Category: Portfolio alaska

Research- alaska

Depression: The Bad Sides

Depression is common around the world today. Depression can mean different things for different people. For example, I view depression as having an off balance of chemicals in your brain. If you look up depression on Merriam Webster website, the definition is “a mood disorder marked especially by sadness, inactivity, difficulty in thinking and concentration, a significant increase or decrease in appetite and time spent sleeping, feelings of dejection and hopelessness, and sometimes suicidal tendencies.” That definition gives you a list of signs and symptoms to be aware of. I believe there are different levels of depression, for example, depression only and then depression combined with mental illness. To me depression is when you are depressed for no reason like just being sad. While at other times you are depressed for a long time but you are perfectly fine. When you start to spiral out of control, you may suffer from depression with mental illness. Everyone will suffer from depression at some point in their life. But, when a person is depressed all the time, it can be a sign of mental illness as they are frequently intertwined. Depression can make you think that you aren’t good enough or that you did something wrong. Society today makes it seem that mental illness isn’t a real problem. Its view is that people who have mental illness or depression need to get over it and get on with their lives. Sadly, depression sometimes leads people to thoughts of taking their own lives. Many kids, teenagers, young adults and elderly people are committing suicide every day because they feel lonely and depressed and are afraid to ask for help from anyone. There needs to be more awareness and acceptance of depression and depression combined with mental illness.

Personally, I have known some people who have taken their lives from dealing with depression or depression combined with mental illness. At one point they were completely fine and then suddenly they aren’t here anymore. It is a terrible thing to think how they got so sad and depressed that they thought that choosing to take their own life was easier than seeking help. Sadly, they think that’s their only option at that moment in their life. They didn’t realize the devastation, hurt and sadness that will be left behind for family and friends; those people who loved them. It hurts because when you know that person you feel terrible because you didn’t realize they were going through such a hard time. The guilt that family and friends have is hard to deal with as you feel as though you let that person down. My favorite quote is “Sometimes the happiest people are the people who are hurting the most.” The most depressed people could be the ones that always make you laugh or smile and they always try to make you feel happy when they aren’t.

As a society we need to be more accepting and to not shame people who struggle with feelings of depression. Also as a society we need to be more accepting and to not shame people who struggle with mental illness. Society is so hard and judgmental against how people feel. From personal experience I have had my friends say that I could talk to them but I don’t because I don’t want to bother them or get judged for not knowing what is wrong. Our mental health is just as important as our physical health. Doctors and therapists need to know the symptoms of depression and depression with mental illness to be able to help everyone. They need to experiment with different kinds of medicines and alternative medicines. I think maybe there should be study groups of depressed people. Place those people in situations that make them depressed, study what triggers it and find solutions for those triggers. Then the people in those groups can learn how to cope by putting plans of action in place to get them through the hard times.

The bottom line is that depression and depression with mental illness need to be recognized as true illnesses. This will be difficult but my hope is that once we recognize this, the medical profession can begin to find answers and people can begin to get the help they need. Also, it would be great to find ways to prevent depression from happening just as they are trying ways to prevent cancer from happening. Maybe in the future depression will be nonexistent.

At some point in our life everyone is going to deal with depression after all its human nature. There are many different causes for it, such as traumatic events, physical and mental abuse, bullying, etc. The list goes on and on. In a perfect world, we would all be much nicer to each other. But since this isn’t a perfect world, we all need to learn to treat each other better. After all, the golden rule is treat people the way the way you would want to be treated.

There are many ways to prevent depression. For example, if a person has depression in their family they need to be aware of the signs and symptoms and take measures on how to deal with or treat themselves if they feel they might have depression. Also, if young adult or a child shows signs to a teacher or a person in authority, that person needs to help them. It’s okay to ask someone if they are okay or ask them or if something at home is going on. Young kids might not know that what they are feeling is signs of depression. They might not know what depression is or how to deal with these feelings. So, having someone who recognizes signs of it and mentioning depression, it can open up the lines of communication and they can get the help they need. All it takes is for one person to speak up. So, for a person they look up to helps them they will sure get through it.

