Critically Discuss the Causes of one Psychological Disorder Depression is one of the most common and treatable of all mental illnesses

Authors Avatar

Student: Zoe Wood

Tutor: Nick Warmsley

Theories of Depression

ONCW – Psychology – Level 3

Assignment 2

Date of Submission: 15th March 2006

Critically Discuss the Causes of one Psychological Disorder

Depression is one of the most common and treatable of all mental illnesses. The term ‘depression’ can be confusing and often referred to describe normal emotional reactions; however it is a widely studied psychological disorder that many people can suffer from. 340 million people in the world suffer from this mental disorder, which no one is immune to. It can happen to anybody from any social class, from any country, of any race.

Everybody can feel ‘down in the dumps’ at times. These feelings of sadness and discouragement are perfectly normal especially during hard times, but a person who constantly feels like this and cannot ‘snap out of it’ may be a sufferer of this illness.

Depression can take several other forms. In bipolar disorder, known as manic-depressive illness, a person’s mood swings back and fourth between depression and mania. People with seasonal effective disorder, suffer from depression normally during the autumn and winter when there are fewer hours of daylight.  In dysthymia, people feel depressed, have low-self esteem, and concentrate poorly most of the time. This often lasts for years but is a lot milder than major depression. Mental health Professions use the term ‘clinical depression’ to refer to any of the forms of depression.

Although depression can happen at any age, it usually begins during a persons 20’s or 30’s. There are many symptoms of depression that can be feelings and emotions of everyday life for some people, however for a doctor to decide if somebody is clinically depressed the person must have 5 or more of the symptoms, that have lasted longer than 2 weeks, and be serious enough to cause worry and get in the way if the person’s work, social life or daily life. These symptoms include changes in appetite or weight, change in sleep patterns, restlessness or decreased activity, loss of energy or feeling tired all the time, experiencing a hard time concentrating or making decisions, feelings of worthlessness or guilt or repeated thoughts of death or suicide. Depressed people might also have problems with digestion, such as a dry mouth, nausea, constipation or diarrhea. Being worried, anxious or irritable all the time could also be hidden signs of depression. In younger children symptoms may include physical complaints such as stomach ache or headaches, as well as irritability, social withdrawal and changes in eating habits. Elderly people with depression usually complain of physical rather than emotional problems, which can sometimes lead to doctors to misdiagnose the disorder. The symptoms can also differ due to different cultures. In Mediterranean cultures, for example, depressed people may complain of headaches or nerves, or in Asian cultures they may complain of weakness, fatigue or imbalance.

Join now!

Modern medical research has contributed much to our understanding of depression. However scientists do not know the exact mechanism that triggers depressive illnesses. Doctors believed that depression was the result of thoughts and emotions that were troubling a person. Most recently, experts realized that there can be several factors working together that will lead a person to become depressed.

Many brain chemicals and hormones have been linked to the development of depression, meaning a person is depressed because of a biochemical imbalance, usually involved with the functioning of neurotransmitters that help different parts of the brain communicate with each ...

This is a preview of the whole essay