Nowadays, depression has become very common. Depression is a type of mental ailment that is found in nearly ten percent of the population in Western countries. In India too, depression is increasingly seen now. Moreover, the rate of depression is notably higher among women.
There are numerous causes of depression, and it has many different symptoms as well. Depression primarily affects the mind, yet people are often unwilling to accept that they are facing this illness. Because of this lack of acceptance, it becomes a far more complex issue.
Types of Depression:
Depression generally falls into two categories. First is the everyday, conversational use of the term, where a person says, "I am depressed," after experiencing a shock, humiliation, or deep sorrow in life, or when they are going through constant inner worry and suffering.
The second is clinical depression, used in the medical sense. This involves changes or damage to brain cells and tissues, as well as chemical imbalances. While this medical depression is entirely different from everyday depression, it is often triggered from the common depression.
Symptoms of Depression:
How can we recognize if someone around us, or even we ourselves, are going through depression? Below are some of the key symptoms to look out for. Recognizing these signs in the early stages makes it possible to take timely measures to overcome it.
Common Symptoms of Depression Include:
- Inability to concentrate or focus on anything.
- A strong preference for isolation; losing the desire to socialize or mingle with others.
- Loss of interest in life; losing all interest in hobbies or activities once enjoyed.
- Persistent feelings of inferiority; constantly feeling "I don't know anything" or "I am useless" in every situation.
- Continuous sorrow and a sense of inner suffering.
- A negative attitude toward all situations, blowing even minor issues out of proportion with heavy negativity.
- Deep feelings of loneliness and feeling disconnected.
- Feeling that life is worthless or meaningless.
- Constant worry and a lingering sense of emptiness.
- Sleep disturbances; either a lack of sleep (insomnia) or sleeping excessively.
- Loss of appetite or unexpected changes in weight.
- In moderate depression, a person may start having suicidal thoughts.
- In severe depression, the individual may even attempt suicide, which requires immediate medical intervention and support.
If even two or three of the above symptoms are visible in a person, they should be addressed immediately, and one should consult a doctor or a psychiatrist. This ensures timely recovery so that the person's life can return completely back to normal.
Causes of Depression:
There are numerous causes of depression, involving a combination of both internal and external factors.
Medical research has shown that chemical or hormonal imbalances can develop within brain cells, leading to depression. From a medical standpoint, what is diagnosed as depression can also be hereditary. In addition to this, the home environment and upbringing, or a tragic event in the family such as a parental divorce, the untimely passing of a loved one, or the trauma of any form of violence, can also be underlying causes of depression.
In everyday, conversational terms, when depression has not yet advanced to clinical or medical-grade depression, it is often triggered by various small or large life events. These include facing business losses, losing a job, experiencing financial difficulties, experiencing marital regret due to an overbearing spouse or mother-in-law, children turning against their parents, or facing failures in life. In such situations, the following psychological factors come into play.
Being unable to find a way out of a Dilemma
The onset of everyday depression usually stems from life events that cause a person deep emotional distress. Examples include facing a massive humiliation, suffering a major loss, or things not going according to one's expectations; it can also happen when children talk back to their parents, leave the house, or face failure in their exams.
Additionally, when a few major life challenges hit all at once such as financial hardships, health struggles, or relationship conflicts, and a person does not know how to resolve them, they become deeply entangled or highly negative. This state is what people then refer to as having fallen into depression. In short, this type of depression stems from an inability to find solutions to the complications arising from certain life situations.
When a dilemma remains unresolved for a long time, the prolonged suffering makes it incredibly difficult for a person to break free. To escape the pain, some people turn to watching TV and movies, going out, or partying. Others go a step further and fall into addictions like alcohol, smoking, or drugs, while some resort to taking sleeping pills just to get through the night. The suffering is forgotten only for that brief period; as soon as the intoxication wears off or daily reality sets in, the pain returns.
Experiencing Excessive Negative Thoughts
The very first thing affected by depression is the mind. Various kinds of thoughts flood the mind, making it spin out of control and throwing it into constant whirlpools of overthinking. This creates intense inner suffering, a burning agony, and pain so deep that it becomes unbearable.
