How to help a person cope with depression

Depression is a violation of the psychoemotional sphere of a person. Not always this condition can be characterized as a disease that needs medical treatment, but sometimes it is impossible to cope with it without the help of specialists. The main thing to notice in time, to understand that your loved one is depressed, since at its initial stages it is much easier to deal with this and protect the patient from the dangers that the disorder can be fraught with.

Causes of Depression

The main factor that plays a major role in the emergence of a depressive state relates to negative life changes. But besides this, there are other causes of mental disorder, knowing which, you can help a person cope with an ailment.

1. The loss of a loved one provokes a nervous breakdown. As a result of psychological trauma, a person closes in himself. Most people in this case overcome difficulties on their own and after a certain time returns to the usual rhythm of life. But in some cases, especially in women, the cause of the cause is neurotic depression, which can develop into mental insanity.
2. Conflict situations in the immediate environment. A person harbors in himself feelings and thoughts about what happened, overloading the brain, which leads to depression.
3. Problems of a personal, business, social nature directly affect the appearance of depressive symptoms.
4. Quite often, a person falls into depression after learning about a serious illness.
5. Psychological disorders also occur under the influence of medications that have a side effect.
6. Alcohol or drug addiction affects the psyche, leading to manifestations of depression.
7. Genetics also plays an important role, inheriting a mental disorder.

Types of Depression

Based on the symptoms and causes of the mental abnormality in the patient, determine what kind of depression refers. So, there are several main categories, among which chronic depression, otherwise called dysthymia, can last up to several years; clinical, when all the symptoms are very aggravated, it is short-lived, but due to the complexity of the course, it can lead to terrible consequences; reactive - occurs due to stress and passes quickly enough; neurotic is characterized by increased nervousness and a disorder of the emotional sphere; alcohol is manifested with a sharp refusal to drink alcohol; lingering in the end will end in malaise and slight apathy; masked depression is usually the result of disease, as well as postpartum - childbirth; bipolar, or manic, is fraught with irreversible changes in the psyche of the patient.

Some types of depression should not cause too much anxiety, they will pass gradually by themselves, and you, your loved ones will quickly forget about this period of life. But others should be alert, and require the intervention of specialists to prevent life-threatening consequences. If you notice that a person close to you begins to behave differently than before, if psychoses, nervous breakdowns begin, up to a worsening of well-being, it is better to contact professionals who will help identify depression and cope with it in the early stages.

Symptoms of Depression

Not every depression refers to mental illness. To determine the nature of the disease, you need to be able to recognize the clinical signs of a violation of the normal state of a person. In all, the disorder may not be the same, but there are common symptoms:

• loss of energy, constant feeling of tiredness;
• lack of interest in ordinary activities and duties;
• pity, sadness, indifference;
• uncontrolled mood swings;
• need for loneliness, refusal to communicate with others;
• sleep disturbance;
• headaches, lack or increase in appetite;
• self-inconsistency, self-flagellation, leading to thoughts of suicide.

If a person has at least a few of these symptoms, the diagnosis is obvious - depression.

How to help deal with depression

In addition to the general symptoms, each of the above types of depression has its own specific signs, by which you can understand whether you should involve specialists in the business or perhaps try to solve the problem on your own.

The key word in determining chronic depression is loneliness. A man no longer needs friends, he feels better alone with himself, closing himself in the inner world, often accompanied by stronger alcohol and drugs. And under the influence of psychotropic substances, the patient can lay hands on himself.

In the case of clinical depression, a characteristic feeling of depression and worthlessness appears, a person thinks that he has no friends, and all his people around him are eager to get rid of him as soon as possible. In this case, the patient winds himself up, and such depression can lead to insomnia, loss of appetite, respectively, weight loss and migraine. Show him that he really is dear to you, try to spend more time together, to captivate him with a joint pastime.

A person who has fallen into reactive depression begins a persecution mania, fears and phobias worsen, he often thinks about suicide and may well realize his plan in action. So try to behave carefully and unobtrusively next to him, do not raise your voice and do not make sudden movements, but at the same time never leave alone with your thoughts. Such a person is like a small child who can be frightened off by any careless action.

With neurotic depression, as they say, "nerves are naughty." Indeed, the nervous system fails, a person can start crying, screaming, or laughing hysterically for no reason. It does not matter if there is at least any significant reason for this. This type of depression is fraught with complications in the form of an irreversible CNS disorder, but if you provide the patient with a calm environment in time, protect him from all possible emotional outbursts, the disorder will pass in a matter of weeks.

Alcohol depression may well entail completely opposite consequences. As a rule, it manifests itself in men who decided to end alcohol once and for all. This decision may be the result of a disease, some personal considerations, forced or voluntary coding. But the longer a person has consumed alcohol, the more difficult it will be for him to get out of depression. Due to a change in lifestyle and a lack of alcohol in the blood, he begins to feel nausea, malaise, inhibition of motility, anxiety may appear. It is as if a person loses the meaning of life and at the same time wants to say goodbye to his very existence. In this case, it is better to provide the patient in the skilled hands of specialists who will help to cope with psycho-emotional disorder.

Prolonged depression poses no threat to life. In this state, a person wants to be alone all the time, he does not trust the people around him, looks for a catch in any of their words, considers himself worse than everyone else and engages in self-digging, looking for the reasons why everyone turned away from him (although this may not correspond at all reality). As a result, after long weeks of self-pity and tearfulness, indifference and lethargy appear. This type of depression is similar to clinical, so you need to “pull” a person out of it in the same ways.Give him a little time, and then surround him with care and attention, show that you still need him, do not let him recover.

Masked depression is the most complex form of the disorder in terms of its diagnosis. In this case, various health problems invariably begin immediately from the nervous and cardiovascular systems, skin and genitals. A general deterioration in well-being leads to a depressed state, and if such symptoms occur, you should immediately seek medical help.

Manic depression is accompanied by constant fear, panic attacks. This can affect the functioning of the heart and vascular system, lead to tachycardia, and sometimes, in especially severe cases, to cardiac arrest.

The main rule in the treatment of depression is not to leave the patient alone. Do not let him forget that he is still your friend or loved one, and pay him as much attention as possible.