In “Causes of Depression: What Causes Depression?” Natasha Tracy says that more than ten percent of the population will at some point have experienced depression in their life. There are many different factors for the causes of depression. Depression can be caused by different things for different people. Depression can lead to suicide if it is bad enough for that person.

For example, I know someone that took their life because they felt that they couldn’t fix what was broken in their life and they didn’t know what to do anymore. Other examples of depression could be losing someone you love or losing a job or having financial troubles. Also, alcohol and social media can be influenced to cause depression. Natasha Tracy says that there are many causes of depression that could be physical or genetic or psychological. If a couple people you are related to were diagnosed with depression you are more likely to be diagnosed with it too but you can also not be diagnosed with it.

When I was six years old I snapped my elbow in half at my neighbor’s house. During this time the neighbor wouldn’t give my parents their homeowner’s insurance. My parents went to a lawyer and the lawyer said we had to sue because our insurance wouldn’t pay the hospital bills. When my parents decided to do it, my neighbors got angry and started get everyone around us against us. They started to threaten them, my brothers and my dog. Also saying they were going to hurt me even more. We were forced to move because my parents were scared our neighbors were actually going to do something horrible. To this day when I think about this event I feel like it’s all my fault even though I know it’s not. My family suffered through this because of me and I know that they love me. The whole event changed the lives of my family.

In middle school I had a best friend. We were so close. We loved going to class together and hanging out at our brother’s football practices and just playing around. One month in fifth grade she barely came in and I was so confused on why she wasn’t there. I just thought she was on vacation or with her family. Then one random day our teacher told my class that she had terrible news to tell us. She told us that one of our peers has been in the hospital for the past month with cancer and has recently lost the battle with it. Once she told us the name of our peer I was so upset, it was my best friend. I couldn’t eat lunch that day and I barely talked to anyone in school and when I went home I cried so much and told my parents. The next week or so I was barely myself and my parents noticed. They ask if I wanted to see the school counselor, I didn’t want to, I just wanted to be by myself. Her funeral went by and I couldn’t get myself to go I was so upset and young. I regret it to this day not going to her funeral, I should have gone. Every time I think about her I get so upset. I miss her so much.

I was a about ten years old I had a kidney stone and a kidney infection which got worse by the minute. I was in the hospital for about a week but it felt like years. This happened in the winter and there was blizzard. My mom was home alone because my dad stayed with me at the hospital that night. My mom has told me that she never got any sleep that night and just walked the floors of our house because she was so worried about my condition. I was in very bad shape and because of that I didn’t think I would ever go home. I got very depressed and sad but I tried my hardest to get better. It was December and my brother’s birthday was coming up and I felt terrible because my brother had to spend his birthday in the hospital because of me. I felt like a terrible sister. He couldn’t even have a nice birthday dinner, he had to have pizza in my hospital room.

Another event that has happened in my life is my cousin dying so young. It was my birthday and I came home from school to find my mom crying her eyes out. She told me that my cousin had died of a drug overdose. It hit me hard because he was such a great person and he was only twenty-five but just got mixed up with drugs after his father died when he was a kid. The entire family, his mother and brother and sister along with him were devastated when their father died and they all didn’t know what to do. My cousins were really young when this news was brought to them. To this day my aunt, his mother, believes that if she hadn’t gone to the store and she was home with him that she could’ve saved him with Narcan. It is commonly used now to treat overdoes but it has to be used within a certain time period for it to be effective. She is so depressed about losing her son but she rarely shows it and I think she should because that is a hard thing to go through. She needs to talk about it more to help not feel as guilty and not to feel as alone.

