Just like when we are all feeling down, sometimes there is an obviously cause of depression – things like major disappointments, frustrations, changes or losing something or someone important to you.

But there are also a number of other things that can contribute to the onset of depression. Different people will experience different causes and sometimes it will be a combination of things. Here are a few of the things that can be factors in depression –

Major events in our life

We all experience distressing events in our lives and it is quite natural to feel depressed for a period of time afterwards. Things like death of someone close to us, divorce, losing a job etc. Often in these cases we will eventually come to terms with this event and start to feel better on our own but this may be after a few weeks or even months of feeling depressed.

Loneliness

This on its own can be a cause of depression, or can be a factor that contributes to the effect of other causes.

Physical Illness

Illness doesn’t need to serious to be a contributing factor in depression. Obviously serious illness like cancer or other life threatening illness can play a part, but so can less serious, but long and uncomfortable illnesses. Depression in young people is common after infections such as flu or glandular fever.

Chemical Imbalances

Clinical depression is when the brain is releasing too many or too little of our ‘feel good’ chemicals. When there are not enough of these chemicals being released a person will feel sad NO MATTER WHAT. Chemical imbalances are the major causes of depression.

There are many other things that can contribute to the onset of depression. More info can be found at the sites below.

Lifeline Australia (24 hr hotline – 13 11 14)

To Write Love on Her Arms

beyondblue

Black Dog Institute

More from me on depression here.

The answer to this question is not long or complicated.

To Write Love on Her Arms says this

Depression does not discriminate across age, race, gender, or class.

In other words, everyone and anyone can get depression. Black Dog Institute has information on depression in children, teenagers, adults, over 65’s, medically ill and pregnancy & postnatal.  If you fit into one of those then there is a chance that you could get depression.

There are many things that can contribute to the development of depression (which I’ll look at in the next post) but something that people should be aware of is that depression is something that can run in families, so some people will have an increased genetic risk of getting it. However, this doesn’t mean that if a family member has it you will get it, it just means that you could have an increased chance of getting it.

So everyone has a chance of getting it. However women are twice as likely as men to get depression, possibly due the the various hormones changes that we will go through in our lives.

But men you are not out of the woods. Depression in men often manifests itself as anger or hostility and men are prone to covering their condition with alcohol or drug abuse.

Men, if you get depression you are four times as likely to commit suicide than women. This is probably due to the shame felt as a result of depression. This is why I think education is so important – no one should feel ashamed about this or about getting help.

Helpful links –

Lifeline Australia (24 hr hotline – 13 11 14)

To Write Love on Her Arms

beyondblue

Black Dog Institute

More from me on depression here.