According to WHO: Depression is a common mental disorder, characterised by sadness, loss of interest or pleasure, feelings of guilt or low self-worth, disturbed sleep or appetite, low energy and poor concentration. These problems can become chronic or recurrent, substantially impairing an individual's ability to cope with daily life. At its most severe, depression can lead to suicide. Most cases of depression can be treated with medication or psychotherapy.
http://www.rethink.org/about_mental_illness/index.html
According to Rethink: A depressive disorder is an illness that involves the body, mood and thoughts. It affects the way a person eats and sleeps, the way you feel about yourself, and the way you think about things. Depression is not a sign of personal weakness or a condition that can be willed or wished away. People with a depressive illness cannot merely "pull themselves together" and get better. Without treatment, the symptoms can last for weeks, months or years.
Depression may be described as feeling sad, blue, unhappy, miserable, or down in the dumps. Most of us feel this way at one time or another for short periods. True clinical depression is a mood disorder in which feelings of sadness, loss, anger, or frustration interfere with everyday life for an extended period of time.
More than one out of five Iranians suffer from depression, according to the World Health Organization’s East Mediterranean regional advisor. Thus, Iran has the same rate of mental illness as every other country in the world, Ahmad Mohit told the Fars News Agency in a recent interview.
“Depression, which is the most common mental disorder, affects more than 20 percent of the total population of the country,” he said.
Many psychiatrists now believe that a chemical imbalance in the brain is one of the main causes of depression. The condition sometimes even leads to suicide. It can affect all aspects of human health since it often causes emotional instability, insomnia, and loss of appetite.
http://ahuli.info/neurogenesis-in-adult-brain-association-with-stress-and-depression.html
Depression: a growing public health burden.
Depression is a chronic, recurring, multifactorial, and life-threatening disorder, which represents a collection of psychological, neuroendocrine, physiological and behavioural symptoms. Chronicity and frequency of these symptoms constitute the clinical condition. Depressive disorders affect up to 20% of people at some time in their life. In primary care, an estimated 20–50% of patients suffer from depression, but often are not diagnosed correctly (Wittchen, 2000).
Depressive disorders are among the most prevalent illnesses worldwide, producing significant public health and socioeconomic problems (WHO, 2001). The immense costs of depression account for approximately 1% of the gross domestic product in Europe (approximately 100 billion Euro). Depression is affecting more than 120 million people globally, and is set to rise to become one of the leading causes of disability, second only to cardiovascular disease, by the year 2015.
http://ahuli.info/depression-and-men-the-hidden-truth.html
Men Get Depressed!
The truth is, (shhh not too loudly) - men can get depressed! As infallible as they seem (I know, it’s true!), men can really struggle at times. Sometimes it’s for minor reasons like boredom or age. Other times it’s for things like feeling unfulfilled at work, coming to terms with not realizing childhood dreams, or money matters.
Symptoms of Depression.
Some of the symptoms of depression include:
- Persistent sad, anxious or empty mood,
- Feeling of hopelessness, pessimism,
- Feelings of guilt, worthlessness, helplessness,
- Loss of interest or pleasure in hobbies and activities that were once enjoyed,
- Decreased energy, fatigue, being ’slowed down’,
- Difficulty concentrating, remembering, making decisions,
- Trouble sleeping, early-morning awakening or oversleeping,
- Appetite and/or weight changes,
- Thoughts of death or suicide,
- Restlessness, irritability,
- Persistent physical symptoms, such as headaches, digestive disorders and chronic pain which does not respond to routing treatment.
So, if you are a guy who has been feeling some of these symptoms recently, sometimes it’s hard to know what to do. There is certainly an element of pride that comes with being a male - it’s hard not to feel like you are being weak or showing weakness by admitting some of these feelings. You should know that you are not alone in feeling this way - in fact, it’s been estimated that annually depression affects 7-12% of men. In the US alone this equates to more than 6 million men.