Many women have depression when they have children or go through menopause. This is believed to be the result of having hormone changes. My mom has talked to me about her postpartum depression. She said that she felt so alone even though she had a baby right in front of her. This is caused by the drastic change in hormones. There have been many cases of where a mother is so depressed that she kills the baby because they just don’t know what to do with the changes. Society today is a mean place. When I was in high school there was a lot of bullying and break ups that lead a couple of my fellow classmates took their lives. It’s a horrible thing to go through and we should all be aware of the people around us and help them if they need help. If they show signs of suicide or depression we need to help and not stand around. Causes of depression or mental illness could be a chain of events that led up to it. For example, bullying can cause depression.

Natasha Tracy says there are two factors that cause depression; such as biological and environmental effects. Tracy says that in the biological effects she believes that hormones, physical changes to the brain and neurotransmitters are the most common biological causes. For the environmental effects, Tracy believes that death of a loved one, loss of a job, or financial troubles are the most common environmental causes. There are differences with women and men that have depression. For example, Tracy says that men usually are depressed because of job related problems and also because of low testosterone. While women usually are depressed because of social relationships and also because of pregnancy and menopause. Depression can cause a serious case of mental illness. Mental illness can cause people to make bad decisions.

Depression is often thought to be an easy get over and move on type of deal. People in society see people with depression as attention seekers and that they are just upset and they will get over it in a minute. Depression might be a one-day thing then the next day is great but then it comes back. Also, depression can be a month or more, which can lead to being a sign of mental illness.

For me, I can’t easily get over it. One minute I am fine then the next minute my mind is telling me all these bad thoughts. Like when I am laying in bed and it’s all quiet, that’s when my mind gives me these thoughts. I tried talking to one of my friends and she told me to cheer up, that I will be okay in a few minutes and that my life isn’t bad. She left it at that. She didn’t say anything else. She doesn’t know how it feels to have these thoughts running through your mind. I have sought help and it is hard to own up to it and ask because I felt like people would judge me for it. It was hard to get over all this trauma and my parents saw that I needed help and I saw someone for it. Seeing someone didn’t help me because I am so shy and don’t usually like meeting new people. So, after trying this I became close to my mom and now I go to her whenever I feel it come back up again. My mom helps me so much and I am so thankful for her. My dad is the same way, he helps me no matter what and makes me feel like I’m okay. Parents are great to talk to because they understand and could have gone through the same thing. My parents have had a lot of trouble in their life so I look up to them and I appreciate them when they help me. Some people don’t seek help because either they are scared to be judged and sometimes they don’t know how to ask for help and I understand why it is a scary thing. Being judged is terrible because you can’t help that you feel depressed and people are just mean; they don’t care and they see you as a problem so they don’t want to be near you at all.

In the article “Depression In Teens,” the author gives suggestions to help prevent depression for teens. For example, they can go to therapy or they can take medication that is prescribed to them. If a teen asks for help or say that they are depressed society turns and says to them that they are overreacting. That they are just feeling down they will be okay soon. Society shouldn’t turn away and say these things because it makes the teens feel even worse about themselves. The teens feel as though everyone is against them and no one cares about them. If a teen is refused of help or is made fun of for being depressed it can worsen to a point where they can harm themselves. Almost five thousand young people kill themselves each year from depression or depression combined with mental illness.

Whenever someone asks for help whether it be a young person or an adult or an elder, we should help. Seeking help isn’t a bad thing and saying that you have a problem isn’t either. Society makes it seem like it is. Society needs to learn to be quiet and keep their opinions to themselves if it can hurt another person. There are many ways to prevent depression from getting out of hand and having anyone of any age kill themselves because they think it’s the only way to solve their problems.

In the article, “Residual symptoms at remission from depression: impact on long-term outcome”, the author states that, “Patients who remit from depression with residual symptomatology continue to have more depressive symptoms and impaired social functioning long-term and may need more aggressive treatment.” So, patients that deal with depression and get treated for it, the depression usually comes back. The patients usually need more powerful treatments to help them cope with the powerful depression.
Depression needs to vocalized and recognized that it is there. Depression needs to have awareness bought to it. No one should suffer. No one should kill themselves. People need to know that there is help out there.

