Many studies revealed that at least 2,000 Costa Ricans each year suffer from depression. Depression is a silent disease; it can become chronic and recurring, hindering the capacity and performance of most teenagers, and young people could be suffering from it for different causes.
Factors that intervene a lot like social pressure, rejection, economic problems, unemployment, and family losses greatly influence. Various environmental factors also increase the risk of depression.
In the worst case, it could end even with suicide. The causes that trigger depression can be one or several and the important thing is that people who suffer from it go to a specialist in psychology to prevent the case from becoming more serious in the future.
Did you know that it is a total or partial inability to enjoy the things and events of everyday life?
Adolescents and young people are even more at the mercy of social exposure, harassment, criticism and the use of social media that are unbalanced and have high levels of violence can cause more anxiety, insecurity, and hopelessness among them.
Authorities recommend that those who identify a person with symptoms of depression, try to make he/she seeks help from a professional to address it as well as build alternatives that allow them to face the situation.
Other factors that accentuate people’s vulnerability to self-harm include the lack of basic mental health education, the social stigmatization suffered by those with mental disorders and the barriers to accessing mental health services in a timely and preventive manner.
Depression mainly affects the affective sphere such as constant sadness, decay, irritability, the feeling of discomfort, helplessness, frustration to life and can decrease work performance or limit habitual life activity, regardless of whether its cause is known or unknown.
Although that is the main core of symptoms, depression can also be expressed through cognitive, volitional or even somatic conditions.
Other symptoms by which this disorder can be detected are personal appearance change, psychomotor slowing, low voice, constant sadness, easy or spontaneous crying, decreased attention, pessimistic ideas, hypochondriacal ideas, and sleep disturbances.
The main types of depression are:
Major depressive disorder, dysthymic and cyclothymic is the most common forms of depression, dysthymic and cyclothymic disorder are more chronic, with persistent sadness for at least 2 years.
The seasonal affective disorder has the same symptoms as major depressive disorder, in what it differs is that it occurs at a time of the year, usually winter. Bipolar depression is the depressive phase of a disorder called bipolar disorder.
Data from the Directorate of Epidemiological Surveillance indicate that, in recent years, Costa Rica has registered an increase in cases of depression as well as in suicides.
Did you know that inappropriate use of social media also influences depression to attack your mood?
The artist and musician Tato Quesada, 27, said that since he was a teenager he has suffered episodes of depression and that many of his close people saw his illness as a “weakness”.
“I thought it was a shame to have depression, but it is a disease. People tell one to smile more, to be encouraged, to be strong, but all this discourages you because you think you are weak and cannot see the good things in life”, explained Tato Quesada.
There are a growing number of tests that demonstrate that depression is associated with a low-grade chronic inflammatory response, increased oxidative stress and the appearance of autoimmune responses, which contribute to the progression of depression.
