How to numb depression

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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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How to help a person with the development of a depressive state?

Depression: concept, mechanism of occurrence

Depression can be described as a mental disorder in which a person experiences a period of time, bad mood persists and the loss of the ability to experience pleasure from any positive events in life.

A person suffering from a depressive disorder is characterized by such conditions as: depression, anxiety, melancholy and depressed mood.

According to official data published by the World Health Organization (WHO), this disease affects nearly 350 million people worldwide. Treat depression only 50% of this number. In other cases, the absence vital energy and interest are attributed to the blues, laziness or bad character.

What happens in the body of a person suffering from depression?

The limbic system is responsible for sleep, memory, emotions and other processes in the human body. It is a combination of various structures of the brain.

In a healthy person, the components of the limbic system work according to the following principle:

Prefrontal cortex - responsible for processing information, prevents excessive activity of the tonsils. Stimulates a person's motivation for something, influences decision-making and behavior.
Hippocampus - responsible for emotions (both positive and negative), provides a transition of short-term long-term memory, helps to keep attention and concentration on something.
Amygdala - activated at the time of the appearance of fear in a person and feelings of anxiety. This structure forms memories associated with experienced emotions.

With depression, a number of changes occur in the functioning of the limbic system. There is a lack of neurotransmitters in the body (chemicals that provide contacts between nerve cells).
As a result of this failure, all other structures begin to work incorrectly:

The prefrontal cortex does not process information correctly, it stops inhibiting the activity of the amygdala. This results in symptoms such as: a change in a person’s mood, the appearance of a feeling of anxiety, loss of motivation to do something.
The volume of the hippocampus decreases, as a result of which a person's memory deteriorates, he becomes distracted and cannot concentrate.
As a result of a change in the size of the amygdala, a person develops fear, anxiety, mental disorder.

It has been established that during depression in the human body there is a lack of such neurotransmitters as: dopamine, serotonin and norepinephrine. In some cases, there is also a decrease in endorphins.

Main symptoms of depression

To better understand what depression is in a person, it is necessary to consider the main symptoms of this condition:

Thinking errors - a person has attitudes in his head: “no one needs me”, “no one understands me”, “everything around is very bad”. He feels alienated and alone.
Loss of interest in what is happening around - the patient becomes indifferent to his life, former aspirations, interests and hobbies. Sometimes even food loses its former bright taste.
Lack of desire to do anything - ordinary things (cleaning, washing or cooking) for a person with depression is difficult. He has to do his best.
Sleep and appetite disorders - interest in food may be lost, due to which a person begins to lose weight rapidly. The reverse situation is also possible - constant uncontrolled overeating. In this way, the patient tries relieve tension. Also, depressive disorders are often accompanied by insomnia or constant drowsiness.
Mental and motor retardation - such symptoms are characteristic of depression, which has turned into a severe form. The sharpness of the mind disappears, thoughts are confused, it is very difficult for a person to concentrate on anything.

Increased vulnerability - such people are much easier to hurt and offend. Moreover, such a reaction can occur even on the most harmless things or words.
In advanced cases, persistent apathy may eventually lead to suicidal thoughts. Many cases are known when people with depression commit suicide.
Depression is often accompanied by deterioration in physical condition. For example, you may receive: permanent headaches pain, indigestion, a feeling of heaviness in the chest, pain in the heart, etc.

Depending on the nature of the course of the disease and the degree of neglect, certain symptoms may manifest themselves more or lesser degree. Some of them are completely absent, but the problem still exists and needs to be addressed.

How is the disease progressing?

In most cases, depression develops gradually from small to large.

The first faint signals appear first. For example, sleep problems may appear, a person becomes irritable, unwilling to perform his usual duties.

As the disease progresses, the symptoms intensify and after one or two months all typical signs of depression.

The course of this disease is uneven. Some people experience periodic worsening of the condition. Wherein the rest of the time they are completely normal.

On average, a depressive disorder can last 6 to 8 months. If apathy dragged on for more long period, then we are talking about chronic depression (2 or more years).