 

Works Cited

1. King, Deborah A. and Kenneth Heller. “Depression and the Response of Others: Is the Effect Specific?.” Journal of Abnormal Psychology, vol. 95, no. 4, Nov. 1986, pp. 410-411. EBSCOhost.

2. Beck, Aaron T., and Brad A. Alford. “Depression: Causes and Treatment.” 2nd ed., Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2009. JSTOR.

3. “Residual Symptoms at Remission from Depression: Impact on Long-Term Outcome.” Journal of Affective Disorders, Elsevier, 11 Apr. 2003.

4. Muñoz, R.,F., Yu-Wen, Y., Bernal, G., Pérez-Stable, E.,J., Sorensen, J. L., Hargreaves, W. A., Miller, L. S. (1995). “Prevention of depression with primary care patients: A randomized controlled trial.” American Journal of Community Psychology, 23(2), 199-222.

5. Zimmerman, Mark and William Coryell. “The Inventory to Diagnose Depression (IDD): A Self-Report Scale to Diagnose Major Depressive Disorder.” Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, vol. 55, no. 1, Feb. 1987, pp. 55-59. EBSCOhost.

6. Tracy, Natasha. “Causes of Depression: What Causes Depression? – Causes – Depression.” HealthyPlace.

7. Tracy, Natasha. “What Caused the Depression? – Causes – Depression.” HealthyPlace.
8. “Depression In Teens.” Mental Health America, 8 Dec. 2016.

9. Gregory N. Clarke, Mark Hornbrook, Frances Lynch, Michael Polen, John Gale, William Beardslee, Elizabeth O’Connor, John Seeley. “A Randomized Trial of a Group Cognitive Intervention for Preventing Depression in Adolescent Offspring of Depressed Parents.” Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2001;58(12):1127–1134.

10. Reivich K., Gillham J.E., Chaplin T.M., Seligman M.E.P. (2013) “From Helplessness to Optimism: The Role of Resilience in Treating and Preventing Depression in Youth.” In: Goldstein S., Brooks R. (eds) Handbook of Resilience in Children. Springer, Boston, MA.

11. “Depression.” Merriam-Webster, Merriam-Webster.

Reflective- alaska

Core Value I. My work demonstrates that I used a variety of social and interactive practices that involve recursive stages of exploration, discovery, conceptualization, and development.

I was never a good writer, so this class challenged me. I do think that making improvements on my writing helps to get a better idea on what the final assignment should look like. For example, rewriting my definition argument helped me explain what I wanted to say more and fix some grammar problems. In this class I learned how to fix my grammar problems and how to not use you all the time or at all. Also asking for feedback is a good way to go. In this class it helped me see that rewriting is a good thing to do so you can get the best of your writing out. I used this core value in my white paper to help improve the works for my research paper and arguments.

Core Value II. My work demonstrates that I placed texts into conversation with one another to create meaning by synthesizing ideas from various discourse communities.

In some writing either for school or work using outside sources are a good way to help with arguments. In my safer saws assignment, I used different sources to find claims in each one. I had to read plenty of articles to get what authors are trying to say and figure out the claims they have made that I thought was important. This wasn’t an easy task because the claims aren’t just in plain sight and you have to really look into what the author is saying. Making claims is hard because you have to figure out what the author is saying without them really saying it, so this core value helped me with the different sources I have used throughout my assignments. 

Core Value III. My work demonstrates that I rhetorically analyzed the purpose, audience, and contexts of my own writing and other texts and visual arguments.

Throughout my writing I figured out that I needed to keep in mind that I need have an audience and purpose in my texts. The contexts used in my writing needs to be used correctly and cited correctly too. This is shown in my white paper because I went back and worked on my arguments and tried to improve them by adding some key points that would bring in my audience and show the purpose of my work. Also, in my white paper I used sources to help explain my purpose of my work. Using sources can help improve your argument and show how much proof there is for one topic. 

Core Value IV: My work demonstrates that I have met the expectations of academic writing by locating, evaluating, and incorporating illustrations and evidence to support my own ideas and interpretations.