Once negativity sets in, thoughts like "Why did this happen to me?", "What will happen to me?", or "I am completely alone" begin to take over. Then the person then gets trapped in a cycle of suffering by constantly chewing over the past or obsessing about the future, most of which is based purely on assumptions and imagination.
Often, when the mind undergoes suffering, becomes depressed, and unwanted thoughts take a heavy hold, we try to push those thoughts away or brush them off. But that doesn’t stop them. Continuous negative thoughts or self-directed negativity lead to severe psychological impacts. For instance, suppose a mother-in-law tells her daughter-in-law, "You are crazy." At first, the daughter-in-law will completely reject it, thinking, "How on Earth am I crazy?" But then, one day, her husband says, "You are acting completely crazy." Now, she is startled and thinks, "No, no, I am not like that." Later, if her friend also mentions, "Your mind is not in the right place, you are talking like a crazy person," she finally begins to believe, "Maybe I really am crazy." Once a self-belief changes like this, those very effects begin to manifest within her as well.
Decrease in Willpower and Resilience
Nowadays, people's resilience and tolerance have significantly decreased. They cannot handle even a small amount of stress and end up breaking down. In our elders' generation, there was immense resilience, allowing them to peacefully navigate any situation without major issues. Today, however, people crumble at the slightest setback or major change in life. Not only that, but if multiple changes happen at once, such as moving to a new place, a change in environment, a shift in social circles, or dietary changes, they find it impossible to cope and slide into depression.
Even young children can fall into depression if they have to transition to a new school or college, live in a hostel, find their studies a bit difficult, have a poor exam performance, face growing exam stress, or fail an exam.
The Reaction to becoming arrogant due to Success
Everyday depression is often the direct aftermath of an artificial elevation (getting carried away by success). When a person receives immense respect, prestige, or a major breakthrough in life, they get puffed up. Meaning, an ego develops within them, making them think, "I know how to do everything," or "I can easily pull off any work." Later, if that person faces even a single failure in life, they plummet straight into depression. If they make a lot of money, it goes to their head, and the moment they face a loss, depression sets in.
Thus, when things go as expected in life, they fly high in the sky, but when things turn completely upside down, they crash down heavily to the ground. This crash is what we call depression. However, in reality, it is simply the natural, equal-and-opposite reaction to getting carried away in the first place.
Solutions for Depression:
Nowadays, even well-educated individuals in society are often unwilling to accept the reality of depression, blowing the stigma surrounding mental illness completely out of proportion. Not every mental health condition is so severe that a person needs to be sent to a mental asylum. If approached with the right treatment, it is a completely manageable and curable illness.
Taking Medication for Medical Depression
If the depression is clinical, it is absolutely essential to consult a doctor and start medication. Treatment is available for all forms of depression whether mild, moderate, or severe, allowing an individual to lead a completely normal life.
Just as a lack of insulin causes an imbalance in diabetes, certain hormones become imbalanced in depression. When someone has diabetes, high blood pressure, or has suffered a cardiac arrest, doctors advise that they must take certain medications lifelong to stay safe. Similarly, taking prescribed medication is necessary for medical depression. Just like physical ailments, mental illnesses can be effectively treated with medication.
Today, many excellent medications have been developed for depression, showing highly successful results. These medications require completing a specific course, and the duration of the treatment depends entirely on the severity of the depression.
Engaging in Yoga, Exercise, and Other Activities
While medication is essential for clinical depression, combining it with regular yoga, pranayama (breathing exercises), physical workouts, daily walking, and meditation proves to be highly beneficial. Dedicating an hour every day to exercise or yoga while dealing with depression, makes a much faster recovery possible.
One should engage in personal hobbies or group activities that bring peace and joy to the mind. This helps lower the levels of depression, anxiety, and mental stress. Furthermore, these activities help a person stay connected with people and enhance interpersonal relationships. Hobbies and group activities ultimately bring a sense of fulfillment to life, playing a vital role in maintaining mental health and achieving a happy life.
Maintaining the Normality of Thoughts
In depression, whirlpools of various negative thoughts arise in the mind, resulting in increased inner suffering. When thoughts swell beyond measure, it means they have crossed their limit. Where one needs to think for only ten or fifteen minutes, if thoughts start spiraling into endless knots instead, it is considered going outside the bounds of ‘normality’. This leads to worry, which causes immense harm.
