ORLANDO, Fla. (Ivanhoe Newswire)– Thursday, October 14th is national depression screening day. Depression is one of the most common mental illnesses in the United States, and consistently ranks among the top three workplace issues. Chronic and recurring depression symptoms are also linked to attempted suicide, claiming over 42,000 lives each year, that’s one death by suicide every 12 minutes. But 80 percent of those who receive professional treatment notice a reduction in their symptoms within six weeks. Depressed!
Sad, tired, distant, unmotivated, these are just a few signs you might be suffering from depression.
“Am I eating, am I sleeping, am I exercising …” David Baker, PhD, states as some of the warning signs of depression.
Mental health America reports only a third of those suffering from severe depression seek treatment. People resist treatment because they believe depression isn’t serious, that they can treat it themselves or that it is a personal weakness rather than a serious medical illness.
Baker says, “We can overwork, or we can use alcohol or substances or something, but if we are really going to get to the question of cause, I think we have to go deeper.”
Baker suggests asking yourself these five questions…
“What’s causing me to feel the way I feel?”
“Why am I having anxiety, why am I having depression?”
“What keeps you from expanding your life into areas of inquiry?”
“What is it that I am desiring, longing for but not having?”
“Am I okay?”
Experts say simply asking these questions is the first step in realizing you have a problem. If you are questioning whether you have depression, call the national helpline at 1-800-662-help. Another way to help fight your depression… the mental health America website has a mental health screen test that you can take right now at www.mahnational.org
Source:
https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/depression
https://www.mhanational.org/conditions/depression
https://www.samhsa.gov/find-help/national-helpline
Contributor(s) to this news report include: Jenna Ehlrich, Producer; Robert Walko, Videographer and Editor.
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