I believe my proposal +5 is a good example for me doing this core value because I gather sources and a little information. I used google scholar and Rowan’s library because it helped me locate sources that could really help me throughout writing a paper. Using these sites because I believe I will be needing them in the future and I think it is better that I learn how to use them now instead in the future when I need them right away. They also help because when siting my sources, I can just link the source and the article will be there for the reader and it will be free.

Core Value V. My work demonstrates that I respect my ethical responsibility to represent complex ideas fairly and to the sources of my information with appropriate citation.

It is very important to cite sources that is used in the work because otherwise it looks like plagiarism. In my white paper I wrote down all the sources I have used and gave the author the right citation they should have. Also, if you don’t use citations the reader wont know where you got the information from and might think it is fake. Sources are very useful for papers because some of them give facts that are real and show real numbers for what you are arguing about. In the future I will use sources to help me show my argument and I will cite them correctly according to my professors liking. 

Bibliography- alaska

1. King, Deborah A. and Kenneth Heller. “Depression and the Response of Others: Is the Effect Specific?.” Journal of Abnormal Psychology, vol. 95, no. 4, Nov. 1986, pp. 410-411. EBSCOhost.

Background: This article discusses an experiment they did with depressed patients talking to college students and how the college students helped the patients get their minds off of their depression.
How I used it: I used this article to prove the response depression gets.

2. Beck, Aaron T., and Brad A. Alford. “Depression: Causes and Treatment.” 2nd ed., Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Press, 2009. JSTOR.

Background: This article gives the definition of depression and also gives the causes and some treatments they use. to treat depression
How I used it: I used this article to prove the most common causes and treatments for depression.

3. “Residual Symptoms at Remission from Depression: Impact on Long-Term Outcome.” Journal of Affective Disorders, Elsevier, 11 Apr. 2003.

Background: This article shows how the long term outcomes of depression are shown with the people around them.
How I used it: I used this article prove the impact depression has on the people around them.

4. Muñoz, R.,F., Yu-Wen, Y., Bernal, G., Pérez-Stable, E.,J., Sorensen, J. L., Hargreaves, W. A., Miller, L. S. (1995). “Prevention of depression with primary care patients: A randomized controlled trial.” American Journal of Community Psychology, 23(2), 199-222.

Background: This article talks about ways to prevent depression and how a study was done to prove their ways.
How I used it: I used this article to prove ways to prevent depression if they see it early on.

5. Zimmerman, Mark and William Coryell. “The Inventory to Diagnose Depression (IDD): A Self-Report Scale to Diagnose Major Depressive Disorder.” Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, vol. 55, no. 1, Feb. 1987, pp. 55-59. EBSCOhost.

Background: The article shows how doctors scale a diagnoses and how they treat that people with the certain diagnoses.
How I used it: I used this article to prove diagnoses of depression. Shows how they diagnose someone with depression.

6. Tracy, Natasha. “Causes of Depression: What Causes Depression? – Causes – Depression.” HealthyPlace.

Background: This article shows what causes depression in most people.
How I used it: I used this article to prove what causes depression.

7. Tracy, Natasha. “What Caused the Depression? – Causes – Depression.” HealthyPlace.

Background: This article shows what causes depression and what is the most common type of depression.
How I used it: I used this article to prove what is the most common causes of depression are.

8. “Depression In Teens.” Mental Health America, 8 Dec. 2016.

Background: This article shows how teens get judged when they say they have depression.
How I used it: I used this article to show how society views depression.

9. Gregory N. Clarke, Mark Hornbrook, Frances Lynch, Michael Polen, John Gale, William Beardslee, Elizabeth O’Connor, John Seeley. “A Randomized Trial of a Group Cognitive Intervention for Preventing Depression in Adolescent Offspring of Depressed Parents.” Arch Gen Psychiatry. 2001;58(12):1127–1134.

