Do You Understand Depression - Part 3

The causes of depression are many and varied. Some people are genetically predisposed to have a higher chance of having episodes of depression throughout their lifetime. If you have a parent or a sibling that has experienced depression, then you are at a higher risk for depression. Once you have depression, this is a predictor of future episodes.

Your environment is another cause of depression. Stressors and triggers can come from your home, work, and even memories can negatively affect your thoughts. Negative thoughts can affect not only mood and feelings, but also behavior and daily living. Depression can lead to self-isolation, poor nutrition, and little exercise. From my reading, I have learned that the brain and its neurotransmitters change during an episode of depression and all these factors negatively affect biology.

This is why when you have mild depression, you need to take steps to stop it there. If you have someone that understands you and can be a sounding board, make use of him or her and let him or her help you. If this does not work, then seek counseling and don't let depression get the better of you.

Depression negatively affects behavior by decreasing engagement in recreational activities and making chores and hygiene more likely to be deferred. Not being able to keep up with responsibilities at work and at home can lead to additional negative thoughts. Ever-increasingly negative thoughts, biology, and behavior all then enhance the feeling of depression. This can become a vicious cycle. What starts as something minimal can quickly snowball into severe and debilitating depression that negatively affects the biological, psychological, and social aspects of your life.

The first paragraph above says a lot and there are the people with diabetes that I am concerned about. Because some people are at higher risk for depression than others, the rest of the people around this person need to be aware that depression can negatively affect all areas of a person's life. The feelings of hopelessness and distorted thoughts and judgment can lead to self-harm and suicide. As with any disease, the symptoms and causes of depression for people with diabetes can be problems with unknown magnitude.

Like most diseases that go untreated, depression negatively affects quality of life and has complications, the most serious of which is suicide. This why I blog and our support group is working to do interventions. If anyone you know is suffering from depression, please assist them in obtaining treatment immediately.

Warning, leave certified diabetes educators (CDEs) out of this, as they avoid being in the room with anyone with diabetes that talks about depression. I have blogs up over the years where CDEs have done just this and I have been able to help a few of their victims. They can't seem even to pass this information to the person's doctor for follow-up.

Some blogs that I have found helpful include this about why are your missing work, this blog about restoring happiness, and this blog about other bloggers writing about handling depression. The last link is this on about some depression drugs causing hypoglycemia and this should be known before accepting some depression drugs.