Depression is a myth

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SAMHSA’s National Helpline is a free, confidential, 24/7, 365-day-a-year treatment referral and information service (in English and Spanish) for individuals and families facing mental and/or substance use disorders.
Also visit the online treatment locator.

SAMHSA’s National Helpline, 1-800-662-HELP (4357) (also known as the Treatment Referral Routing Service), or TTY: 1-800-487-4889 is a confidential, free, 24-hour-a-day, 365-day-a-year, information service, in English and Spanish, for individuals and family members facing mental and/or substance use disorders. This service provides referrals to local treatment facilities, support groups, and community-based organizations.

Also visit the online treatment locator, or send your zip code via text message: 435748 (HELP4U) to find help near you. Read more about the HELP4U text messaging service.

The service is open 24/7, 365 days a year.

English and Spanish are available if you select the option to speak with a national representative. Currently, the 435748 (HELP4U) text messaging service is only available in English.

In 2020, the Helpline received 833,598 calls. This is a 27 percent increase from 2019, when the Helpline received a total of 656,953 calls for the year.

The referral service is free of charge. If you have no insurance or are underinsured, we will refer you to your state office, which is responsible for state-funded treatment programs. In addition, we can often refer you to facilities that charge on a sliding fee scale or accept Medicare or Medicaid. If you have health insurance, you are encouraged to contact your insurer for a list of participating health care providers and facilities.

The service is confidential. We will not ask you for any personal information. We may ask for your zip code or other pertinent geographic information in order to track calls being routed to other offices or to accurately identify the local resources appropriate to your needs.

No, we do not provide counseling. Trained information specialists answer calls, transfer callers to state services or other appropriate intake centers in their states, and connect them with local assistance and support.

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Last Updated: 08/30/2022

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Myth vs Fact | "Depression is one of the most common causes of disability"

Dispelling myths and confirming the facts about depression together with Doctor of Medical Sciences, Professor of the Department of Psychiatry and Narcology of the First Moscow State Medical University named after I.M. Sechenov Yuri Sivolap

Vera Girenko

A photo: medq.

1 Depression is a bad mood

Indeed, depression, as a rule, is manifested by a decrease in mood. At the same time, the bad mood in depression differs from the bad mood of an ordinary person. If apathy, melancholy, sadness last for a very long time, if they are not replaced by other states, then most likely these states are a sign of depression.

True, there are depressions in which patients do not feel a decrease in mood. In this case, depression is diagnosed according to clinical scales, according to patient complaints, for example, respiratory failure or pain. There are cases when a patient complains, for example, of pain in the heart, the examination shows that there are no cardiac disorders, the pain continues ... In this case, depression may be the cause of the pain symptoms.

2 The main cause of depression is stress

Yes, stress is the main cause of depression. Genetic predisposition also plays a big role. The so-called endogenous depression has nothing to do with external influence at all. It develops in a person even despite his external prosperity as a result of a violation of the neurotransmission of norepinephrine, dopamine and serotonin, for example.

3 Antidepressants treat only the symptoms, not the causes of depression

No medicine, except, perhaps, antibiotics, eliminates the cause of the disease. Pneumonia is easier: the antibiotic kills streptococcus, the person recovers. As for diseases such as diabetes mellitus, hypertension, medicines for them normalize blood sugar levels and pressure, but do nothing with the cause. At the same time, as a rule, in cases of hypertension and diabetes, no one has any doubts that medicines should be taken. After all, they prolong the life of a person. The same thing happens with the case of depression: antidepressants keep a person’s condition normal, increase the quality and duration of his life.

4 Antidepressants make a person a "vegetable"

If you use old generation antidepressants, give too high doses and do not take into account side effects, then yes, it is possible. With modern antidepressants, these extreme conditions are not observed.

5 Herbs and dietary supplements can replace antidepressants

And when a person breaks his leg, it is not necessary to go to a traumatologist and apply a cast, you can drink weed at home, everything will heal by itself... The delusion you formulated has about the same message.

6 In times of depression, you need to visit a psychotherapist

Cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy is a must. Sometimes it can replace antidepressants. But this applies only to mild cases of depression. I want to emphasize that only cognitive-behavioral therapy has proven clinical effectiveness. Art therapy, herbal treatment has no such proven effectiveness.

7 People living in sunny countries are less likely to suffer from depression

For people who are prone to depression, the lack of sun may well be one of the causes of depression. One of the types of help for people suffering from this disease is even built on this. There is a so-called phototherapy - treatment with light using special devices. It is prescribed in the case when antidepressants do not work quite well.

8 Autumn and spring are times when there is a risk of depression or relapse

Many diseases become aggravated in autumn and spring. Depression is no exception. There is even a separate type of depression, which is called seasonal. It occurs in a person every year at about the same time, sometimes even on the same day. It's hard to say why this is happening. Perhaps the matter is in the patient's biological clock or in the mechanisms of the behavior of the disease itself. There are many hypotheses as to why this is so. So far no one has given a clear answer to this question.