Causes and factors that provoke the development of depression

Depressive disorder can develop for a variety of reasons. The main ones include the following situations:

Difficult life circumstances — loss of a loved one, loss of a job, business or high position in society, etc. In this case, a person may develop reactive depression, as a reaction to the events taking place around.
Personal characteristics of a person - for example, such a problem is often faced by perfectionists who strive to do everything perfectly. As a result, the endless pursuit of perfection leads to burnout and loss of interest.
People with low self-esteem are also prone to depression. They believe that they are not worthy of a good life and cannot earn the recognition of others.
Depression of unknown etiology - it develops on its own and does not have any specific causes and motives. This condition in medicine is called endogenous depression.
Cold season - with the departure of the sun and bright light, many people get a depressive mood. Such exacerbations are more common in winter and autumn. This condition is called seasonal depression. (This phenomenon is described in more detail below).
Taking certain types of drugs - depression may appear as a side effect after taking corticosteroids, sedatives and other medications. Usually after stopping taking one or another drug, the depressive disorder goes away.
Neurological or thyroid disorders known to develop depression against the backdrop of other diseases. For example, it occurs in 50% of people with hypothyroidism. (a malfunction of the thyroid gland, as a result of which the production of hormones by it decreases).

In addition to direct causes, there are also many additional factors that provoke the appearance of depressive disorders. These include: pregnancy, psychological trauma suffered in childhood, somatics, etc.

Classification of depressive states

Today there are many different approaches to the classification of depressive disorders. Some of them are already outdated, others have not yet been fully proven.

We will single out several officially confirmed forms of depression that are included in the ICD-10 (international classifier of diseases).

Depending on the nature of the course of the disease, depression is divided into three types:

mild - has no pronounced symptoms, so it is often confused with short-term melancholy and sadness.
medium - clinical signs begin to appear more clearly. The man still has strength be a full member of society
severe - this form has pronounced symptoms. The person practically loses the ability to normally function in society, delusions appear, and sometimes hallucinations.

Depressive disorders are divided into several groups depending on the cause of development. Main forms of depression:

endogenous - the disease develops for no apparent reason,
reactive or psychogenic - characterized as a reaction of the human psyche to difficult events, happening around (death of a loved one, bankruptcy, etc.),
seasonal - occurs periodically, usually associated with a lack of heat and bright sunlight,
pharmacogenic - is a side effect of taking certain types of drugs. For example, the use of neuroleptics can lead to the development of neuroleptic depression,
somatogenic - appears as a result of somatic diseases (for example, against the background of atherosclerosis, head trauma, etc.),
postpartum - 12-16% of women experience it in the first months after the birth of a child.

In addition to the above classifications, many other types of depression are known. For example, depending on predominant symptoms, it may be anxious, melancholy, lethargic and undifferentiated.

According to the nature of the course, depression is divided into:

unipolar (stable condition during the entire period of illness),
bipolar (symptoms of depression may change into a phase of mania),
dysthymia (preservation of apathy for 2 or more years without pronounced symptoms),
cyclothymia (regular changes in mood from an excited state to apathy and vice versa).

Features of the manifestation of depressive states

Depressive disorder can progress differently for each person. Gender plays an important role here. the patient's affiliation and age.

Women's, men's and children's depression have been found to have their own characteristics. Let's look at them in more detail.

Among women

Women are more prone to depression. Of all the cases, two-thirds are female.

For example, the famous German psychologist W. Nuber associates this pattern with a high level of stress women's load (as opposed to men's).

The main causes of depression in women include:

hormonal changes occurring in the body (as a result of a change in the menstrual cycle (PMS), pregnancy, miscarriage, menopause, etc.),
premenstrual dystrophic disorder (PMDD) is considered a more severe form of PMS. In this case, before the onset of menstruation, a woman begins to have a pronounced depression,
postpartum period - against the background of a radical restructuring of the body as a result of the birth of a child, many women develop depression. Often it is the result of an exacerbation of mental disorders, who were present before pregnancy,
emotional burnout - this especially often happens to mothers in the first year of a baby's life, when he needs in especially careful care. Constant lack of sleep, lack of time for yourself, poor nutrition - all of these factors can result in a depressive disorder.

Regardless of the cause of the appearance, it is very important to notice the first signs of the disease in time and contact for qualified medical care. It is much easier to solve the problem at the initial stage than to fight with severe consequences of a neglected form of depression.

