Despite the real connection between these two dangerous illnesses, depression often goes undiagnosed and untreated. Persons with heart disease, their families and friends, and even their doctors and cardiologists may miss depression’s warning signs. And when treatment is given it is often not enough. They think that these feelings just go along with heart disease. When my husband had emergency open heart surgery, there was never any discussion about depression which went along with heart problems. I was on top of it and worked to make sure my husband was able to get all the support he needed. Others may not know what to do and they get no help from the doctors.

The impact of depression and heart disease is enormous. Depression is the leading cause of disability and heart disease is by far the leading cause of death in the US. One in three Americans will die of some form of heart disease. So it is very important that we all become aware that depression and heart disease are associated with sickness and death and proper treatment must be given. Newer antidepressants don’t have the negative complications that the previous ones did.

Treatment to overcome depression helps you manage heart problems better and have a better quality of life. It should be made very clear to people with heart problems complicated by depression that exercise is one of the best treatments for both.

Treatment to overcome depression helps people manage both diseases, making survival and enjoyment of life possible. Keep your heart and mind safe and sound. Total health is in your future.

Cancer Can Scare You to Death

Millions of people are living with a current or past diagnosis of cancer. Just the word ‘cancer’ causes people to panic, become overcome with fear of dying, and think they are forever ruined. There is an immediate fear of death, life plans upset, change in lifestyle, medical bills to face, and a fight to survive. So often your doctor, your family, friends, and cancer specialists think that it is normal for you to be depressed when you have cancer and don’t think it needs to be treated. But how can you really participate in your treatment plan if you are expecting the worst, and knowing it will happen?

I have sat with people and their families when the diagnosis of cancer is given. The reaction is always disbelief, even if the person was suspecting this to be true. I have held the hand of women who have been told that their husbands have prostate cancer, lung cancer, brain cancer, and many more. I have sat silent with husbands who have just been given the news that their wife has breast cancer, uterine cancer, pancreatic cancer, and ovarian cancer. Men tend not to talk but their pain can be felt through the looks on their faces. Cancer scares people and sometimes it scares them to death before their time.

Depression can and should be treated right along with any treatment for cancer. Antidepressant medications are usually well tolerated but there may be some side effects and problems with other medications taken. It is very important to make it clear to your doctor that you need help for your depression as well as your cancer. It is also very important that if you are the husband, wife, sibling, or child of someone who is dealing with cancer to do the same thing. Please ask your doctor for antidepressant medication if you are suffering with cancer and are depressed. Overcoming depression is crucial when treating cancer.

Relationships and Work Problems

Stress in general can contribute to depression. There are stresses involving work, maintaining a home, caring for children, financial, and sexual problems. As people get older there is the stress of dealing with elderly parents. With jobs being shipped overseas, no one has a great sense of job security. Depression will tend to hit you the hardest if you are separated or divorced. This makes sense because there is always a sense of loss, of failure, even if you both agree that you will do better apart. You are dealing with change, and change always causes stress.

Even positive changes cause stress. Staying married to a person who is toxic for you is never any good and can cause real depression problems. If you are married to someone and feel hurt, unloved, criticized, and not valued, you are bound to have a problem with self esteem.

After all, if you are a good person, why should you be treated in such a bad way? Anger at your spouse can have a way of turning around and coming back into you, making you feel guilty, like there is something unlovable about you. If you are an unhappily married woman, you are very likely to suffer from depression.

Having Children

Women do have a lot of hormonal changes when they become pregnant. Hormonal changes affect the brain messengers so there is a possibility of depression involved. There is a real mix up of brain chemicals right after a baby is born and some women are more likely to have a very upsetting depression. It is called Postpartum Depression or many people call it the ’baby blues’. Frequently if you have had a problem with depression prior to having a baby, you may be more likely to suffer from more depression after your baby is born. It is so scary to have depressive feelings when you are supposed to be totally joyful over a birth.

Sometimes if you experience this you feel too guilty bring it up. You need to understand that this is a hormonal imbalance and it is OK to get some help and possibly some medication to help you to overcome depression through this time. Don’t feel awful. You love your baby but you need a little chemical adjustment. It is also true that you become exhausted taking care of a baby, not getting enough sleep. This is worse for single parents who have to handle all this alone. With people moving all over the country to get jobs, more couples are bringing up children without the support of relatives.