Just as we close the doors and windows of our house when a fierce storm rages outside, we must stop paying attention when negative thoughts inside start advancing beyond what is necessary.
Thoughts keep exploding like a fountain firework. If a tap won't shut off and we look away, then for all intents and purposes, that tap is closed to us, isn't it? As long as we keep staring at it, it feels like the tap is still running. Similarly, when thoughts are bursting in the mind, if we shift our attention and change our perspective, those thoughts will no longer weigh us down.
Finding the Positive and Redefining Suffering
People often blow the painful events of life completely out of proportion and slide into depression. If someone insults us, speaks harshly, or if challenges arise in life, there is no need to suffer over it. On the contrary, one should find the positive within those situations and completely redefine what suffering means.
What truly constitutes suffering? If you don't get food for three days, have no water to drink, or have nowhere to sleep – that is suffering! If someone has a broken leg and is in the hospital with it suspended in a plaster cast, that is suffering. A severe toothache can also be called suffering. Therefore, if we are getting food, water, and shelter comfortably, then we should not pay heed to other psychological miseries. In this way, if we redefine the very meaning of suffering, then everywhere we look, we will experience nothing but happiness, happiness, and happiness.
But a negative intellect, goes out of its way to bring in suffering from where none exists. It constantly presents dualities: "Will I know the answers in the exam or not?", "If I do this, will it make me look bad or good?" Showing both the positive and negative sides like this, creates confusion! Consequently, no solution is found, and the entanglement grows. If such complications arise, one should try to resolve them one by one by remaining positive, rather than becoming hopeless or depressed.
For example, if the inner thought arises, "What if I don't know the answers in the exam?" then counter it by setting up a positive thought: "I have studied, so I will definitely know the answers. There is no need to worry!" If you must worry, do it during the preparation phase; worrying about the result is not going to change anything. If a business faces a loss and the intellect screams, "Oh no! I suffered a loss," then speak back to it, saying, "Did I suffer the loss or did the business? The family's money is safe, isn't it? There is no shortage of food or water, then that is more than enough!"
Turning toward the positive does not mean forcefully pushing away or removing the negative; it means adding the positive. Just as adding water to an empty bottle automatically forces all the air out, remaining positive in every life situation will naturally cause the negativity to disappear on its own.
Cultivating Willpower
Due to a decline in willpower and resilience, people easily fall prey to depression. However, willpower is something that can be cultivated. How does willpower break? In challenging times, looking at the negatives of others shatters the strength of the mind. By gradually stopping the habit of looking at others' faults and by sincerely repenting from the heart whenever we do happen to see their mistakes, the mind's strength steadily increases. Furthermore, by staying around those who possess strong willpower and constantly observing them, our own willpower gets cultivated as well.
No matter how severe the suffering may be, a person with strong willpower will sail through it. They will never exclaim, "What will become of me now?" In situations where one might lose courage, if they speak words like, "God helps those who help themselves”, it instantly sparks a surge of inner strength and bravery.
When we have resolved in our mind to complete a task but it isn't succeeding, if we maintain our willpower by thinking, "This task will succeed, why wouldn't it?" then sooner or later, the work does succeed. But if your willpower breaks, the task will not succeed. When one's own willpower and prayers come together, the work succeeds, and failure will never cross your path. But if there is no willpower, even prayers will not work.
Relying on Patience and Dharma (Righteousness)
One must maintain patience during difficult times. Just as day inevitably follows night, life circumstances keep changing. If there is no job today, a new one will be found tomorrow. If a business faces a loss today, profit will be made tomorrow. If it doesn't rain this year and the crops are damaged, it might rain beautifully the next year, turning the situation around. When the financial situation is weak, one must practice patience and cut down on expenses.
If we remain patient, everything naturally gets resolved smoothly! However, when we panic and rush around frantically, we only make things worse. When the unfolding of past karma feels incredibly heavy, we should simply understand that this is a difficult phase, and therefore, we must remain calm. When adverse situations arise, take the name of whichever God or revered deity you believe in and say, "God, I surrender this to You," and a solution will unfold! For peace of mind, attend satsang (spiritual discourse with the Gnani). Sat means the Soul, and sang means its company! Sitting in satsang and contemplating even a few words of spiritual wisdom brings deep peace to the mind.
