Depression: What Everyone Needs to Know (R)

"This chapter grapples with the challenges of defining depression, including challenges that arise from our imprecise use of language. Depression is at its core a kind of mood state. Mood states organize our minds and our bodies and motivate us to pursuegoals. It is possible to understand depression by focusing on the scientific principles that explain why humans and other organisms have mood. A key goal is to become a more educated consumer of one's own mood and to understand the forces that operate onmood more generally. This framework can allow us to understand why people become depressed, why depression has occurred over human history, and why depression might be epidemic in some periods in human history, including the present day"--
A pithy, go-to guide for understanding both what we know about the causes of depression and what to do about it.Depression now affects more than fifteen percent of the population, and it is striking people at younger and younger ages. Depression is all too familiar, yet it remains shrouded in mystery, confusion, and fear. What is depression, exactly? How is it different from sadness? It is said thatdepression is a "chemical imbalance" but what does that really mean? Which chemicals are involved, and how are they imbalanced? Why is it that just as more research and treatment resources are poured into combating depression, its personal and economic toll has actually grown? What is fueling theepidemic of depression? Is there anything that can be done to stop it? Depression: What Everyone Needs to Know® cuts through the confusion around this often-debilitating illness to address the core of these and other matters. Jonathan Rottenberg offers a practical, reader-friendly synthesis that bridges clinical science, clinical practice, and everyday life. Written inthe pithy, straightforward style of Oxford's What Everyone Needs to Know® series, this volume is the essential go-to guide both for understanding what we know about the causes of depression and the depression epidemic, and for learning what to do about it-including material on how to recognizedepression in oneself, a family member, or a friend, and how to navigate life after depression. Written for all those who struggle with depression, their loved ones, mental health professionals, and the wider public, Depression: What Everyone Needs to Know® offers guidance for navigating thebewildering marketplace of treatment options while combatting the misinformation and myths that still surround this condition.