Most couples really are not prepared for the big difference a baby will make in their lives. Men can feel very jealous about all the attention given to the new baby and be less supportive with the mother. There is more stress if both parents have to work and arrange for child care. The more that is demanded of you when you have the stress of nurturing a new family member, the more pressured, worried, and depressed you can feel. Sexual desire and romantic moments tend to fly the coop when a baby has colic and demands constant attention.

Having children starts a total change in your life. You have the children to take care of for at least 18 years. Plus these days with children returning home after they experience life problems, they can be with you well into your 60’s. The financial and economic costs of raising a child have risen unbelievably, let alone the emotional demands. Children are so pressured by what their peers have and make unrealistic demands on parents who can not afford to give them what they desire. Often you feel like you are giving everything you can to a child who then thumbs his nose at you and tells you that you aren’t making the grade. This can cause a great deal of depression. Family ties are so special and important but we all know they can be the source of great distress and problems

Being a Victim and Being Depressed

Children who are molested are more likely to become depressed. There is a much higher incidence of depression among individuals who have been raped, assaulted, and stalked. People who are harassed or abused on the job have higher rates of depression. Any kind of abuse can cause low self esteem, a feeling of having no control of your life, blaming yourself, and feeling alone and unable to tell anyone. If you grow up in a dysfunctional family which does not support and love you for just being you, you are much more likely to get depressed.

Poverty Breeds Depression

Especially now in our time of media telling us all what we should have, poor people tend to feel more depressed. Women and children make up 75% of the people who are poor. Poor people have less access to resources to get the help they need. Low incomes tend to go along with sadness and low morale. These are things in your environment many times you cannot control. Combine this with coming from a dysfunctional family and you have a recipe for disaster, creating anti social people who have a grudge and need to make their anger known. This can cause terrible consequences for all of us.

Old Age Can Bring Depression

Anyone who tells you the golden years are the best could get a good argument from a lot of people over 50 I know. So many things are happening at this age. Parents are dying, children are leaving home (hopefully), illnesses are starting, and as you retire, things are changing. The death of a life partner can be a terrible end to a relationship which has lasted for years. Our society places so much value on youth that we send the message that if you are old, you aren’t much. Many times older people will congregate with each other so they feel comfortable. They limit contact with younger people and many times that it not good.

So there are many factors and life situations that seem to enter in along with your depression. I personally believe that the most important thing to do is to get treatment going and then try to solve the problem which triggered the depression in order to overcome depression completely. If you are so depressed you cannot think or solve any problems, you can’t be expected to make it out of the pit.

If you have low self-esteem, are pessimistic by nature, and are easily overwhelmed by stress, you are a candidate for depression. An ended relationship, financial setbacks, or a difficult relationship or situation can trigger a depression. Often, an event seems to start off a depression, such as a serious loss, chronic illness, problems with a relationship or divorce, financial problems, or a disruption in your life due to circumstances beyond your control.

People who get depressed are not sociopaths or psychotics. You get depressed because you are very concerned about your behavior or what you think are your wrong doings. When you get depressed you tend to be thinking of many things you should have done, could have done, or might have done. True evil people do not get depressed because they have no concern about how they may have hurt others.

Over the past twenty years it has been accepted that depression is a result of a chemical imbalance in your brain. It is not your fault. Your brain simply isn’t sending the right signals and your body gets confused. The messenger isn’t getting the message to the right place. This has a lot to do with why you have sleep problems with depression. Certain illnesses can have a very big effect on the brain workings and the same is true as to medications people must take for illnesses.

If you tend to be a lonely person with low self-esteem, feel you have little control over your life, and worry excessively; you are more likely to develop depression. Because you already are feeling like you are just struggling to get along, if some big disappointment or crisis comes along, you will have a more strong reaction to it and perhaps start to fall apart inside.

It is true that negative thinking usually develops in your childhood or adolescence. If you feel a lack of being approved and praised as a child, if you feel you never got a chance to be special in some way, you are more likely to be rocked out of your socks when the big trials of life smack you in the head.

