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Rowe, Dorothy, "Depression: The Way Out of Your Prison", Jan 01, 1983

National Institute of Mental Health, "Depression", Updated October 2016

American Psychiatric Association, "Depression", Updated November 2017

Anxiety and Depression Association of America, "Anxiety. ADAA, November 2016

PsychNews, "Using Many Social Media Platforms Linked With Depression,  Anxiety", Psychiatry.org, January 17, 2017

Saisan, Joanna; Smith, Melanda; Seagal, Jeanne."Depression,"Helpguide.org, October 2017

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National Institute of Health, “St. John’s Wort”. NCCIH website, accessed January, 2018

Drug Directory, "Zoloft". MedscapeStatic, accessed January, 2018

Author Unknown, "ECT Therapy". HWstatic, accessed January, 2018

Mayo Foundation for Medical Health, "Depression Brain Imaging". Mayoclinic, accessed January, 2018

Indiana University, "Patient Health-Questionnaire 9", Indianasbirt, accessed December, 2017

Author Unknown, "Depression - Voices", Pixabay, accessed Decmber, 2017

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This may seem a little off-putting, but I suffered from depression, quite a while ago. The doctors specifically told me that I was suffering from a bout of Seasonal Affective Disorder, combined with a bit of Stress-induced depression.

I started off with therapy, or, more specifically, Interpersonal and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. For the latter, I went to 3 therapy sessions, each one attempting me to stop looking at my stresses as I was at the time: you see, pressure to excel in school, pressure to do well in other competitions, and high expectations from my peers led me to start taking things too seriously. One of my friends got concerned, tipped of my parents, and they scheduled an appointment for me. At that moment in life, I actually learned how to tie a noose, with serious intentions of maybe ending my life. I have a scar on the back of my right hand, from when I attempted relieving my suicidal urges by cutting myself with an X-acto knife. Near the end of therapy, however, I took a better outlook, despite it still being a bit nihilistic, that my decisions right now in life don't actually matter as much as they seemed: I could live without having to strive for the best positions possible.  Throughout this, I also took calcium pills, and Prozac, to relieve SAD.

It seems somber, and I rather that this was kept rather private, if possible. But for those who struggle along the same paths, I've been there before. There's still hope and enjoyment to get out of life.

1-800-273-8255
National Suicide Prevention Hotline

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One major misconception about depression is that you can easily "stop being depressed". However, anyone who thinks that is wrong. Depression needs to be addressed as a serious mental health problem, not just a mood. Dorothy  Rowe writes "Clinical Depression is Consistent, and influences your daily life".

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According to the National Institute of Mental Health, there are a few paths that can be taken to address depression.

One treatment is therapy, and talking it out with a counselor. Also known as psychotherapy, Mayoclinic describes it as treating depression by discussing your problems with an official, who can then attempt to get you to think a different way.
This falls into a few different categories:
The first is Cognitive Behavior Therapy: this is when a therapist attempts to get you to think differently about life, with the main goal being "find an inconsistency in an argument, the attempt to use that to turn the client's viewpoint." As a result, clients will stop their harmful coping methods.
The second is Interpersonal Therapy, which revolves more around relationships and using that to help your depression: The main belief of this therapy is that "life events and relationships may cause depression, but the reverse is also true: good experiences and relationships can help get rid of depression."
The third is less common, but still exists: Behavioral Therapy. This encourages the client to stop following depression symptoms of avoiding activities you may enjoy, the main belief being, "If the client lives life and enjoys things, removing depressive behaviors, they will slowly get better and eliminate depression behaviors altogether."
The fourth is Psychodynamic Therapy. The main aim of this is to make sure that the thing which caused said depression is laid to rest, forgotten, or resolved. This is more problem-based coping, which allows the client to face their problems.

Secondly, Medications can be taken. These include seratonin most of the time, which increases happiness levels: some examples are Lexapro, Zoloft, and Prozac. There are other medications which contain different hormones, and a list can be found here or here, but there are too many to list on this page.

Another interesting medicinal path is St. John's Wort, a flower which can be used to treat depression, yet it's effectiveness is not fully known. As a traditional medicine, it is not always guaranteed to work, so one must be careful using it. According to NIH, it should not be treated as a replacement for more stable medications: furthermore, if combined with other medications, may cause the user to experience an excessively dangerous amount of seratonin. This should be avoided without a doctor specifically recommending it.

