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Depression

Depression Can Be Controlled

Depression is a mental health disorder that affects 1 of every 10 Canadians throughout their life time. It has significant burden on the patient’s ability to work and earn, depression also negatively affects the patients’ social life.

Depression can be transient over months usually following a significant life event such as bereavement or job loss or a long term disorder that requires continuous treatment over years.

Depression is a treatable disorder that is characterized by feelings that patients might notice or describe as

  1. Low morale, sadness, irritability, hopelessness
  2. Family and friends might notice that the patient has diminished interest in daily activities
  3. Patient might describe everyday as a burden that s/he has to go through
  4. Sleep disorders can often accompany depression either by excessive sleep or sleep deprivation or disturbances
  5. Feelings of worthlessness or excessive or inappropriate guilt
  6. Fatigue and loss of energy
  7. In some cases, self harm or suicidal thoughts
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Common misconceptions about depression

  1. It is not a transient condition that will take care of itself
  2. It is not a weakness
  3. While the surrounding environment can contribute to the symptoms, it is still a mental health condition that can continue to occur irrelevant of the patient environment
  4. It does not occur to selected people. It can occur to anyone even highly functioning individuals. Active athletes, lawyers and doctors can suffer from depression

What you can do about it

  1. Acknowledge the existence of Depression as a medical disorder. Don’t dismiss it
  2. Talk about your emotions and express your feelings to your loved ones
  3. Seek counseling through your family doctor
  4. Reach out to your pharmacist and express your feelings
  5. Do not seek remedies through the internet from unknown sources making medical promises

It truly pains us to see patients suffering silently from depression. If you wish, you can call us at 905.820.6000 and book an appointment for an assessment

Canadian Network for Mood and Anxiety Treatments (CANMAT) 2016 Clinical Guidelines for the Management of Adults with Major Depressive Disorder: Section 1. Disease Burden and Principles of Care. Lam RW, McIntosh D, Wang J, Enns MW, Kolivakis T, Michalak EE, Sareen J, Song WY, Kennedy SH, MacQueen GM, Milev RV, Parikh SV, Ravindran AV and Group., CANMAT Depression Work. Can J Psychiatry. 2016 Sep;61(9):510-23. doi:10.1177/0706743716659416. Epub 2016 Aug 2.
2Adapted for patient education. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders: DMS-5. 5th ed. . s.l. : American Psychiatric Association, 2013.