In men

Men are less likely to develop depression than women, but they are also susceptible to this disease.

The main factors provoking the onset of depression in men are most often:

stressful work,
problems in personal life,
lack of any significant achievements,
unsuccessful marriage, etc.

During depression, men may exhibit the following behaviors: maximum immersion in work or any other activity, alcohol abuse, aggression and irritability, etc. may appear.

In children

It may seem strange to some, but not only adults are affected by depression. Often there are cases when this disease develops in children and adolescents.

It has been found that depression occurs in almost 5% of children and adolescents aged 10-16 years. This disease often leads to an increase in morbidity, disability and an increase in the frequency of suicide.

Causes of depression in children and adolescents:

difficult relationship with parents (use of physical and emotional pressure),
difficulties with social adaptation in the team (lack of friends, ridicule of classmates, etc.),
suffering from excessive parental care or vice versa indifference,
unhappy love in adolescence, etc.

Depression or temporary blues: how to recognize?

Depression is often confused with the usual apathy that every person experiences from time to time. Indeed, at the initial stage, these two states are quite easy to confuse. However, as the disease progresses, the typical signs of depression begin to appear more clearly.

Let's look at a few key differences between depression and temporary blues:

Prolonged depression - simple apathy usually does not last more than a couple of days. If a bad mood persists for a long period (from several weeks or more), then this is a reason to think. There is a high probability that depression is approaching you.
Lack of response to positive events - probably many of us have experienced a situation that when a bad mood immediately changed after receiving positive news.
In the case of depression, everything is much more complicated. Here, even pleasant events cannot affect the depressed human condition.
The appearance of additional symptoms - depression is often accompanied by fatigue and weakness, inability to concentrate one's attention, loss of working capacity, irritability, fasting or vice versa overeating, etc.

With the development of a depressive state, it is very important to make an early diagnosis, since to treat such a disease Much easier in the beginning. Without proper attention, it can progress very quickly and lead to to disastrous consequences (severe mental disorders, the development of other diseases against the background of complete loss of strength, suicidal thoughts, etc.).

Signs of seasonal depression

Often people begin to experience a depressed state with the arrival of the cold season (autumn, winter). This is quite logical: daylight hours are shortening, there is no bright sunlight, and the air temperature is dropping. All these factors cause drowsiness, lack of desire to do anything and a general deterioration in mood.

However, the usual autumn blues should not be confused with depression. In medicine, she was given the name - seasonal affective disorder (SAD).

A distinctive feature of this disease is that the symptoms of depression are exacerbated mainly in the autumn-winter period. At the same time, this condition is associated with a lack of sunlight.

Speaking from the point of view of medicine, we can name the following main causes of SAD development:

increased production of melatonin,
insufficient amount of serotonin,
failures of circadian rhythms of illumination,
increased response of cortisol and prolactin to serotonin.

With the arrival of spring and then summer, the symptoms of seasonal depression disappear completely.

When asked about what to do with seasonal depression, doctors recommend spending more time outdoors during the day to get the amount of sunlight the body needs (you can walk or even just sit by the window).

Development of depression due to trauma

Sometimes the cause of depression can be a traumatic brain injury (TBI). For example, as a result of a fall from a height, a strong blow, an accident, etc.

There are the following three types of depression that can develop against the background of TBI:

Sad - appears with a slight or moderate bruise of the temporal region of the right hemisphere. Distinctive features of sad depression: the appearance of a feeling of longing in the patient, slow pronunciation of words, slow motor reaction, memory failures, distracted attention and asthenia (weakness and increased fatigue).
Anxious - is the result of a slight or moderate bruise of the left temple. This condition is more common in people of mature age, writing with the right hand (right-handers).
Typical symptoms: constant feeling of anxiety, the patient is restless, tossing about, taking deep breaths and looks around. Also, this behavior is often accompanied by the utterance of disturbing speeches.
Apathetic - occurs with TBI of the anterior part of the brain. The main distinguishing feature: a person becomes everything indifferent and sad. Such patients are lethargic and have no interest in anything, including themselves.

It has been established that in almost 68% of people who are in the acute period after TBI, depressive states described above develop.

Diagnostic methods

In the treatment of depression, timely diagnosis of this disease is of great importance. The sooner it is detected, the easier it will be to stop the symptoms.

