How Depression Affects You
How Depression Affects You
Depression is a life-changing experience which affects different segments of the life of the individual. Sadness and grief occur in every individual’s life. But then, it is at times difficult for the patient to adapt to the purpose of grief or sadness, which progresses to severe levels of depression. There are different types of depression which occur in patients depending on the cause of the patients. Also, how depression affects an individual also varies with the depression type. Depression mainly affects the mind of the individual. Along with this, there are several other changes, which are evident inside the body along with regular functioning of the body.
Here are the most common ways in which depression affects the respective individual:
- Cognitive changes: Cognitive changes mainly involve changes which occur in the brain of the individual. Most of these changes are evident in the routine life of the individual.
– The attention span of an individual who is affected by depression is significantly reduced. Most of the individuals affected with depression have a short attention span. This makes it difficult for them to focus on an important task in hand.
– The sharpness of the memory also weakens over time when the person suffers from depression. One might not remember basic details of routine to significant events which has happened in the past. This impacts in different spheres of life of an individual especially in the professional front.
– Information processing and decision making skills of an individual are compromised to a great extent. Smart skills related to these sectors face a setback in the daily routine.
– Difficulty in getting priority tasks done is also faced by several individuals who are on the verge of being diagnosed with one of the types of depression. This poses to be a challenging situation for the respective individual to get important chores completed at right point of time.
- Increased feelings of sadness: Most of the patients who are diagnosed with depression especially that of clinical depression will find themselves in the course of sadness and grief.
- Increased chances of insomnia: Insomnia occurs very commonly among patients with depressive disorders. The individual stays awake during most of the hours in night which prevents him get a sound sleep during the night time.
- Risk of heart attacks: Heart attacks are one of the most severe ways in which depression affects an individual. Individuals with depression especially the ones in their elderly stages have high chances to die because of occurrence of heart attacks.
- Rise of clinginess feeling: Depressed individuals often avoid meeting other people. This happens irrespective of their age. Even children who are developing depression make tantrums to avoid going to school.
- Excessive variation in weight: Variation in overall weight is seen in depressed individuals due to excessive consumption of food or reduced consumption of timely meals. Excessive eating can lead to illness linked to obesity, whereas reduced consumption of food due to lack of hunger can cause nutritional deficiencies in the respective individual.
- Weakened immune system: Depression deteriorates the quality and functioning of the immune system. The ability to fight away medical conditions reduce over the years. Starting from cold to occurrence of cardiovascular disease, any of the medical disorders can impact the overall health of the patient.
Thus, there are several noted ways in which depression affects humans which must be seriously taken into consideration. Depression needs to be diagnosed and thereby treated on time to avoid the severe consequences of the same on the overall health of the concerned patient.
