Depression: Definition and Ways of Resolving Caused Problems

What is depression? How would one define depression? Depression is now becoming more prevalent in today’s society as a study has shown that over 18,000 Malaysians have been diagnosed with depression in 2017 based on statistic obtained through mental health screening programs conducted on 273,203 individuals at health and community clinics in 2017. Depression as the public normally defines depression as feeling ‘sad’. However, depression is much more than that as the author of ‘Harry Potter’ J. K. Rowling who once went through a phase of depression once quoted “It’s difficult to describe to someone who’s never been there because it’s not sadness. Sadness is not a bad thing — to cry and to feel. Depression is that really hollowed-out feeling.” Depression has caused many to commit suicide in the society and this could be solved by having a healthy lifestyle and the help of psychotherapy.

Nowadays the number of depressed people has been growing from year to year. Research from the World Health Organization (WHO) showed that there were about 300 million people who affected by depression and it keeps increasing. This is a crucial problem for the world because the depression can affect the self-confidence of the patients and avoiding people leads them to solitude as they will feel lonely then they will feel despair towards their lives and finally they will commit suicide because their hopelessness has overshadowed the efficient solutions surrounded them and they thought suicide is the only way that can help them. Furthermore, the Malaysian Mental Health Association has stated that the suicide rate among residents in Malaysia is increasing and also almost one-third of adults are affected by mental illness.

First of all, by having a healthy lifestyle such as exercise regularly and have a healthy diet which contains a lot of nutrition, the problem of depression can be solved. This is because exercising and a healthy diet not only can make a person’s body to be healthy, but they also can minimize the possibility of getting depression in a person. Research from 49 studies across the world, involving 266,939 people showed that the persons who are involved in physical activities are more likely to have a lesser chance to get depression. So, can exercising help to enhance a person’s mood? This is because by exercising, the body will release a chemical called neurotrophic. This neurotrophic can improve the growth of the nerve cells to stabilize a person’s mood which makes the person relieve their stresses. Moreover, exercising can boost a person’s self-confidence. Thus, Exercising can make a person feels less nervous because exercise makes his appearance become better. When they feel less anxiety, then the chance of getting depression will be decreased. Next, the nutrition in a diet also can play its role in reducing the risk of depression. A study also found that people who ate healthy food such as vegetables and fruits, have 25 to 35 percent lower the risk of depression compared to the people who ate lower-quality food which contributed the chance of getting depression. For example, a study showed that food such as sardines and oily fish which are rich in omega-3 fatty acids can help in preventing from depression because of the components in omega-3 which can develop the central nervous system which the help of eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) in omega. Furthermore, food which contains high processed oil, such as corn oil, should avoid because it will lead to the risk of depression. Therefore, a good habit of eating must be practiced to reduce the risk of depression.

Besides that, depression could be helped or solved by psychotherapy. Parekh (2016) stated that psychotherapy, which can be also called as talk therapy, is a special and effective treatment for patients who have mental illness such as depression. During psychotherapy sessions, patients will interact with psychotherapist and confess their problems to them and the psychotherapist will give advice or treatment to the patients based on the problem they faced. It is shown that about 75% of people who participated in psychotherapy have improvement regarding their illness. Goldberg (2017) stated that psychotherapy is also found to be highly effective to cure depression when combining the therapy with depression medicine. Depression among people could be reduced if authorities provide free psychotherapy treatment for the citizens as there are many people who do not have enough money for psychotherapy treatment. Authorities should also ensure that every school has at least one licensed counselor that can provide psychotherapy treatment for the student as the number of the teenagers facing depression is increasing every year.

In conclusion, the problems caused by depression can be resolved through psychotherapy sessions and keeping one's physical condition in check. A person that lives a healthy lifestyle can reduce the risk of contracting depression as it helps them to release the stress felt by them. Besides that, psychotherapy allows patients to mitigate their burdens by talking with the psychotherapist.