Tell yourself that you can overcome depression. And it is absolutely alright to seek help be it counseling or medical assistance to overcome depression.

Symptoms of Manic Depressive Illness:

Not everyone who is depressed or manic has every symptom described. Some have few symptoms, some many more that aren’t even listed. How severe the symptoms are varies from person to person and also varies as to the person’s age.

Manic State is described as a person having:

- Abnormal or excessive enthusiasm unusual irritability
- Less need for sleep
- Unbelievable ideas
- Increased and fast talking
- Racing thoughts
- Increased sexual desire
- Acting out sexually
- Increased, amazing energy
- Bad judgment
- Socially unacceptable behavior
- Impulsive acts, considering no consequences

The Depressed state involves a person having:
- Constant sadness
- Feelings of hopelessness, pessimism
- Feelings of guilt, worthlessness, helplessness
- Loss of interest in formerly pleasurable activities
- Decreased interest in sex and difficulty with performance
- Decreased energy, fatigue, being “slowed down”
- Difficulty concentrating, remembering, making decisions
- Insomnia, early-morning awakening, or oversleeping
- Appetite and/or weight loss or overeating and weight gain
- Thoughts of death or suicide; suicide attempts
- Restlessness, irritability
- Persistent physical symptoms that don’t have a cause.

Here’s Mickey’s story:

She’s 46 and works in the personnel department of a mid
sized company. Everyone likes Mickey and they call her
‘magic Mickey’ w’en she organizes all the flights and
tickets and hotels for conventions. She laughs loud, dyes
her hair a bright red, and has so much energy that she
makes people tired just watching her. On her job
everyone appreciates her ‘give more than 100%’ job
attitude. Suddenly people at work start to notice Mickey is
not just talkative, she can’t stop talking. She tells her co
workers that she thinks she could be president of the
company and do a better job. She also is over the top in
her flirty behavior with men in the office, telling them they
don’t know what they are missing, not having her
sexually. Finally her boss calls her aside and tells her he
thinks something is wrong and she needs to see a
doctor. She explodes and slams out of the office,
threatening to sue for discrimination. Her husband sees
her come home out of control and asks her if she is taking
her medications. She has stopped and refuses to take
them. Her husband calls their doctor and he tells him to
take her to the emergency ward. She has to be
hospitalized for a week to get stabilized, be put back on
medicine, and get back on an even keel. She feels
humiliated that people at the office saw her that way. She
wonders if she can go back to work there.

Jake has an equally bad story

He is 67 and sold his tool and die company for a nice
profit. He and his wife are set financially and they live in a
nice waterfront home in Florida. Jake loves to entertain
and does much of the cooking himself. There is nothing
he likes more than to have a large group of people to the
house for a party. His wife knows that there is another
side of Jake that most people never see. He can quickly
become depressed and when he is, he turns mean and
nasty. He has hit his wife many times throughout the
marriage when he is going into a depressive state. She
reminds him to take his medication because she knows it
will keep him more even, less explosive. They throw a
large party for the neighbors and Jake is doing his usual
grilling while telling stories to everybody in the vicinity. He
starts to get irritated when a new neighbor starts to brag
about his new home, how much it cost, how much more
he is going to spend. Jake starts to talk over this man
but the man has had a few drinks and just keeps going.
Jake’s wife doesn’t like what she sees on Jake’s face but
there is nothing she can do. Suddenly Jake flips a piece
of meat off the grill onto the offending neighbor. The two
men actually start to fight and have to be pulled apart.
Jake cannot calm down and is screaming and threatening
to kill the man. Someone calls the police. Jake pushes
an officer and is handcuffed and taken to jail. Suddenly
people are looking at him like a wild man who is losing his
mind.

If you or someone you care about is suffering from manic depressive type symptoms, you need to get help. This is one type of depression which really is controlled by medication. If you get on the right meds with small side effects you can tolerate, you will have a wonderful life with no extremes.

Remember this. Depression is treatable. Instead of worrying about whether you are depressed, do something to overcome depression. Worry is constructive only if you push yourself to change things for the better. Only one in three people who are seriously depressed get help. Make sure you are in the minority group with this one.

