Do you feel sad, empty and hopeless most of the day, nearly every day? Have you lost interest or pleasure in your hobbies or being with friends and family? Are you having trouble sleeping, eating and functioning? If you have felt this way for quite some time, you may have depression, a serious but treatable mood disorder. “Depression: Let’s Talk” is in fact the one-year campaign launched by the World Health Organization (WHO) in October 2016 to highlight the problems linked to depression worldwide, with the goal that more people, everywhere in the world, overcome the stigma often associated with it and both seek and get help.
As leading cause of ill health and disability worldwide, the WHO report is a ‘wake-up call’ for countries to rethink approaches to mental health and to treat it with the urgency that it deserves, revealing that in 2015, the number of people globally living with depression had reached 322 million, an estimated 18.4% increase since 2005 and that “talking is really the first step towards recovery”.
What is Depression?
Everyone feels sad or low sometimes, but these feelings usually pass with a little time. Depression—also called “clinical depression” or a “depressive disorder”—is a mood disorder that causes distressing symptoms that affect how you feel, think and handle daily activities, such as sleeping, eating or working. To be diagnosed with depression, symptoms must be present most of the day, nearly every day for at least two weeks.
The WHO defines depression as a “persistent sadness and a loss of interest or pleasure in activities that people normally enjoy, accompanied by an inability to carry out daily activities for two weeks or more”. Lack of energy, feeling of tiredness and poor concentration, shifts in appetite or sleep patterns, substance abuse, anxiety, feelings of guilt, worthlessness and thoughts of self-harm or suicide are also common and can affect entire families....READ MORE
Do you feel sad, empty and hopeless most of the day, nearly every day? Have you lost interest or pleasure in your hobbies or being with friends and family? Are you having...
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