Is depression society-driven or are we more medically

aware?

It is evident that the exposure people have to the topic of depression

through social media, television, billboards and brochures has significantly
risen in the past number of years. This is mainly due to the fact that there
has been a huge increase in the number of people being diagnosed with
depression. Hopefully, this raising of awareness will help people to
understand how serious this condition is. However, does admitting that
you have depression have a negative effect on you? Has the removal of
the stigma once attached to depression actually resulted in legitimate
cases being hidden? In this day and age, our medical knowledge has
drastically advanced; we have discovered several ways to help people
cope with the horrifically debilitating condition that is depression. Cases of
depression have increased by nearly half a million in the past three years.
So, in light of these facts and figures, what has caused this sudden
upsurge of cases of depression diagnoses? What we need to examine is
whether depression is society-driven or whether we are more medically
aware?
How can we, as a society, tackle this problem that affects at least one in
four people during their lifetimes? It is a dilemma that will affect all of us
in one way or another, either directly or indirectly. Are the stresses and
strains of modern day life simply too hard for some? Or have we just
managed to gain a deeper understanding of the illness, giving us the
advantage to self-diagnose?
Widespread depression has not miraculously appeared; it has been slowly
on the incline and has existed for thousands of years. Early records state
that the first sufferers of depression date back to approximately two
hundred AD. It was not a huge epidemic back then; however, this shows
that depression is not a modern day phenomenon. It is thought to have

been discovered as far back as the Ancient Greeks who actually named it
melancholia; they believed that the sole reason for this depression was
that the sufferer did not have enough body fluids. Later, in the eleventh
century, physicians came up with other ideas, that it was a mood disorder;
they also thought it caused that person to obtain phobias. During the
twentieth century, Dr. John Cade was the first psychiatrist to diagnose
depression and administer a definite process of treatment by employing
lithium. This generated the start of the fight back against depression an
acknowledgement that it is an integral part of being human. Saying all
that, it proves that depression has caused people problems in the past
and that research has answered so many questions we once pondered
upon. So, like most illnesses, when we learn more about them, we
discover others who suffer from it. As time goes on, research becomes
more advanced, so we discover more about it. Is that the reason we are
discovering more depressed people?
As we all know, modern day society is completely different from what it
was fifty years ago. With the internet being as popular as it is, trends and
stereotypes are easily created and spread around the web at a record
rate. This could pressure some people into getting into the latest trends,
in fear that if they do not they will be an outcast from their social circles.
On social media websites like Facebook, Twitter and Tumblr, peoples lives
- mostly those of young people - are effectively exposed to everyone and
their opinions. They are also just a few clicks away from finding out what
everyone else around the world thinks is normal, feeling pressurised into
copying them so no one can single them out for being different. It can
also seem that if they do publicise their own opinions, others will single
them out as they arent the same. Therefore, many will pretend to be
something they are not. This social pressure about almost every aspect of
life can cause social media users to be anxious about everyday life,
constantly worrying. Chronic stress has been proved to be a leading factor
in sufferers of major depression. This all makes sense as depression in
teenagers has risen significantly over the past few years. Perhaps it was

always an issue but has been exacerbated by social media and has,
therefore, just become more noticeable.
The suffering endured by people with depression - and the lives cost to
the suicide that results in extreme cases - proves to be a great burden on
individuals, families, and society, hence the treatment and prevention of
depression are critical public health priorities. Studies of brain chemistry
have helped improve the reaction caused when antidepressants are taken.
This continues to improve and develop better medical and psychotherapy
treatments. In the past decade, there have been significant advances in
our ability to investigate brain function at multiple levels. Various
scientists are using this to their advantage as they can study cellular
biology, genetics, epidemiology, along with cognitive and behavioural
science to gain a more thorough and detailed overview of brain function
and subsequent behaviour. This research holds great promise in the
unlocking of more secrets about depression and is great for the advancing
and development of more effective treatments.
Our society is in the throes of a virtual epidemic of depression - the
numbers are worryingly high. The advent of the internet has contributed
significantly to this problem. Much of what we assume is depression is
inaccurate; many people are now misdiagnosing themselves, claiming
they are depressed due to the new publicity surrounding depression; this
is causing the numbers of people self-diagnosed as depressed to soar.
We depend on social media so much more than usual, so we often cut
ourselves off as were only a click away from everyone, but depression
is symptomatic of feeling isolated- evidently social media is making
people depressed, or making them think they are; on social media it is so
early to find pages which make depression seem a beautiful thing which
may lead teenagers into thinking thats its okay to feel like that. A
dominant theme in our society is that you must be happy and, if you are
not, there must be something wrong with you.

The huge problem we are all guilty of contributing to is making the term
mentally ill or depressed an adjective, claiming were depressed due
to watching a favourite character die in a favourite TV programme which
takes away the severity of depression. Everyday people describe
themselves as anxious due to a test which clearly shows a
misunderstanding of the illness itself. The same goes for people who
experience sudden mood changes and class themselves as bi-polar just
because of one incident. However, the people who do this are not
medically trained how can they know for sure that they are depressed
just because of information on the internet? The misuse of these terms
actually makes it harder for people who do genuinely suffer from gaining
help. The normalising of depression not in itself a bad thing - has taken
a worrying turn. It seems that many people think it is okay to have
depression or are happy to be diagnosed as depressed when they are
aware that they arent. We need to emphasise that it is, in fact, a very
serious illness.
We are so dependent on media and societys perception of us today. Is it
merely a coincidence that cases of depression have risen by almost half a
million? Clearly there must be a link between the two. It is the hard job of
GPs everywhere to establish the real cases from the false ones.

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Bibliography

http://www.nuffieldfoundation.org/news/increased-levels-anxietyand-depression-teenage-experience-changes-over-time

http://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/help-information/mental-healthstatistics/

http://answers.ask.com/health/mental/when_was_depression_discov
ered

http://discovery.yukozimo.com/who-discovered-depression/