Background: This article shows young kids how to cope with parents that have depression so they don’t struggle with it later in life too.
How I used it: I used this article to prove how to help prevent depression at an early age.

10. Reivich K., Gillham J.E., Chaplin T.M., Seligman M.E.P. (2013) “From Helplessness to Optimism: The Role of Resilience in Treating and Preventing Depression in Youth.” In: Goldstein S., Brooks R. (eds) Handbook of Resilience in Children. Springer, Boston, MA.

Background: This article shows how to prevent depression in young people.
How I used it: I used this article to prove that there are ways to prevent depression.

11. “Depression.” Merriam-Webster, Merriam-Webster.

Background: Merriam-Webster gives the definition for depression.

How I used it: I used this to show what others define  depression as.

Causal Argument- alaska

Causes Can be Ruthless

In “Causes of Depression: What Causes Depression?” Natasha Tracy says that more than ten percent of the population will at some point have experienced depression in their life. There are many different factors for the causes of depression. Depression can be caused by different things for different people. Depression can lead to suicide if it is bad enough for that person.

For example, I know someone that took their life because they felt that they couldn’t fix what was broken in their life and they didn’t know what to do anymore. Other examples of depression could be losing someone you love or losing a job or having financial troubles. Also, alcohol and social media can be influenced to cause depression. Natasha Tracy says that there are many causes of depression that could be physical or genetic or psychological. If a couple people you are related to were diagnosed with depression you are more likely to be diagnosed with it too but you can also not be diagnosed with it.

When I was six years old I snapped my elbow in half at my neighbor’s house. During this time the neighbor wouldn’t give my parents their homeowner’s insurance. My parents went to a lawyer and the lawyer said we had to sue because our insurance wouldn’t pay the hospital bills. When my parents decided to do it, my neighbors got angry and started get everyone around us against us. They started to threaten them, my brothers and my dog. Also saying they were going to hurt me even more. We were forced to move because my parents were scared our neighbors were actually going to do something horrible. To this day when I think about this event I feel like it’s all my fault even though I know it’s not. My family suffered through this because of me and I know that they love me. The whole event changed the lives of my family.

In middle school I had a best friend. We were so close. We loved going to class together and hanging out at our brother’s football practices and just playing around. One month in fifth grade she barely came in and I was so confused on why she wasn’t there. I just thought she was on vacation or with her family. Then one random day our teacher told my class that she had terrible news to tell us. She told us that one of our peers has been in the hospital for the past month with cancer and has recently lost the battle with it. Once she told us the name of our peer I was so upset, it was my best friend. I couldn’t eat lunch that day and I barely talked to anyone in school and when I went home I cried so much and told my parents. The next week or so I was barely myself and my parents noticed. They ask if I wanted to see the school counselor, I didn’t want to, I just wanted to be by myself. Her funeral went by and I couldn’t get myself to go I was so upset and young. I regret it to this day not going to her funeral, I should have gone. Every time I think about her I get so upset. I miss her so much.

I was a about ten years old I had a kidney stone and a kidney infection which got worse by the minute. I was in the hospital for about a week but it felt like years. This happened in the winter and there was blizzard. My mom was home alone because my dad stayed with me at the hospital that night. My mom has told me that she never got any sleep that night and just walked the floors of our house because she was so worried about my condition. I was in very bad shape and because of that I didn’t think I would ever go home. I got very depressed and sad but I tried my hardest to get better. It was December and my brother’s birthday was coming up and I felt terrible because my brother had to spend his birthday in the hospital because of me. I felt like a terrible sister. He couldn’t even have a nice birthday dinner, he had to have pizza in my hospital room.

Another event that has happened in my life is my cousin dying so young. It was my birthday and I came home from school to find my mom crying her eyes out. She told me that my cousin had died of a drug overdose. It hit me hard because he was such a great person and he was only twenty-five but just got mixed up with drugs after his father died when he was a kid. The entire family, his mother and brother and sister along with him were devastated when their father died and they all didn’t know what to do. My cousins were really young when this news was brought to them. To this day my aunt, his mother, believes that if she hadn’t gone to the store and she was home with him that she could’ve saved him with Narcan. It is commonly used now to treat overdoes but it has to be used within a certain time period for it to be effective. She is so depressed about losing her son but she rarely shows it and I think she should because that is a hard thing to go through. She needs to talk about it more to help not feel as guilty and not to feel as alone.