It lasts over 2 years. Most people can continue to work, go on with activities, and manage to have relationships. But just under the surface is that negative, pessimistic feeling. You never really feel happy or content. Also, if a large stress enters your life, you can go into a Major Depression. Depression is a strong feeling of sadness usually lasting for six to nine months. When the depressive symptoms go away for a while only to return again, it is called chronic depression. Everyone experiences sadness at one time or another. These feelings tend to lessen with time. Chronic depression is long-lasting and interferes with daily activities, but not as severely as a Major Depression. You can keep going on but you wonder why you should.

Symptoms:
- Sad mood
- No interest in normal activities
- Tiredness
- Loss of enthusiasm
- Restlessness
- Keeping to self
- Irritability
- Distracted easily
- Difficulty making decisions
- Difficulty dealing with change
- Avoiding social contacts
- Many physical complaints with no basis
- Being slowed up and sluggish
- Difficulty sleeping or sleeping too much

Remember, chronic depression is like a low grade fever. It hangs around and makes you feel out of sorts, hurting, and not sure what to do about it. You just know you can’t go full steam ahead and don’t want to anyway. I have known people with chronic depression who never are able to experience true happiness or joy in life. This is because they spend most of their time just trying to survive and meet basic needs. They do not have the energy for much else.

Meet Doug who suffers from chronic depression:

Doug is 45 and will tell you if you are interested that he
has never felt happy. He says that there have been ups
and downs for him but he just doesn’t get feel that his life
has amounted to much. He has been married and
divorced twice. The women he was married to told him
that he was distant and had a hard time with closeness.
His last wife told him he needed therapy because she
knew he didn’t like himself very much. Doug feels like he
is carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders and
just cannot lighten it up. He goes out five nights a week,
stopping off at a bar, hoping to hook up with someone.
He knows he drinks too much but it’s the only thing that
seems to pick him up at all. He hasn’t saved for the
future and thinks he hasn’t accomplished much. He lives
in an apartment and thinks by now he should be more
stable and have roots. His mother is elderly and he has
a hard time thinking that when she is gone he won’t have
anyone who really cares for him. He thinks time has
passed him by and it’s too late for him to make any big
lifestyle changes. He hopes that maybe he will just have
a heart attack like his dad and have it over once and for
all.

And Connie:

Connie is 36 and has never been married. She has had
several affairs and wonders why she always ends up with
guys who treat her badly. She is a teacher and says that
the only good thing she gets done is keeping the kids
under control and says they don’t seem to want to learn.
She would like to do something else but needs the steady
income and benefits. She has had to take a lot of time off
work with her back problems and has been sent for every
test imaginable. The doctor tells her that they can’t find
any physical reason for her pain. She keeps demanding
that she needs pain medication because her back hurts
and she has to be able to teach to support herself. She
has a friend who seems to be in the same boat and they
talk about how men seem to let them down. Connie is
always trying a new diet, always talks about needing to
lose 20 pounds, but she can’t seem to stick to any plan.
She calls herself a fat ass and gets very down. As she
looks to the future she wonders if things are ever going to
change, if she ever is going to be happy. Her doctor
suggested she might want to see a counselor but her
friend went for therapy and seems no better. So she just
keeps on doing the same thing every day.

If you or someone you love is suffering from chronic depression, you have a hard row to hoe. There is no room for optimism in your brain and you just keep trying to put one foot in front of the other and try to cope the best you can. It’s a bad life and one that you can change if you want to. The problem with chronic depression is that the person suffering from it and the people around him or her don’t get too excited about how the person acts. You can slide by in our society without people taking much notice of whether you are happy or not. Only you can decide if you want to take action to change your life 100% for the better.