Depressive disorders are usually diagnosed by a psychotherapist. A clinical psychologist is also often involved.

As a rule, the diagnosis is made in the course of a conversation with the patient. The profile doctor asks in detail about the condition, manifesting symptoms, periods of deterioration or a sharp improvement in the condition. During the diagnostics, the following main tasks:

accurate determination of the presence of depression in a person,
overall assessment of depression,
measurement of certain symptoms resulting from depression (eg, anxiety, suicidal thoughts, etc.).

In addition to the conversation, special tests and questionnaires are used to diagnose depressive disorder.

Diagnostic sets of criteria are also used to make an accurate diagnosis, based on which assessment of the patient's condition. The most famous include ICD-10 (according to this model, all symptoms of depression are divided into into typical and additional) and DSM-IV-TR (depression is diagnosed if within 2 weeks marked at least 5 out of 9established symptoms).

In addition, patients with mood disorders are also advised to take some surveys. This is necessary in order to exclude the somatic origin of depression. For example, thyroid ultrasound is often prescribed. This diagnostic method will reveal hypo- or hyperthyroidism. It is known that such pathologies often provoke the development of depressive disorders.

Today, the detection of depression is greatly hampered by the patient's attempts to remain silent about his condition. The reasons for this behavior may be different: someone is afraid of antidepressant treatment, another part of patients they are afraid of condemnation from friends and acquaintances, there are also those who associate their condition with a bad character, laziness, etc.

Treatment for depressive disorder

After making an accurate diagnosis, the next question arises - how to help yourself with depression?

In modern medicine, there are many different methods of dealing with this condition that have proven their effectiveness.
Consider the main ones:

Drug therapy - the mainstay of treatment is taking antidepressants (stimulant, sedative or balanced action). For mild or moderate depression, drugs based on herbal ingredients.
Psychotherapy - in this case, the means of mental influence on a person suffering from depression are used. Known methods of psychotherapy: behavioral (aimed at increasing the patient's activity, developing self-control), interpersonal (teaching social skills), family, etc. Psychotherapy can be used as an independent treatment for depression, or in combination with taking antidepressants.
Physical activity - sometimes a person suffering from depression is prescribed a set of exercises. To get the effect, sports should be regular (2-3 times a week). Support from family and friends is welcome.
The main condition for this method of treatment is the patient's desire to engage in physical activity.
Electroconvulsive Therapy - With the help of an electric current, controlled convulsions are induced in the patient. As a result of this effect on the brain, substances that improve mood begin to be released. This method of treatment is usually prescribed for patients suffering from prolonged and persistent depression.
Other therapies - this may include light therapy (used for seasonal depression), sleep deprivation (minimization or lack of sleep), music therapy, etc.

With the development of depressive disorders, it is strongly not recommended to self-medicate. First of all, this concerns the use of antidepressants. Not all of them are suitable for a particular case. It all depends on the degree of neglect of the disease, the severity of symptoms and many other factors. If the antidepressant is chosen incorrectly, the patient's condition will only worsen.

Depression in a loved one: how to help?

Lack of understanding and consideration from relatives and friends is one of the common problems experienced by people who are depressed.

Very often people around regard such a state as laziness, bad character, gaps in education, etc. Ultimately, the lack of attention to a person with depression leads to quite serious consequences.

If you have noticed the first symptoms of depression in someone close to you, then these tips will help alleviate the condition of a loved one:

Create a comfortable and peaceful environment in your home - this can be a change in something in the interior, buying some kind of accent item, rearranging furniture, unloading space, etc.
People with depression are often unable to relax and feel safe, so it is important to create nice atmosphere around.
It is also necessary to ensure the flow of clean fresh air into the room. To do this, set breather. This is a compact supply ventilation system that will get rid of high concentrations that depress the immune system, carbon dioxide.
Don't underestimate the difficulties your loved one has experienced. Even if at first glance they seem insignificant, in fact, everything can be much more complicated.
Also, in this case, such on-duty phrases as: “Do not invent”, “Nothing terrible is happening”, "Do something", etc.
A person must be listened to and allowed to express all the feelings that he experiences.
A person with depression should be advised carefully. Depression is primarily a disease which cannot be cured with valerian or sports. This is where professional help is needed. Therefore it is better to advise to descend or go to the psychologist or the psychotherapist. Even better would be to go with him.
Help in solving everyday issues - for a depressed person, any ordinary affairs are given with great difficulty, require a lot of work, so try to provide all possible assistance.
Do not leave your loved one even if he resists. Very often during depression people become more irritable, may be aggressive. In this case, you should try to find an alternative approach to the patient. The main thing is not to leave him alone with his difficult condition.

