Depression is a form of mental illness

Depression is a type of psychiatric disorder that can range from moderate to severe and is marked by delusions and hallucinations. Depression has been linked to a number of cases of injury and premature death in various parts of the world. Symptoms of depression usually occur when a person has a pattern of unpleasant responses to such events in life. Most people respond to life circumstances with positive or negative emotions such as pleasure, enthusiasm, anxiety, annoyance, sorrow, and rage, among others. Depression impacts individuals of all ages without exception. This paper leverages existing literature on depression to establish the ways through which all the affected parties, patients, relatives, friends, and relevant authorities can come up with ideas and suggestions on how to approach the mental illness. The paper will address the pertinent questions of how or what the causes of the health disorder are, what are the symptoms, effects and both conventional and unconventional treatment methods.









Depression
There have been studies on the mental illness or psychological problems associated with different people from different cultural and social backgrounds. The psychological problems of an individual are varied for instance, eating disorders and depression among others (Fraeq 2). In this research, the focus will be on the mental disorder under the genre of depression, a psychological problem because of hormonal imbalances and emotional state. The study will define depression, the probable causes of depression, symptoms and suggest the conventional and unconventional methods that can be applied to the address the depression phenomenon.

According to Cesar, Julisca, and Fáraz Chavoushi (6) the effects of the depression as a health disorder are easy to contain and manage with the help of the professionals and the efforts by the patients themselves. The study findings will form the basis of the research and help in incorporating the different mechanisms as attempts to address the menace. This will form the secondary sources to the research on the topic of depression as one disorder classified under the mental illness category. The secondary sources will be mainly resourceful in outlining or explaining the likely measures to undertake to curb the majority of the population as the effects on the economy and development are interlinked.
The research study will help in establishing the ways through which all the affected parties, patients, relatives, friends and relevant authorities to come up with ideas and suggestions on how to approach the mental illness with vigour as it affects all ages without discriminating. It will address the pertinent questions of how or what are the causes of the health disorder, what are the symptoms, effects and the likely treatment both conventional and unconventional methods.
Mental Illness
The term mental illness has been used to describe the psychological being or the state of the mind of an individual. The illness can be caused by various means that will result or affect the hormonal release an imbalance in the body thus leading to the imbalanced emotions and thinking capacity of an individual is gradually affected. The mental illness has been used to denote various symptoms such as depression. An individual that is suffering from this type of mental instability depicts different symptoms such as developing the eating disorders. The eating disorders have their own consequences and in order to be able to fully address and understand better, the paper will address the eating disorder as a health problem stemming from the depression in people. Most of the living organisms tend to respond or react to them in different ways when they are exposed to extreme and unrealistic conditions. For instance, when a person is exposed to depression or an imbalanced emotional structure, the victim will naturally react in a specific manner in relation to the exposure. One such response is the eating disorder. Eating disorders in the US have been classified as a major health hazard in the country (Kumar et al. 37). For instance, it is estimated that nearly 8 million Americans suffer from eating disorders where 7 million are females and a million are males. Of the Americans, the number of people suffering from an eating disorder called Anorexia nervosa is one in every 200 Americans while 2-3in every 100 Americans suffer from bulimias who are females. As the eating disorder is classified as a mental illness and approximately 1 in 5 Americans suffers from a mental illness, according to the report by the South Carolina Department of Mental Health, nearly half of Americans suffer from mental illness or eating disorders. Of the victims of anorexia nervosa, 10-15% are said to be males. The eating disorder is considered the highest contributor to mortality rates under mental illness cases. For instance, 5-10% of anorexia nervosa victims die within a period of 10 years since contracting the disorder while 18-20% of the victims die after 20 years and the 30-40% of the anorexics will be able to recover fully (Fraeq 3). As evident from the above statistical data, eating disorder is one of the highest health problems in the American society. From the above statistics, depression can thus be defined as the mental disorder or illness that affects the normal functioning of the person or persons. The effect can be long lasting or on short-term basis, but with depression, the mood disorders are characterised by the prolonged indifference in moods by the affected person.
Symptoms of Depression
There are no specific symptoms of depression but there are some that have been classified as the common ones and these are; Persistent sadness, anxiety, feeling hollow or emptiness, lose hope and being pessimistic over minor issues, having the sense of guilt, insignificance and powerless in the situation. Other likely symptoms include the loss of interest or pleasure in hobbies and other social activities, decreased energy levels in the body- feeling weak all the time, fatigue and have a problem in concentrating or being able to remember anything crucial. An individual suffering from depression is also likely to suffer from having difficulties in sleeping and decision-making, suicidal thoughts and attempts with a great loss of appetite in most cases. Depression does not discriminate and can affect various people across the age groups but more often, it affects people from the ages of teens or early 20s or 30s (Sarokhani et al. 4). The persistent mood disorders in adults normally start as the high levels of anxiety in children.
Types of Depression
Depression can be classified or categorised into different classes and or categories depending on the severity and the duration of the mood disorder. Some of the depression classes are listed as below
Persistent Depression Disorder
This is the type of the disruptive mood swings for a prolonged period of at least two or more years. It is always associated with the major depression but the difference is the occurrence of the mood swing episode.
Major Depression
This type of depression is when a patient suffering exhibits severe symptoms that affect his or her ability to properly concentrate, work, sleep, study and eat. It disrupts the normal functioning of an individual and it is always associated with the occurrence of the mood episodes. Normally, the patient may experience the episode once but in the major depression, the occurrence may be quite often.
Clinical Depression
This type of depression occurs under different circumstances unlike the other forms of depression. For instance, it can occur when an individual loses a close friend or relative. The loss has a direct effect on the day-to-day operations and life of the patient thus his or her life is interrupted. The mood disorder cannot last for a day or two but rather can last for weeks, months and even years if left untreated. According to the American Psychiatric Association, there are new cases of 7% of Americans new cases of the clinical depression in each year. Of these, 2-3 patients diagnosed with the disorder are more likely to be women than male