If you suffer from this you feel you just cannot fix things in your life. You want to sleep because when you are awake there is no joy. Its effects can be so great that things like eating, sleeping, or just getting out of bed become almost impossible. You cannot just ’snap out of it’ and every day you feel worse. If you get no treatment for this it can last from six to 10 months. It seems to run its course. But why in the world would you want to live in this horror for one minute longer than you have to-

Symptoms:
- Feeling hopeless and helpless
- Thinking of death or suicide
- No energy, feeling tired all the time
- Irritable and angry outbursts
- Constant worry about physical health
- Drug and/or alcohol abuse
- Difficulty sleeping or sleeping too much
- Waking up very early, not able to get back to sleep
- Feeling guilty about past actions
- Big appetite changes
- Memory problems
- Having problems at work or school
- Sudden emotional outbursts, crying
- Unable to concentrate
- Brooding and going back over problems
- Lack of concern for physical appearance
- Slowness doing any tasks

Remember, these symptoms can be severe and cause real problems for you and eventually cause you to be unable to function at work or home.

Major Depression can be a one time happening a third of the time, but generally two thirds of the people who have this will have a repeat or maybe several. Many times the symptoms disappear for a while and then come back full force.

Here’s an example of a woman experiencing a Major Depression:

Susan is 37 and just ended a 5 year relationship. She
wonders what has happened to her. She thinks she is
just sleep walking through her life. She cannot sleep
well, wakes up at 4:00a.m., and is wide awake, thinking
about is wrong with her. When she gets up she feels like
she got no sleep at all and is foggy and can’t think. She
used to enjoy fixing nice meals and considered herself a
good cook. Now she doesn’t even like the taste of food
and is losing weight fast. She isn’t dieting but people ask
what plan she is using. There is a man at work who has
shown some interest in her but she could care less. She
feels she can’t concentrate and do her job as a computer
input operator and she is making plenty of mistakes. Her
boss has been watching her and she knows the group is
carrying her. This can last just so long. When she leaves
work she just goes home and lies on the couch. On the
weekend she sleeps and takes the phone off the hook.
She doesn’t want to hear from well meaning relatives and
friends. They keep telling her to get a grip on herself but
she can’t. When she wakes up early in the morning, she
thinks about ways she could kill herself. There is no
longer anything to live for. She thinks of things she might
have done differently when she noticed her partner was
showing less interest in her. Maybe she wasn’t sexy
enough or attractive enough. Maybe she should have
suggested some kinky sex. Her partner found a woman
who was ten years younger and very beautiful. He said
he felt like a young guy around her. He had told Susan
she was getting old looking and needed a total
makeover. At the time she laughed it off but now she
thinks she made a terrible mistake. And now there is no
going back. She has nothing.

And when you meet Bill, you will hope that you never suffer like this.

Bill was 58 when he lost his job due to a reduction in force
after a large bank merger. He could not believe this had
happened because he was always the loyal company
man who followed the rules and always did more than he
was asked to do. When he was given the news he did
not act like it was so horrible because he didn’t want to
have anyone see him break down. But when he went
home and told his wife he began crying and couldn’t seem
to stop. He found that he could not sleep. He went to
see his family doctor who told him it was natural to be
upset over losing his job and gave Bill a prescription for
sleeping pills. They seemed to work at first, but when he
woke up he felt sluggish and groggy and unable to start
searching for another job. He would sit in his favorite
chair with the TV turned on, thinking about how could this
have happened to him. He started to wonder why he had
ever worked so hard for a company which could so easily
throw him out. He had enough years in to get a pension
and had made good investments. They wouldn’t starve
or be unable to live decently. But to Bill, his job was a
very important part of his life. It was who he was. When
his wife wanted to get him out of the house and visit with
friends he told her to leave him alone. He didn’t need
anybody to come around feeling sorry for him. Within a
month Bill had gotten so much worse that he was not
taking care of himself, staying in his pajamas all day, and
refusing to talk to his wife. He was continuing to get his
prescription for sleeping pills refilled but he wasn’t taking
them. He was hoarding them and getting ready to take
all of them when he had enough. There was no way he
was going to continue living and feeling that he had been
thrown away like garbage. When his wife found the pills
he had saved up, she called their doctor. They arranged
for Bill to be admitted to a mental health ward at the
hospital. He was there for three weeks before he turned
the corner.

If you or someone you care for is suffering from a Major Depression, you need to know it is something you cannot just ’shake off’. Depression is one of the most easily treatable illnesses in this country and there is no reason to deny or avoid dealing with the problem. Medications and treatment are available and will be discussed later in the blog posts.

