpersonal relationship between the two "cultures" can be defined as competitive and stressful due to the fact that in America, white people "have it made" while as other ethnic groups have to work twice as hard to get their foot in the door. This extreme indicator of stress can lead to the dejection of many ethnic groups because they might have failed at succeeding in a competitive environment.

Gender

There are a lot of interpersonal relations when it comes to gender, such as the discrimination against gender in an academic setting. This is very prominent in females, where girls can face increased expectations to conform to the standards set forth by society, to pursue feminine type activities and occupations. It appears that parents tend to have "lower expectations" for girls when it comes to school. As a result of that lowered expectations, parents tend to not push their daughters toward a high-profile job, instead attempting to make their daughter conform to the stereotype of society, like become a teacher or a nurse. In fact, in 1986-1987, women only garnered 15% of the bachelor's degrees awarded in engineering as compared to 76% and 84% for education and nursing, respectively (Nolen-Hoeksema, & Girgus, 1994). Breaking the social norm can also lead to depression (Nolen-Hoeksema, 1991); the more intelligent a girl is, the more likely she is to become depressed. This positive correlation could be attributed to the more intelligent girls being able to out-perform the boys yet get punished for doing so. Being depressed as a female adolescent can have consequences in the long run in terms of social functioning, career, and enjoyment of life. Theoretically, if one were to be depressed in high school, then their grades would suffer. If their grades were to suffer, then their chances of entering a good college would dwindle. If they cannot enter a top-notch college, then they might not be able to get the career they want, and with that they would not be able to enjoy their job and feel like they have missed out on life. The different experiences of each gender can also be the cause of a mood disorder. The experience can vary by the age of the children, adolescences, or adults. For example, after the age of 15, females are twice as likely to become depressed as compared with men and in another study of 11-year olds, only 2.5% males met the criteria for major depression while only 0.5% females met the criteria, however in a study of 14-16 year olds, 13% of the females met the criteria while 3% of the boys did (Nolen-Hoeksema, & Girgus, 1994). This abrupt rise of depressive disorders in females during the mid-to-late adolescence years can be attributed to the more concerns a girl has as compared to boys. These concerns and worries can range from their achievements or lack of, body dissatisfaction, sexual abuse, and low self-esteem (Lewinsohn, Gotlib, & Seeley, 1997).
This is reinforced when another study found that between the ages of 15-18, the prevalence of depression in girls will increase to twice the prevalence of boys (20.69 to 9.58) but will taper off during 18-21 years of age for both genders (15.05 and 6.58) (Hankin, Abramson, Moffitt, Silva, Mcgee, & Angell, 1998).
Do not be mistaken that females are the only gender that that can become depressed; a good number of males can develop a unipolar mood disorder. In the average lifetime, 49% of all males will experience a depressive episode (as compared with 63% of all females). Males will become sad and dejected for different reasons, such as intimate relationships. When an intimate relationship ends, males are more likely to become depressed at the loss than females (Hankin et al., 1998). This could be attributed to the male's primal desire to have a mate so he will be able to continue his family name.
Depression has been around for a long time, spanning over thousands of years, dating back to the time of Saul I (Eaton, 2001), yet even though Depression is a disorder that is hard to understand. Even with all the studies conducted, there is still not much to regarding the causes of depression. There are so many ways one would be able to become depressed, but the most common and most prevalent way thus far would be the interpersonal relationships of a person and their family, social lives, and the relationship between their gender and the discrimination they suffer at the hands of others. Perhaps a better understanding of those relationships can open up new avenues where new options for treatment can be conceived and new ways of interacting to people to create a equality amongst people where they will not feel depressed.
Source:  http://www.personalityresearch.org/papers/beattie.html