Psychotic Depression
With psychotic depression, the patient experiences the severe depressions coupled with some form of psychosis. For instance, psychotic depression occurs when an individual is suffering from disturbing or traumatising beliefs and hallucinations.
Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
This form of depression as it sounds occurs in specific seasons that end up disrupting the day-to-day operations. For instance, during the onset of the winter months, there is a loss of natural sunlight thus disrupting the ability of an individual to see. The corrective measures can be by use of light therapy, antidepressants and psychotherapy.
Health Belief Model
The Health Belief Model, HBM, tries to envisage a likelihood of certain health behaviour by observing the beliefs and attitudes. The Health Belief model is based on a set of four characteristics, the perceived barriers, perceived susceptibility, perceived severity and the perceived benefits (Cesar et al. 39). Under the Health Belief Model, the perceived barriers as one of the factors are because the victim has specific perception towards the adoption of the new health behaviour as there are expected to be impediments along the way. In perceived susceptibility, it regards the individual threat of being vulnerable to a health effect. Under the Health Benefit Model, the perceived severity involves the belief that a patient has regarding the extent or the seriousness with which the illness can be to the patient. Lastly, the perceived benefits are concerned with the value to be gained from a health behaviour that is to be adopted by the patient or the victim.
For the success of a health-related feat to be achieved, there are three factors to be considered. Firstly, the need or desire by the patient to believe that they are at risk of a health-related problem. Secondly, that the patient is determined to make the health issue relevant and the third is that the patient is able to a belief that by accepting specific health behaviour, it would be of great significance in alleviating the perceived threat of the condition (Fraek 9). The relevance of the Health Belief model has been used by the various researchers under the Entertainment Education in high target populations.

