Defeating The Great Depression.

In todays culture, it is common to hear individuals saying they are depressed whenever
they feel moody or sad. Do we really know what it means to be depressed? According to the
fourth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV), a
depressed personor a person undergoing major depressive disorder (MDD)is one who
feels a depressed mood almost daily, a decrease in interest in the activities that he or she used
to enjoy, and often think that suicide is the only way out. One may experience insomnia and
go through a major weight loss. Therefore, what people think as depression is actually just
moodiness or sadness that does not require therapy. Now that we have defined depression
and described some of the symptoms, we can look at what causes depression and how to
prevent it.

The two main factors for depression that we will focus on are stress and negative thinking.
Everyone has experienced stress before, be it because of exams and a variety of other reasons.
We are usually able to cope with these stresses with our own methods. However, what
happens if we are not able to cope with and manage a high amount of stress? Well, studies
have shown that high amounts of stress are one of the elements that can lead to depression.
Stress by itself does not cause depression, but if an individual finds that they are not able to
overcome it and have to deal with it constantly, they may experience depression.

Negative thinking has also been shown to have a relationship to depression. The Tem-
ple-Wisconsin Cognitive Vulnerability to Depression Project was a study conducted to test if
negative thinking would affect university students and make them more likely to develop
depression. The results of the two and a half year study showed that individuals with more
negative thinking are more likely to develop depression. When individuals with negative
thinking encounter failure, they tend to look at their own weaknesses, without even finding
out if there are any other reasons that may have resulted in the failure. They tend to focus
more on the negative and tend to forget to look at their strengths as well.
Now that we have explored some of the factors of
depression, we can look at the two different methods
that we can use to lower the chances of getting de-
pression, namely exercise and positive thinking.

Exercise not only helps you to be healthy but also

to be happy. Exercising a few times a week has been
shown to be just as effective as psychotherapy in
its ability to reduce depression and it can help to
5
improve your sleep at night. The main reason behind its effectiveness is due to the fact that
as you exercise, the brain releases endorphins, serotonin and other chemicals in your body.
These chemicals cause you to feel happy and give you a relaxed feeling. Some of these
chemicals, such as endorphins, also help to loosen your muscles. Thus, exercise is highly
recommended.
As we have mentioned earlier, negative thinking and

Think stress can affect and make you more susceptible to

depression. In order to change to a more positive mind-
set, we recommend the use of Ellis Theory. Ellis

Positive explained in his theory that every individual has a free

will and that we have a choice no matter what the
situation is. Likewise, we always have a choice. Some-
times we choose to focus on the flaws and become
Thoughts :) overly critical of ourselves; we often forget that we have
strengths too. When we make mistakes, instead of try-
ing to learn from it, we blame ourselves and forget there
may be other factors involved as well. This needs to change. We need to stop and remember
to praise ourselves every so often when we do something good. When mistakes are made, try
to analyse the situation objectively and learn from it instead of assigning self-blame. We need
to be reminded that there is good in us, we just dont see it sometimes.

In the end, everyone wants to lead a happy life which is free of worries, but that is difficult to
achieve. However, by exercising and thinking positively, we can help to make ourselves feel
and be more content and thus lowering the chances of getting depression.

About the Author: Isaac is a writer for PSYCH magazine. He studied Business Informa-
tion Technology, was an Air Force Technician and holds a Degree in Psychology.

6
 References

Alloy, L. B., Abramson, L. Y., Whitehouse, W. G., Hogan, M. E., Tashan, N. A., Steinberg, D. L.,
Rose, D. T., & Donovan, P. (1999). Depressogenic cognitive styles: Predictive validity, information
processing and personality characteristics, and developmental origins. Behavioral Research and
Therapy, 37, 503-531.

American Psychiatric Association. (2000). Mood Disorders. In Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental
disorders (4th ed., pp. 317-391). doi:10.1176/appi.books.9780890423349.

Beekman, A., Feltz-Cornelis, C., & Marwijk, H. (2013). Enhanced care for depression. Current Opinion in
Psychiatry, 26, 7-12. doi: 10.1097/YCO.0b013e32835b2c8c

Cooney, G. M., Dwan, K., Greig, C. A., Lawlor, D. A., Rimer, J., Waugh, F. R., McMurdo, M., & Mead,
G. E. (2013). Exercise for depression. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2013,
9, 1-157. doi: 10.1002/14651858.CD004366.pub6.

Hammen, C. (2005). Stress and Depression. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 1, 293-319. doi:
10.1146/annurev.clinpsy.1.102803.143938

Maltby, J., Day, L., & Macaskill, A. (2013). Cognitive Personality Theories. In Personality, Individual
Differences and Intelligence (3rd ed., pp. 99-122). Harlow: Pearson.

Ministry of Health. (2012). Depression: MOH Clinical Practice Guidelines. Singapore: Ministry of Health.

Weinberg, R. S., & Gould, D. (2011). Exercise and Psychological Well-Being. In Foundations of sport and
exercise psychology (5th ed.). Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics.

Weiten, W. (2013). Psychological Disorders. In Psychology Themes and Variations (9th ed., pp. 600-645).
Wadsworth: Cengage Learning.