Causes of Depression

Depression is a mental disorder that we really should take a look at its causes. In any given year, there are over 14 million adults in the U.S. are affected by major depressive disorder, or with its common name as depression. From that figure, there are approximately 10% of women and 4% of men with aged 18 and older take antidepressant for depression.

In fact, there are many theories about causes of depression but nobody knows exactly what they are. Anyway, studies have revealed some of the factors that contribute to the probability of people developing depression.

1) Stress
Stress takes the first place prize in the causes of depression. It is true that any stressful environment or situation can lead to depression, including social stress, loss a job, relationship difficulties, worry about money, overload of duties, lifestyle out of control, pressures of school homework and getting good grades. Stressful situations just keep changing.

2) Drinking and Drugs
Studies reveal that people who take drugs and alcohol are more prone to depression. When these substances are used at a young age, they can effect a person's brain in negative ways in long run. These substances help make the person feel good temporarily, but in most cases, people become addicted afterwards.

Drugs can assist in dopamine releasing in the pleasure center of the brain. For instance, delicious food boosts dopamine release by about 50%. However, drugs can increase dopamine release anywhere from 4 to 10 times. This unnatural high almost certainly leads to depression after the high goes away.

This substance is the surest way to fry brain circuitry. Drugs make a person depressed more than it makes him happy in the long run. This effect will spiral downward until the person doing drugs will want more and more of it in order to break the cycle of depression that follows each high and so the addiction is born.

3) Physical Changes to the Body
Physical changes that occur to our bodies can also lead to depression. Severe medical conditions such as Parkinson's disease, heart attacks, strokes and diabetes can make the people believe that there is nothing worthwhile living for because the body can no longer do the things their mind expect it to do. This can create a believe that life tends to be meaningless and it becomes easier for them to slip into negative spiral of emotions. When individual feel depressed, it will delay the rate of recovery.

4) Lack of Sleep
Researches indicate that up to 40% of adults do not get the proper amount of sleep per day and among students, up to 71% complain of sleep disorders and lack of sleep. We know that sleep is essential to an individual's health. During sleep, the body repairs itself and reorganizes thought. Lack of sleep contributes to a lack of coherence in brain waves. This scenario can lead to depression. Sleeping during the day and staying up late also interferes with the body's natural rhythms. This can lead to a sense of depression too.

5) Low self esteem
Low self esteem and pessimism are one of the factors that relate to the causes of depression. With these negative mood traits, an individual may regard themselves with feelings of hopeless, worthlessness, a desire to end their life and may even attempts for a suicide. The worse thing is people who suffers from low self esteem tend to see their lives in the negative perspective. These low self esteem and pessimistic feelings, together with other factors such as stress, can create a potential for depression and may indeed invoke a response towards depression.

Besides the 5 causes of depression mentioned above, other causes of depression include death, change of job, genetic traits, moving from one place to another etc. Even the fear of the unknown can cause depression and the list is endless. While some of these events cannot be avoided, we must come up with an effective depression coping mechanism and get some overcome depression tips to be able to thrive in any situation.