Planned Behaviour Theory
The planned behaviour theory is an approach that identifies and deals with the relationship between the attitude and the behaviour. It is by far in relation to the Theory of Reasoned Action. According to the Theory of Planned Behaviour, the intent of an individual is critical in the analysing and ascertaining the given behaviour. The inspiration of an individual to get involved in a particular behaviour, coupled with the behavioural control of the behaviour of the respective individual. The behaviour under the Planned Behaviour Theory, the personal attitude towards a behaviour and what is thought of the subject by other subjects in the society and the perceived behavioural control (Sarokhani et al. 2).
The Planned Behaviour Theory could have had desired results and make the show to be more effective in driving the themes to the audience. This is so as there is nowhere in the show where there are adults such as parents in discussing the negative aspects of the eating disorders of the health behaviour (Bae & Kang, 2008). For instance, as the Planned Behaviour Theory, as it tends to identify and deal with the attitude and the behaviour, the parents of Ellen would have been on the forefront in articulating the health dangers that are associated with the eating disorders. (Kuper, 2013).
The Stages of Change Model
The other hypothesis is the Stages of Change Model that was planned to illustrate the diverse stages or phases that individual experiences while in the course of achieving the health behavioural change. In the model, an individual undergoes while on the health behaviour change through six phases. These are the pre-contemplation, contemplation, preparation, action, maintenance and termination. In the pre-contemplation phase, an individual desiring to have a health actions revolution has no objective to change and often, they fall short to realize or be aware of the health problem. (Brusdal & Frønes, 2014). The preparation stage entails where the individual involved has shown the aim to embark on the corrective measures to the predicament and more likely, they may have attempted to overcome the issue and failed. In the action stage, the character has determined to adjust his conduct and is sober with the ambitions on how to achieve the required changes. The person who is in the maintenance phase is fixed on circumventing degeneration to the behaviour and intends to fully recover from the health predicament whereas the last point is the termination where the character has fully recovered from the health problem. (Rossmann, 2014).

Suggested Solutions or Treatment of Depression
The above measures are the scientific and conventional approaches that are factual and proven. Nevertheless, also other conventional procedures are prescribed for application in attempts to manage the depression or mental disorder. Some of them are discussed herein as follows;
Treatment of Clinical Depression
The treatment of clinical depression has been y the use of antidepressants. The clinical depression treatment can also be treated by way of developing the short-term, goal oriented psychotherapy. This form of depression is preferred to be administered treatment using or combining both methods of treatment, the use of antidepressants and psychotherapy.
The most commonly used treatment methods to manage the depression are, use of antidepressants, talk therapy (psychotherapy) and unconventional means.
Antidepressants- these are Food and Drug Approved conventional medicines for use in treatment and management of the respective ailment or health problem. The drugs are administered on the advice of the professional practitioner. Some of the antidepressants approved by the FDA are, Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors or SSRI, Serotonin and Nor epinephrine Reuptake Inhibitors or SNRI, Tricyclic Antidepressants or TCA among others. The main resultant effect of using the antidepressant is to help in the regulation of the certain chemicals and hormones by the brains that help in the control of mood swings and stress like conditions.
Talk Therapy or Psychotherapy
The talk therapy or psychotherapy treatment method is a situation here the patient or the person suffering from depression is able to have a professional talk with the professional personnel. For instance, a psychiatrist will have to engage a patient with symptoms like these of depression to ascertain the status or conditions of the patient. The close relatives and family, friends or concerned people of the patient, always initiate the therapy. The patient or their people will reach out to the professional practitioner with the intention to engage them on the probability of the existence of depression to their loved one or themselves. The patient will provide to the practitioner the detailed personal information on their background. This will enable the practitioner in evaluating the probable causes without the use of scientific or performing clinical tests on the patient.
Unconventional Drugs
The use of unconventional drugs is subject to the approval by the Food and Drugs Agency, FDA. The most common drug that has been used in the treatment of depression is the herb called St. John’s Wort. The drug has specific side effects when administered and it is not preferred in entirety. With unconventional drugs, these are drugs that have not undergone the chemical and laboratory compositions to treat the said ailment or disorder.
Side Effects
The common side effects from using the treatment of depression are the increase in the suicidal feelings and attempts thus requires a close supervision and care by either the caregivers or the close people around the patient. Others include nausea and vomiting, diahrrea, sexual problems and feeling sleepy often.
Conclusion
The issue of depression being a mental disorder or illness, it calls for the concerted efforts by the concerned people in the society to come up with measures that are designed to identify the signs and symptoms at an early age. This can be done by developing a database for the community with all genetically and biological history on such and other ailments. This can help in reducing the amount of time taken to identify or evaluate the symptoms being exhibited by the likely patient. It is also the responsibility of both the local and federal governments to formulate the necessary approaches and regulations that will help in the administration of similar depression like cases in the society. This will be enforced by way of creating the requisite awareness in the communities countrywide on what are the symptoms, effects and in such cases, the preferred response an individual is expected to take. With the correct systems in place, the communities will also come up with activities that will enable them in the management of the free time and limit the scenes where there is idleness in the society that gives room to the emergence of the depression conditions. Some of these activities should include the opportunities where the individuals are able to share their personal life experiences and be able to learn from other almost similar problems in life.