The third way to treat depression can be through Brain Simulation therapy. This can include electroshock therapy, magnetic therapy, and Vagus Nerve Stimulation. These all are typically reserved for after initial attempts, as they may be dangerous. Furthermore, they aren't always effective for everyone, which means that if done incorrectly, may cause more harm than they are worth. This works as it gives your brain electric signals which may cause a seizure or relaxing of the brain, which results in a lightening of depression symptoms. How it exactly works is uncertain, another downside to this type of treatment. However, once everything else doesn't work, one may have to turn to this type of treatment.

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Depression is an illness in which you lower your own self worth, and is incredibly dangerous for that reason.

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On December 10, the magazine “Computers in Human Behavior” released results for a study which revealed that more usage of social media sites or apps was potentially associated with increased levels of anxiety and depression.

Keeping in mind that correlation does not equal causation, it still is quite compelling.
Even after adjusting for outlying factors such as age, or gender, the results still showed that people who used more social media sites (7-11) have 3x as much of a risk for depression than those using less(0-2).

The potential reasons? Psychiatric News and Brian Primack, Ph.D, Director of the university of Pittsburgh Center for research on Media, Technology, and Health, have many potential hypotheses, but have not directly confirmed them all. These include:

Those using multiple accounts had to abide to different rules in each platform, and establised slightly different personalities in each one, which led to low self worth and more effort required to keep up and keep in favor of others on the respective platforms.

More people who are depressed tend to be on more social media, looking for validation from outside sources

(And this one, which is slighly wierd) Multitasking, a habit developed from the use of multiple social media, leads to more depressive tendencies

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What are reasons why some people are more prone to depression than others?
According to the National Institute of Mental Health, there  several factors which make people more vulnerable to depression: (not a complete list)

Family history of Depression

Major Life changes (such as moving, breakups)

Trauma

Stress

Physical illness

Certain medications or medicinal side effects

Alcohol Usage

Furthermore, there are also a lot of other disorders which may relate very closely to depression with their own causes. Some of these include:

Perinatal Depression: A certain form of depression that manifests in women who have recently given birth

Seasonal Affective Disorder: Depression which comes about during winter, when there is a lack of sunlight

Bipolar Disorder: While not directly depression, people experiencing both intense high and low moods may be experiencing Hypomania and Mania, parts of Bipolar depression.

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How do we test for depression in individuals?

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How do we test for depression in individuals?

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The most reliable way to test for depression, of course, is to see a therapist, or another licensed medical official.

However, there is also a test, called the PH-Q9, or Patient Health Questionnaire 9, which is a secondary resource for those who may suspect themselves of having depression: a sample test may be found here.

This test, more oftenly used to diagnose severity of depression, is also quite useful in screening for depression. This test, when used for screening severity, has a crohnbach’s alpha of .86-.89. This means, to put it simply, that the PH-Q9 is quite accurate. When it comes to diagnosing depression, this normally requires that patients experience 2-4 of these depressive behaviors, and one of these behaviors is anhedonia (depressive mood). However, it should be remembered once again, that the PH-Q9 itself is not perfect for diagnosing depression, and should require more follow-up from a medical official.

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What exactly is depression? Depression, or, more accurately, Major Depressive Disorder, is a prolonged bout of depression which affects the way you act and think, causing you to develop negative feelings towards your life. According to the American Psychiatric Association,  depression can cause sadness, decrease your ability to function, and cause feelings of unhappiness towards things you enjoyed before. This is a mental problem and not just a mood.
The picture to the right shows that there
are actually physical differences between
a normal and depressed brain.

Other symptoms, also from the APA, include

Sleep Problems

Eating Problems

Fatigue

Low self worth

Suicidal thoughts

Dorothy Rowe, in her book, “Depression: The Way Out of Your Prison”, puts it like this:

When you are unhappy, even if you have suffered the most grievous blow, you are able to seek comfort and let that comfort come through to you to ease the pain. You can seek out and obtain another’s sympathy and loving concern; you can be kind and comfort yourself. But in depression neither the sympathy and concern of others nor the gentle love of oneself is available.

You see, during depression, your own mindset is altered so much, to the point where you stop noticing others’ efforts to help, and stop listening to yourself as well, lowering your own self worth, and being extraordinarily harsh upon yourself.
Depression is dangerous.