Should you worry about being depressed?
By: Anca Ramsden
  www.neuro-psychotherapy.com 

If you are reading this article, chances are, you either know someone who suffers from depression, experience depression yourself or you have a professional interest in the topic. It doesn't really matter what your drives your interest in this topic you will find this article relevant, informative and an eye opener on the subject

Should you worry about being depressed?

Yes, if you don't get the right help, then you should be very concerned about it and here is why: Firstly, let me give you some shocking statistics on the subject- medical doctors prescribe more anti-depressants than almost any other drug. Apart from drugs to control cholesterol, anti-depressant drugs are the most commonly prescribed medication. In one year recently over 10 million scripts for anti depressant medication were filled. That is one script for every second person in Australia! Family doctors are happy to prescribe Zoloft to high school kids who fear exam results- to such an extent that a well known school in Sydney is now called Zoloft High. The word ‘high’ certainly takes on a new meaning, doesn't it?

But why this prescription mania of mood altering drugs?

Firstly it is because Australia is experiencing a mental health epidemic and a mental health care crisis

Lets leave the reasons for the mental health epidemic out of the discussion for the moment and lets focus on why are we having a mental health care crisis. The very same medical practitioners who are looking after their depressed patients by prescribing medication, also have a tendency to view psychological services with suspicion. The question they often ask is, ‘Does counselling really work?’ End result? They don't refer their patients for counselling or psychological help.

The government recognizes this as a major management problem and has tried to address it by rewarding family doctors with a special bonus every time they refer one of their patients to another GP for psychological treatment. But GP’s aren't trained in psychotherapy.

This sidelining of psychologists and psychological services in mental healthcare is one of the major reasons for our current mental health care crisis. Psychologists at the highest level have been trying to address the medical professions’ attitude to mental health care, without any success as yet. So there you have the answer to our mental health care crisis.

Now lets face it, drugs alone do not solve motional problems. One thing my clients tell me very day, is that anti depressant medication does not make them feel happy. Happiness they achieve through therapy.

How does this affect you?

It means that you should worry about yourself if you suffer from depression, because chances are your healthcare will be poor. It is now recognised that emotional stress plays a big role in many of our typical western degenerative illnesses, like chronic back ache, colds and flu, cancer, heart disease, hypertension, arthritis and diabetes. It is hard these days to find a disease where stress is not mentioned as a contributing cause. This means that chronic stress will affect your health in the long run.

Secondly depression is commonly not diagnosed, because doctors are not trained to recognize the symptoms. The fact of the matter is, depression is often overlooked. So you may walk around with an undiagnosed depression for years. I know, because I see this with my clients in my practice every day.

And thirdly, to the absolute shock of the scientific community, it has now been proven that untreated depression causes brain damage. Chronic depression causes significant and permanent damage to the memory and learning centers in the brain. This means you may get permanent damage from untreated stress.

So do you see why you should be worrying about yourself if you experience depression?

So how do we fix it?
The first step is to get a diagnosis. Most people feel mildly depressed at some point in their life, but do they have clinical depression? Probably not. Look at this checklist of symptoms and if any three or more apply to you, you should talk to a psychologist or your family doctor about it.

If you live in Sydney, call 02 9418 3692 or 0414414 286 for an appointment
Visit www.neuro-psychotherapy.com  for more information

Checklist for depression
1. Loss of appetite and / or loss of weight
2. Fatigue, low energy
3. Loss of interest in hobbies and usual interests
4. Doesn’t get enjoyment from anything anymore
5. Socially withdrawn, doesn’t feel like mixing with people
6. Sleeping poorly, can’t fall asleep, or wakes up in the middle of the night
7. Forgetful
8. Cant concentration, head feels foggy
9. Can’t complete tasks, unproductive
10. Lower sex drive than usual
11. Irritable, cross and wound up feeling
12. Sad and teary without reason
13. Worrying a lot
14. Feeling guilty for no reason
15. Negative thoughts about one, self criticism
16. Thoughts go round and round, constantly thinking about things
17. Lowered immunity, often sick
18. Morbid feelings, the future looks gloomy, ‘nothing is working out for me’
19. Feeling depressed
20. Frequent thoughts of death and / or of suicide
21. Unexplained aches and pains 
22 Chronic tension in the body