Many women have depression when they have children or go through menopause. This is believed to be the result of having hormone changes. My mom has talked to me about her postpartum depression. She said that she felt so alone even though she had a baby right in front of her. This is caused by the drastic change in hormones. There have been many cases of where a mother is so depressed that she kills the baby because they just don’t know what to do with the changes. Society today is a mean place. When I was in high school there was a lot of bullying and break ups that lead a couple of my fellow classmates took their lives. It’s a horrible thing to go through and we should all be aware of the people around us and help them if they need help. If they show signs of suicide or depression we need to help and not stand around. Causes of depression or mental illness could be a chain of events that led up to it. For example, bullying can cause depression.

Natasha Tracy says there are two factors that cause depression; such as biological and environmental effects. Tracy says that in the biological effects she believes that hormones, physical changes to the brain and neurotransmitters are the most common biological causes. For the environmental effects, Tracy believes that death of a loved one, loss of a job, or financial troubles are the most common environmental causes. There are differences with women and men that have depression. For example, Tracy says that men usually are depressed because of job related problems and also because of low testosterone. While women usually are depressed because of social relationships and also because of pregnancy and menopause. Depression can cause a serious case of mental illness. Mental illness can cause people to make bad decisions.

Works cited

Tracy, Natasha. “What Caused the Depression? – Causes – Depression.” HealthyPlace.

 

 

Definition Argument- alaska

Society’s Definition of Depression

Depression is common around the world today. Depression can mean different things for different people. For example, I view depression as having an off balance of chemicals in your brain. If you look up depression on Merriam Webster website, the definition is “a mood disorder marked especially by sadness, inactivity, difficulty in thinking and concentration, a significant increase or decrease in appetite and time spent sleeping, feelings of dejection and hopelessness, and sometimes suicidal tendencies.” That definition gives you a list of signs and symptoms to be aware of. I believe there are different levels of depression, for example, depression only and then depression combined with mental illness. To me depression is when you are depressed for no reason like just being sad. While at other times you are depressed for a long time but you are perfectly fine. When you start to spiral out of control, you may suffer from depression with mental illness. Everyone will suffer from depression at some point in their life. But, when a person is depressed all the time, it can be a sign of mental illness as they are frequently intertwined. Depression can make you think that you aren’t good enough or that you did something wrong. Society today makes it seem that mental illness isn’t a real problem. Its view is that people who have mental illness or depression need to get over it and get on with their lives. Sadly, depression sometimes leads people to thoughts of taking their own lives. Many kids, teenagers, young adults and elderly people are committing suicide every day because they feel lonely and depressed and are afraid to ask for help from anyone. There needs to be more awareness and acceptance of depression and depression combined with mental illness.

Personally, I have known some people who have taken their lives from dealing with depression or depression combined with mental illness. At one point they were completely fine and then suddenly they aren’t here anymore. It is a terrible thing to think how they got so sad and depressed that they thought that choosing to take their own life was easier than seeking help. Sadly, they think that’s their only option at that moment in their life. They didn’t realize the devastation, hurt and sadness that will be left behind for family and friends; those people who loved them. It hurts because when you know that person you feel terrible because you didn’t realize they were going through such a hard time. The guilt that family and friends have is hard to deal with as you feel as though you let that person down. My favorite quote is “Sometimes the happiest people are the people who are hurting the most.” The most depressed people could be the ones that always make you laugh or smile and they always try to make you feel happy when they aren’t.