Here are some very typical symptoms of depression

Things depressed people say:
- Talking about feelings of sadness or emptiness
- Saying they are hopeless that things will get better
- Saying that they are no good and worthless
- Saying that they have no interest in anything

Personality Changes:
- Unable to make decisions
- Unable to concentrate and remember
- Having trouble at home, work, or school
- Hiding out, not talking
- Slowed down movement

Common Complaints of Depression:
- No energy, feeling slowed down
- Trouble falling asleep, staying asleep, waking early
- Appetite problems and gaining or losing weight
- Many physical complaints like headache, backache
- Feeling guilty about past actions
- Feeling unloved and unwanted

Obvious Behavior Changes:
-    Unable to Stop Crying
-    Acting irritable, restless, and angry
-    Insisting on being alone
-    Stopping normal activities like hobbies or interests
-    Taking drugs or heavy alcohol use

Dropping Hints About:
-   Death and Dying
-   Committing Suicide
-   Your life after he or she is gone
-   Giving things away
-   Seeing loved one who have died
-   It’s finally going to be over

Look For Signs of Depression in You or Someone You Love -
Take the Depression Indicator Test:

Put a check mark by each statement that applies:
( ) I am really sad most of the time.
( ) I don’t enjoy doing the things I’ve always enjoyed doing.
( ) I don’t sleep well at night and am very restless.
( ) I am always tired. I find it hard to get out of bed.
( ) I don’t feel like eating much.
( ) For no reason I eat all the time.
( ) I feel like eating all the time.
( ) I have lots of aches and pains that don’t go away.
( ) I have little to no sexual energy or interest.
( ) I find it hard to focus and am very forgetful.
( ) I am mad at everybody and everything.
( ) I feel upset and fearful, but can’t figure out why.
( ) I don’t feel like talking to people.
( ) I feel the good part of my life is over.
( ) I feel like I’m walking around in a fog.

If you have marked more than five of these symptoms, you are depressed and need to get the help you deserve.

Here are some stories about people who have been depressed and how they learned about their illness:

Jane’s story:

“It was really hard to get out of bed in the morning. I just
wanted to hide under the covers and not talk to anyone. I
didn’t feel much like eating and I lost a lot of weight.
Nothing seemed fun anymore. I was tired all the time, but
I wasn’t sleeping well at night. I knew that I had to keep
going because I’ve got kids and a job. It just felt so
impossible, like nothing was going to change or get
better.
I started missing days from work, and a friend noticed that
something wasn’t right. She talked to me about the time
that she had been really depressed and had gotten help
from her doctor. I called my doctor and talked about how I
was feeling. She had me come in for a checkup and gave
me the name of a psychiatrist who she had sent other
patients to who were depressed. Now, I’m seeing the
psychiatrist once a month and taking anti depressant
medicine. Everything didn’t get better overnight, but I find
myself more able to enjoy life and my children. And I
don’t think about death the way I did before. It scared me
because I have kids to rise and they need me.

Ed’s story:

Things in my life were going all right. I had just finished
college and was starting a new job. My family was really
proud of me. But inside, I was feeling terrible. At first I
was feeling sad all the time, even though I had no reason
to be. Then the sadness turned into anger, and I started
having fights with my family and friends. I felt really bad
about myself, like I wasn’t good enough for anyone. It got
so bad that I wished I would go to bed and never wake
up. My older brother, who I always looked up to, saw that
I wasn’t acting like my usual self. He told me straight out
that I seemed depressed and that I should talk to a doctor
about it. I hate going to the doctor. I thought, ‘No way am I
going in and tell some guy I’m a wuss.’ But after a few
weeks, I started having problems at work too. Sometimes
I wouldn’t show up because I wasn’t able to sleep the
night before. When I got fired, I knew I had to listen to my
brother and get help. I saw a doctor at the health clinic.
He told me I had a common illness called depression and
that treatment could help. So I started taking anti
depressants. I had to switch around because one
seemed to help but had side effects and another didn’t
work as well as I needed. It took about 5 months but
finally I started feeling much better. I think I’m ready to get
started with my life now.

