Depression is one of the health issues highly ignored, unmedicated, and expensive to treat due to relation with mental illnesses. Most people with depression are not willing to seek medical attention. Other individuals are not even aware that they are suffering from depression because it is among the mental-health issues rarely discussed and acknowledged by the population. In addition, it is related to stigmatization, and most individuals would rather be quiet about the problem that search for help. Most people believe that depression is normal and part of life due to the failures and hardships they face. It is thus hard to convince individuals to seek help when they are stressed. The issue is worse among men who believe in masculinity and would not show their weak side by talking to therapists about their problems. Depression can be treated using antidepressants and therapy, and the two methods are expensive. It discourages most people, especially the economically-disadvantaged, to seek medical help as they cannot afford the cost (Brown, Murphy, Kelly, & Goldsmith, 2019). Since depression is not considered as a severe health problem, there are fewer services provided by the government. Therefore, most depressed people do not receive the assistance they require. Those who take the antidepressants are faced with side effects.
Antidepressant medication has side effects on the users, which may end up worsening their health. The antidepressant medication function by creating a chemical balance in the brain, thus regulating moods and emotions. However, the medication does not always work as expected, and there are dangers of increasing depression in some patients instead of reducing it. According to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), all the depression medication should have a warning label of the increased risk of suicide in young adults and children. Therefore, when children and teenagers are diagnosed with depression, therapy is recommended, those it may not be effective in regulating the moods and emotions of the patients. The antidepressants function by interfering with serotonin, a brain chemical responsible for regulating mood as well as mental clarity, digestion, sleep, pain, and other functions. Therefore, the common side effects the depression patients will experience after taking the medication are tremors, nausea, insomnia, anxiety, constipation, dizziness, sweating, weight gain, diarrhea, restlessness, dry mouth and others (Köhler‐Forsberg, Lydholm, Hjorthøj, Nordentoft, Mors, & Benros, 2019). The antidepressants also have risks factors among individuals with bipolar conditions, pregnant women, individuals above the age of sixty-five and young adults. Creating awareness about depression to educate people about the condition, the help they can get, and side effects of the medication is challenging.
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It is challenging to create programs about depression and educate people about the condition and side effects of the medication. The causes of depression in most cases are due to the life process of an individual, education, marriage, financial issues, work, and others. These are personal things, and when a person gets stressed over them, they prefer to handle them single-handled than confiding in others who will end up criticizing the individual. Some people think that if they talk about their issues, they will appear weak and thus prefer to keep their problems to themselves. Therefore, any program created about depression will end up failing as most society members are not willing to participate. The number of health care providers who specialize with depression and mental illness is also limited, and reaching to the entire community will be challenging (Seime & Vickers, 2006). Therefore, most people, even if they are willing, will not learn about depression and the help they can seek. It thus makes it hard to reduce the risks of depression in society.
References
Brown, J. S., Murphy, C., Kelly, J., & Goldsmith, K. (2019). How can we successfully recruit depressed people? Lessons learned in recruiting depressed participants to a multi-site trial of a brief depression intervention (the ‘CLASSIC’trial). Trials , 20 (1), 131.
Köhler‐Forsberg, O., N. Lydholm, C., Hjorthøj, C., Nordentoft, M., Mors, O., & Benros, M. E. (2019). Efficacy of anti‐inflammatory treatment on major depressive disorder or depressive symptoms: meta‐analysis of clinical trials. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica , 139 (5), 404-419.
Seime, R. J., & Vickers, K. S. (2006). The challenges of treating depression with exercise: from evidence to practice. Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice , 13 (2), 194-197.