9 Cancer can develop from depression

If depression is not treated, then immunity may decrease with it. Including cancer. Therefore, the risk of getting sick increases. That is, there is no direct connection between cancer and depression, but there is an indirect one, it can really contribute to the appearance of a cancerous tumor if the patient has a predisposition.

10 Depression is an epidemic. Every year the number of cases grows

I would not say that it is growing. But there are really many people suffering from this disease. This is the most common mental disorder. Depression affects, on average, one in seven people on the planet. Women suffer from depression twice as often as men. And today this disease ranks fourth as a cause of disability.

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Depression is a myth - KP.RU

Komsomolskaya Pravda

HealthNews of medicineOur health

Svetlana KUZINA

March 4, 2009 1:00

Scientists have come to a startling conclusion [: 070]

8

“I AM SICKING HERE…”

The news came more than just in time. After all, the peak of the global crisis is expected in March. A new wave of layoffs and pay cuts will sweep. Psychiatrists predict: the number of depressive will increase. To 9 million Russians, who already in 2008 were in a bleak state, another 500,000 will be added. They, in turn, will join the 120 million contingent of dreary people scattered with one density or another around the world. Today, every twentieth inhabitant of the Earth is sad for some reason. And in 2020, the World Health Organization scares, depression as a disease will generally come out on top among all others, overtaking the current leaders - infectious and cardiovascular diseases.

So what kind of terrible disease is this? Doctors define depression as an emotional disorder characterized by depression, hopelessness, helplessness, guilt, increased self-criticism, decreased interest in life, impaired clarity of thought. Agree, all the symptoms are ghostly. And everyone can show up. Only with different strength and frequency. Does that mean everyone is sick? Not at all. On the contrary, they are healthy.

Recent research has shown that depression is one of the normal human emotions that we need as a species. For survival. This conclusion was made by a professor at the London Institute of Psychiatry, the author of the book How Sadness Survived, Paul Kidwell.

- People develop negative emotions for a reason, explains Dr. Kidwell. - Fear, for example, warns us of danger. Similarly, sadness is part of our biological heritage. It is no coincidence that monkeys, dogs and elephants sometimes seem to fall into despondency. Perhaps this state serves as a signal to their fellow tribesmen that the yearning animal needs help. So our distant ancestors developed the ability to demonstrate their sadness in order to attract the attention of members of the community with facial expressions and show that support is needed. Even a baby from the first days of life uses crying as an opportunity to tell others that he is feeling bad, that he is missing something.

CHURCHILL'S "BLACK DOGS"

Today, depression, paradoxically as it sounds, acts as a kind of psychological defense mechanism.

- Having experienced depression, a person becomes more hardened and resistant to life's trials, says Dr. Kidwell. - It's like he's getting immunity. Just like a child who has been ill with measles becomes immune to this disease in the future. Often, during these hopeless periods, some even have a flash of creative insight. It is known, for example, that Van Gogh and Gauguin created their best works to escape depression. In addition, during bouts of blues, a person learns to learn from his mistakes. He looks at the world around him in a new way. Life with its vanity and trifles fades into the shadows, but new perspectives open up. This is a kind of time-out before a new decisive battle in which a person must win. And the reward will be the opportunity to change for the better.

As an example, the scientist cites the biographies of geniuses who, according to the psychiatrist, achieved fame not without the help of depression. For example, Winston Churchill called his melancholy "black dog", which accompanies him everywhere. The psychiatrist Anthony Storr, who examined the letters of the Prime Minister, found out that Winston always craved success and fame, because only by winning them could he silence the doubts about his own worth that choked him. The double complex of inferiority and superiority that haunted him was once reflected in the confession: "We are all worms, but I am convinced that I am a luminous worm."

PILLS OF JOY

Psychiatrist Kidwell's defense of the beautiful feeling of sadness is a bold challenge to the huge antidepressant industry. After all, if it is not a disease, then it does not need to be treated. And the pharmaceutical machine has been launched for a long time and brings a stable and huge income. 30 percent of the population in Russia and 65 percent in the United States are on "happiness pills". shyness, according to Jerome Wakefield of New York University and Allan Horwitz of Rutgers University, authors of The Loss of Sadness: How Psychiatry Turned Normal Grief into a Depressive Disorder. - It is clear that it is in the interests of drug manufacturers to declare these conditions as forms of depression. But professional psychiatrists also contribute to them in this. Some - because they sincerely believe that they have discovered and described a new disease, previously unknown to science. Others - because the pharmaceutical giants feed them with generous grants. As a result, depression has become the second most common disease today.

BTW

Mona Lisa would have been treated today

Signs of depression were found in the heroine of the famous "Mona Lisa" by Leonardo da Vinci. A computer program designed to determine the state of mind of the depicted person showed that Mona Lisa, seemingly calm and contented with life, is not smiling too happily. Positive emotions on her face - by 83 percent. The remaining 17 indicate some kind of fear mixed with irritation and anxiety. Modern psychiatrists would gladly send this woman to the pharmacy for antidepressants.

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