These are just sample stories and maybe you do not see yourself here. But you can see that very ordinary people get depression and can get better if they seek out help to overcome depression.

At the very least, 30% of the American population suffer from a depression. The economic cost is out of sight but the cost in suffering for those who are depressed can never really be counted. Depression can not only destroy persons suffering with it, but everyone around them who cares about them. A serious major depression can ruin a family if left untreated. This is really bad news!

The good news is that there is quick treatment and relief available to overcome depression. However, the majority of people who get depressed do not get treated. We have now learned that depression is mostly due to a chemical imbalance or mix-up in the brain. These mix-ups can be treated with medications. The medications available now can help you save your life or that of someone you love. Depression is treatable, just like high blood pressure, diabetes, and an ulcer. It is simply a matter of reaching out for help, getting the right medication, and following directions.

Think of this as like having a car that goes on the blink. You wouldn’t ignore trouble signs like an engine light flashing and think you could just keep on driving. You would investigate what was going on, get someone with training to check out your car, and fix whatever went wrong. Same thing applies if you develop a temperature over 102, are dripping with sweat, and become weaker and weaker. You know something has to be done, and done quickly. It is exactly the same when you experience depression. Something is terribly wrong and you must act.

How do you know if you have depression? There are some things that really stand out which can help you decide if a depression is going on. It involves your mood, your thoughts, your appetite, your sleep, and your feelings of self esteem. It is not just the blahs or the blues. Everybody has a few days or more when they feel down and sad. This is different. It’s not like the normal experience of sadness you have when things go wrong or when you are disappointed and hurt.

This is an emotional pit you’ve fallen into which affects your family, your job, and your whole life. It’s a horrible feeling of hopelessness, of failure, of knowing that there is no way to make things better. You actually do ’drag’ yourself along, going through the motions at home and work, thinking that you would rather hide in a cave and avoid everyone. If you are depressed you cannot just ’get it together’, put a smiley face on, square your shoulders, and get a stiff upper lip. No matter how hard you try to lift yourself up, you can’t. And it tends to get worse, not better. If you don’t get treatment, this can last for months or even years. Why put yourself through something this awful when the right medication can get you back on track, able to feel better quickly?

There are some facts that will help you agree that it is good to know about depression, understand the symptoms, and overcome depression. Depression is not something that you have made up in your head. It’s feeling “down” and “low” and “hopeless” for months at a time.

Depression can affect people at any age, of any race, any ethnic, or any economic group. It doesn’t just happen to soft people and is truly an equal opportunity illness. It is not a form of weakness but is a serious health problem, like any other illness. It is not something which should be hidden or anything to be embarrassed about.

The names of famous people who have suffered from depression like David Letterman, Mike Wallace, Terry Bradshaw, Wynona Ryder, Delta Burke, Tipper Gore, Brian Wilson of the Beach Boys, and so many more tell us that celebrities who seem to have all the breaks have suffered with depression. Depression is a thief. It comes into your life, steals your energy and self esteem, and whispers to you that you are worthless. It shoves you down deeper into the bottom of the pit where no angels want to go. It can drive you to actually think about suicide, getting it over with, and ending the agony which has made your life pure hell.

This site is intended to help you understand depression by giving you information that you will be able to understand and overcome depression. You will not have to have a Ph.D. to get through the articles and by the time you have finished, you will know a lot. You may even surprise yourself with how much you have learned about depression and how to deal with it. I hope you will feel comfortable reading and rereading articles that seem to have real meaning for you. You are the reason this site to be created.

How to overcome depression:

If you don’t have a family physician, you can still get help to Overcome Anxiety through your local area mental health facilities. Places such as NetCare are equipped to deal with many different mental health disorders and illnesses, one of which is Anxiety and Panic Disorder.

Never think that you are going through this alone. There are millions of other people struggling with Anxiety just as you are every single day. There are support groups, counseling services you should take advantage of, Anxiety related programs to help you make sense of and learn to control and overcome your Anxiety, and of course there are effective medicines your doctor can prescribe for you if necessary.

NEVER BE EMBARRASSED TO ASK FOR HELP WHEN YOU NEED IT.