Work Cited
Cesar, Julisca, and Fáraz Chavoushi. "Background Paper 6.15 Depression." (2013). C
Faeq, Dastan T. "Depression among students: Critical review."
Kumar, KP Sampath, et al. "Depression-symptoms, causes, medications and therapies." The Pharma Innovation 1.3, Part A (2012): 37.
Sarokhani, Diana, et al. "Prevalence of depression among university students: a systematic review and meta-analysis study." Depression research and treatment 2013 (2013).
WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION (WHO). "Depression. A Global Public Health Concern Developed by Marina Marcus, M. Taghi Yasamy, Mark van Ommeren, and Dan Chisholm, Shekhar Saxena." WHO Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse (2012).











Proposal Letter
Dear Professor,
I developed an interest in health studies since I was in high school. I decided to specifically focus on mental health, specifically depression when I joined college. I have read on various types of depression, some of which include bipolar disorder, major depression, psychotic depression, seasonal affective depression, situational depression, persistent depressive disorder, peripartum disorder, and premenstrual dysphoric disorder, among others. In my research study I aim at assessing what depression is, the main causes, the different types of depression, diagnosis, and available treatment. My study leverages existing literature on depression. Some of the secondary sources that I will use include:
Cesar, Julisca, and Fáraz Chavoushi. "Background Paper 6.15 Depression." (2013).
Faeq, Dastan T. "Depression among students: Critical review."
Kumar, KP Sampath, et al. "Depression-symptoms, causes, medications and therapies." The Pharma Innovation 1.3, Part A (2012): 37.
Sarokhani, Diana, et al. "Prevalence of depression among university students: a systematic review and meta-analysis study." Depression research and treatment 2013 (2013).
WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION (WHO). "Depression. A Global Public Health Concern Developed by Marina Marcus, M. Taghi Yasamy, Mark van Ommeren, and Dan Chisholm, Shekhar Saxena." WHO Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse (2012).
The next step in my research study will be assessing the available primary sources and integrating them in my research paper.
Sincerely,
Name















Annotated Bibliography
Kumar, KP Sampath, et al. "Depression-symptoms, causes, medications and therapies." The Pharma Innovation 1.3, Part A (2012): 37.
This paper was published on the Pharma Innovation with an aim of addressing the symptoms, causes, medications, and available therapies. The paper first introduces depression and examines the prevalence of the condition among men and women. The paper also addresses depression symptoms among teens and children. Symptoms observed among older adults have also been covered. This paper is suitable for this research as it highlights the prevalence of depression among different groups in the population.
WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION (WHO). "Depression. A Global Public Health Concern Developed by Marina Marcus, M. Taghi Yasamy, Mark van Ommeren, and Dan Chisholm, Shekhar Saxena." WHO Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse (2012).
This article is a publication by the World Health Organization on depression. The paper is based on a World Mental Survey conducted in a total of 17 countries. The paper starts by defining depression and the various variations. The paper tends to focus mainly on managing depression, especially among countries that have constrained resource. Countries that have been covered include Uganda, Chile, and India.
Cesar, Julisca, and Fáraz Chavoushi. "Background Paper 6.15 Depression." (2013).
This paper was developed as an update of chapter 6.15 of the 2004 Background Paper on Priority Medicines for Europe and the World. The paper focuses on the burden and demographic trends of major depression disorder (MDD), among member states of the European Union and the rest of the world. The paper also highlights treatment options that are currently available, and those under development. Data that is used in the study is derived mainly from the 2010 Global Burden of Disease study.
Sarokhani, Diana, et al. "Prevalence of depression among university students: a systematic review and meta-analysis study." Depression research and treatment 2013 (2013).
This paper is a research study carried out with an aim of determining the prevalence of depression among students in the university. The study is conducted among Iranian university students, using the meta-analysis method. Information used in the study was derived from a total of 35 studies carried out in Iran from the year 1995 to 2012. These studies revealed that depression among university students is common, with higher levels among single students than in married students.
Faeq, Dastan T. "Depression among students: Critical review."
This paper is a critical review of depression among students, prepared and submitted by Faeq to the school of psychology in the University of Leicester. The paper focused on the prevalence of depression among students. The author also assessed the factors associated with the prevalence off depression among students. The main aim of the study is to determine if the prevalence of depression is higher in students than in the general population.