Experiencing Depression Throughout Life

Does the average person experience depression throughout their life?

Introduction

In psychology, depression is a mental illness in which a person experiences deep, unshakable sadness and diminished interest in nearly all activities, it involves disturbances in emotion(Encarta). Depression is among the most common mental illnesses. About 8 percent of adults in the United States experience serious depression through out their lives (Encarta). Women are about three times more likely to be depressed than men (Encarta). The illness could come on slowly, then get progressively worse over time, or it could come on suddenly in weeks or even days ( Encarts). Depression would cause a person to be sad all of the time and they may often cry (Encarta). Things that would usually bring that person pleasure no longer do. Symptoms of depression vary with a person’s age. Depression could be caused by something obvious such as marriage, financial , or personal problems, but most psychologist believe depression “results from an interaction between stressful life events and a person’s biological and psychological vulnerabilities.” (Encarta).

A cross sectional study of symptom attribution and recognition of depression and anxiety in primary care showed:

[Different styles of symptom attribution are strongly associated with different rates of detection of depression and anxiety. Patients who make psychologies attributions are more likely to get a psychological diagnosis ; the stronger there tendency to make such attributions the more likely such a diagnosis becomes. A normalising style of attribution has the opposite effect, and the patients tendency to normalize or minimise his or her symptoms the less likely she is to be ...

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...have a minor case of depression or someone could have a major case. The study in which I did, does not look at the levels of depression, but rather looks at the common symptoms associated with depression. My findings did not show that everyone experiences some form of depression, because of the 48 people who returned the questionnaire, all of them said they had no symptoms of depression. The study showed a slight correlation between age and depression, but due to the small amount of participants in the study this could have been just coincidence. Those that reported high stress, reported more symptoms of depression than those that reported no stress. To find out whether of not everyone experiences depression, we would have to do a much bigger and more concentrated study. A lot more research on this topic is needed to be sure that all of the results are accurate.