As a society we need to be more accepting and to not shame people who struggle with feelings of depression. Also as a society we need to be more accepting and to not shame people who struggle with mental illness. Society is so hard and judgmental against how people feel. From personal experience I have had my friends say that I could talk to them but I don’t because I don’t want to bother them or get judged for not knowing what is wrong. Our mental health is just as important as our physical health. Doctors and therapists need to know the symptoms of depression and depression with mental illness to be able to help everyone. They need to experiment with different kinds of medicines and alternative medicines. I think maybe there should be study groups of depressed people. Place those people in situations that make them depressed, study what triggers it and find solutions for those triggers. Then the people in those groups can learn how to cope by putting plans of action in place to get them through the hard times.

The bottom line is that depression and depression with mental illness need to be recognized as true illnesses. This will be difficult but my hope is that once we recognize this, the medical profession can begin to find answers and people can begin to get the help they need. Also, it would be great to find ways to prevent depression from happening just as they are trying ways to prevent cancer from happening. Maybe in the future depression will be nonexistent.

At some point in our life everyone is going to deal with depression after all its human nature. There are many different causes for it, such as traumatic events, physical and mental abuse, bullying, etc. The list goes on and on. In a perfect world, we would all be much nicer to each other. But since this isn’t a perfect world, we all need to learn to treat each other better. After all, the golden rule is treat people the way the way you would want to be treated.

There are many ways to prevent depression. For example, if a person has depression in their family they need to be aware of the signs and symptoms and take measures on how to deal with or treat themselves if they feel they might have depression. Also, if young adult or a child shows signs to a teacher or a person in authority, that person needs to help them. It’s okay to ask someone if they are okay or ask them or if something at home is going on. Young kids might not know that what they are feeling is signs of depression. They might not know what depression is or how to deal with these feelings. So, having someone who recognizes signs of it and mentioning depression, it can open up the lines of communication and they can get the help they need. All it takes is for one person to speak up. So, for a person they look up to helps them they will sure get through it.

 

Works Cited

“Depression.” Merriam-Webster, Merriam-Webster.

 

Visual Rewrite- alaska

0.01 The video starts with what we assume to be an African American family of four walking down the sidewalk that has cars parked along the side. Its looks to be a big neighborhood. All four of them are looking down at their phones. The boy has earphones in and so does the girl. None of them are talking to each other; they are all quiet and in their our little world. The dad seems to be looking off to the side like he is looking for something or is reading a sign.

0.04 The family seems to be dressed casually for their outing. The women stops and points to something off screen while the camera zooms in onto her phone. The screen shows a website for discovering a park or forest near you.

0.06 They resume walking and the camera focuses on the little girl. She looks so surprised and begins to take out her earphones. The background looks to be some sort of park. It has a park sign in the back and many trees.

0.07 The camera angle changes to all of the family and shows them walking towards a pond or a lake. The parents are holding hands and the kids are a little bit in front of the parents but are also on either side of them.

0.09 The camera zooms in onto the little girl again. She is crouching down towards the lake looking at her reflection in the water. Seeing herself and smiles.

0.11 The little girl starts to make funny faces into the water. Sticking her tongue out and closing her eyes.

0.12 The next scene is of the kids crouching down on rocks across from each other while a little stream of water goes in between them. They have sticks and they are playing with the water. The area around them is very tall grass and looks a bit cornered or sectioned off. The screen then says streaming.

0.15 The camera shows the father pointing at something offscreen showing his daughter. They both look very happy. The camera shows a black bird with an orange and white wing on a tree branch. The screen then says tweet.

0.18 The little boy is crouched down looking at the ground that has a pile of leaves and sticks. He then moves a leaf and it shows a close up of a snail. The screen then says search results.

0.22 The little boy picks up the snail and shows his family. They all seem so happy and surprised.

0.23 The little boy then starts to swing his sister around by holding her hands and her flying off the ground.

0.25 The family is walking towards the camera while the mom goes and grabs the little girl by the shoulders and gives her a little hug while the father and the son laugh. The screen then says connected.

0.27 The screen shows the family walking away from the camera in an open field and the screen says find a great local park or forest. Discovertheforest.org