In trying to help your neighbor, do not forget about yourself. Don't be responsible for another person's condition take over completely. Do everything in your power, and in the future you should work with the patient profile specialists.

We hope this article was useful to you. We wish you and your loved ones never fall into depression. condition. Let there be predominantly positive in life, and all the bad bypass!

Does sport help with depression?

Claudia Hammond
BBC Future

23 July 2017

Image credit: Getty Images

After all, in a healthy body - a healthy mind, right?

A correspondent for BBC Future decided to look into this matter.

For decades, family physicians have advised patients diagnosed with depression to exercise regularly in addition to psychotherapy and medication. However, recently there have been reports in the press that physical activity does not improve the condition of patients.

Does this mean that generations of doctors were wrong?

Gathering information on the impact of sport on human mood proved to be more difficult than expected.

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If usually, in order to test a drug for effectiveness, it is enough to give one group of people the drug itself, and the other - a placebo, then with physical exercises everything is much more complicated.

In contrast to the substitute drug, people are aware that they are doing exercises, and therefore the purity of the experiment is violated.

Besides, it's not easy to get people to go to the gym. Therefore, in the course of the research, the participants in the experiment were allowed to choose their own group.

And this, of course, distorts the results. After all, those who enjoy sports get more benefit from it.

Image copyright Thinkstock

Image caption,

In general, physical exercise has a beneficial effect on the human psyche

In search of an answer, I turned to data from a study by the Cochrane Collaboration, an international non-profit organization that studies the effectiveness of medical technologies using a rigorous systematic methodology.

The results of 30 different experiments conducted in countries as diverse as Thailand, Denmark and Australia have shown that, in general, physical exercise has a beneficial effect on the psyche of people with depression.

But if we take into account the data of the most accurate studies, the positive effect is small.

Therefore, if exercise does have a beneficial effect, another question arises: how does it affect mood?

There are several theories. According to one of them, during physical activity, the level of endorphins and dopamine in the body increases, which improve well-being.

Another theory that originated in the saunas and baths of Scandinavia in the 1970s claimed that mood improves due to an increase in body temperature, which leads to the release of endorphins into the blood.

Those participants in the study who took a steam bath in the sauna actually improved their mood at the end of the study. However, this experiment has an unexpected detail: participation in it was paid with beer.

But can sport improve your mood even if you don't get hot and sweaty?

Fitness: how to train effectively

Researchers tried to test this as well. Desperate volunteers were forced to wear ice scarves while pedaling exercise bikes or even dipping the exercise bikes themselves into the pool so that only their heads were above the water.

The mood of the underwater cyclists, oddly enough, did not improve, but those who trained with ice around their necks seemed to look happy.

Image copyright, Getty Images

Image caption,

Maybe exercise is just a distraction from what's bothering us

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Although, perhaps it was only a sense of relief that they finally took off the ice scarf and stopped measuring rectal temperature.

Well, maybe it's not the chemical composition of the blood. A person goes out of the house, communicates, rejoices that he has mastered new skills and improved his sports form.

By the way, almost all of the Cochrane Collaboration studies involved group exercise in the gym.

Finally, there is another very simple explanation, which was proposed by Professor William Morgan from the University of Wisconsin at Madison (USA).

The point, the scientist suggested, is that during physical exercise we are simply distracted from what worries us.

Morgan also found that the positive effect lasts no more than 24 hours, and therefore the breaks between sessions should not be long.

The scientist, however, found out something else. Just sitting quietly in a comfortable leather chair for a while can have the same positive effect. Good news for those who are not too fond of sports.

It turns out that physical exercises somewhat improve the mental state of a person, but, of course, they are not a panacea for depression.

In general, a depressive episode lasts about 6 months, regardless of whether the patient received treatment or not.

Learn more