Often times, many associate depression with adults and the elderly for the stressors they face, inclusive of work and physical pain with the buildup of agonizing manual labor, or with those with military experiences that have a heightened sense of trauma in past wars. However, contrary to popular belief, Cambridge University, in England reports in a study that ” There was no consistent pattern across studies for age differences in the occurrence of anxiety, depression or distress.“. This, in addition to some of those stressors like that of a lack of family support and the loss of a loved one, show that age does not determine how vulnerable one is to this type of psychological stress and that we all need support and respect in this demanding world.
A constant misconception regarding depression is that smiling will immediately eliminate the effects depression can cause. And while there is surely a sense of relief when one feels happier and irradiates this happiness onto others by smiling, it is foolish to think that depression is a quick fix. Depression is actually a chronic illness, meaning those with depression will need to continue to receive support to treat their depression and have a better mindset. Australia’s mental health hotline, dNet, states that depression can come in any of 5 ways. For purposes of this post, lets investigate the one they harp on first: drugs and medications.
Following a study in relationship with Young Adults looking for treatment for episodes in which they experienced major depression in the United States, the table shows that 2010 and 2014 saw 31.8% of these adolescents seek medication to treat what was expected to be a yearly depressive episode. In a statistical test to determine if this data can be trusted, a 99% confidence interval was taken from these test subjects and yield that the medication time lasted from .9 years to 1.32 years with the margin of error being .21. Thus, the average amount of time that an adolescent used prescription drugs to treat a 12 month MDE would be 1.11 years. The number of subjects this was based off of, as indicated in the table, is 15,603. Based on this, we can yield that approximately 4,962 preteens in the years 2010 and 2014 used medications to treat their major depressive episodes per every 15,603 adolescents who suffered from this mental illness. In a sample of 15,603 preteens like this, we would receive a result similar to this 24.3% of the time. Since this percentage is greater than 5%, we would reject an alternate hypothesis that the results yielded in this study are incorrect.
Clearly, depression is being commonly being treated with the usage of medication. However, several organizations, including the APA and ASAM claim that these drugs can be addictive and harmful, especially when taken for more than the normalized time, as in the case of the study mentioned.With this, a big question comes to the light. What is the safest way to relieve this illness. Desert Hope, an addiction program treatment center in Las Vegas, claims that the best treatments are that of herbal treatments and an increase in social support, among others. Support is the most important and efficient way to help treat depression. This is why we all need to contribute and continue supporting those around us so that they do not fall in danger of having this illness as well.