You are currently browsing jaynelsonmanela's articles.
various from the net:
What’s the difference between emo grass and normal grass? Emo grass cuts itself.
What do you say to an emo kid to make him cry outside the mall? Anything.
How many emo kids does it take to screw in a lightbulb? A: None. They’d rather sit in the dark and cry.
How do you get an emo kid out of a tree? A: Cut the rope.
How do you stop an emo kid from drowning? A: Give him a tissue
What did the emo kid say to the other emo kid?
“Stop crying. You’re stealing all of the negative attention.”
What do emo kids use as birth control?
Their personalities.
If a blonde and an emo jump off a bridge, who drowns first?
The blonde- from the emo’s tears on the way down.
“Tickle Me Elmo was so last year. Now it’s…Cry With Me Emo!”
>Why are scene kids so bad at karate?
Because they can never get past the white belt.
>A punk with a rainbow-colored mohawk sits down on a bench next to an old man. After awhile, he notices the old man is staring at him. “What’s wrong, old timer?” asks the punk, “Never done anything wild in your life?” “Actually,” says the geezer, “One time I screwed a parrot. I was just wondering if you were my son.”
>Q:What do you do if there’s an emo in your backyard with his hand blow off?
A:Stop laughing and reload!
>What’s better than 50 emo kids nailed to a tree?
One emo kid nailed to fifty trees.
>What would you rather be: emo or handycapped?
trick question: being emo is a handycap.
>Myspace.
>An emo kid, a jew, a mexican, and a black guy jump off a building, who wins? Society.
>Emo is to music as Terrorism is to society.
>Get scene or cut trying
>How many emo kids does it take to screw in a light bulb?
Three! One to replace it, two to write a poem about how they miss the old one.
>Did you hear about that new emo pizza? It cuts itself!
>I wish my grass was emo so it would cut itself..(works for hair too.)
>If a blonde and an emo kid jump off a building and hit the ground at the same time, who dies first? The blonde, she drowns in the emo kid’s tears.
> What’s the difference between an Emo kid and a dead baby?
The baby doesn’t cry.
>How many emo kids does it take to make a microwave burrito?
Four. One to write about it on LiveJournal, One to post a MySpace bulletin, One to take a picture of himself in the mirror with the burrito, and One to microwave the burrito.
>What’s the difference between an emo kid and an onio
n? You cry when you cut an onion.
>what do you call a punk without a girlfriend??
Homeless
>What do you call 1000 emo kids at the bottom of the ocean? A good start.
And some lame ‘emo sites’ too…
http://thesurrealist.co.uk/jokes/emo
http://www.no-nothingrock.com/articles/emoabc/abc2.html
הייתה אחת
שידעה לעשות קסמים
שידעה להגיד מילים
שצבעו את השמש בדם
A fost una
Care stia sa faca farmece
Care stia sa zica cuvinte
היית באה אלי
לא במקרה
מסוממת
מטורפת בלי הכרה
היינו נופלים לרצפה
נוזלים מהתקרה
היינו עושים אהבה
Imi amintesc, in noptile cu luna plina
veneai la mine
nu intimplator, drogata
nebuna, ametita
cadeam pe podea
curgeam din tavan
faceam dragoste
היה לנו רע
היינו ביחד
לא השארנו ברירה
אני זוכר בלילות של ירח מלא
היית באה אלי
לא במקרה
מסוממת
מטורפת בלי הכרה
היינו נופלים לרצפה
נוזלים מהתקרה
היינו עושים אהבה
Imi amintesc, in noptile cu luna plina
Veneai la mine
Nu intimplator, drogata
Nebuna, ametita
Cadeam pe podea
Curgeam din tavan
Faceam dragoste

This leaflet is written for:
- anyone who feels depressed and suspects they may be drinking too much.
- anyone who suspects they may be drinking too much and is feeling depressed.
- friends, family or colleagues of anyone who is both depressed and drinking.
It contains some basic facts about alcohol and depression, how to help yourself, how to get further help, and where to find more information.
Alcohol and us
How does alcohol affect the brain?
Tolerance
Alcohol is like many other drugs that act on the brain, such as tranquillisers. If we drink it regularly, we find that it has less effect on us. We need to drink more and more to get the effect we want. This is called ‘tolerance’ and is a powerful part of becoming addicted to alcohol.
- Dementia - memory loss, rather like Alzheimer’s dementia.
- Psychosis - long- term drinkers can start to hear voices.
- Dependence - if you stop drinking, you get withdrawal symptoms such as shaking, nervousness and (sometimes) seeing things that aren’t there.
- Suicide - 40% of men who try to kill themselves have had a long- standing alcohol problem. - 70% of those who succeed in killing themselves have drunk alcohol before doing so.
What is the connection between depression and alcohol?
- If we drink too much, too regularly, we are more likely to become depressed.
- If we drink alcohol to relieve anxiety or depression, we will become more depressed
If you are depressed and lacking in energy, it can be tempting to use alcohol to help you keep going and cope with life. The problem is that it is easy to slip into drinking regularly, using it like a medication.The benefits soon wear off, the drinking becomes part of a routine, and you have to keep drinking more to get the same effect.
How much alcohol is too much?
Some drinks are stronger than others. The easiest way to work out how much we are drinking is to count “units” of alcohol. 1 unit is 10 grammes of alcohol - the amount in a standard pub measure of spirits, a half pint of normal strength beer or lager, or a small glass of wine.
“Binge” drinking
Guide to units of alcohol
|
Beer, Cider &
Alcopops |
Strength
ABV |
Half
Pint |
Pint
|
Bottle/
Can 330ml |
Bottle/
Can 500ml |
Bottle
1 Litre |
|
Ordinary strength beer, lager or cider eg. Draught beer, Woodpecker
|
3-4%
|
1
|
2
|
1.5
|
1.9
|
-
|
|
“Export” strength beer, lager or cider eg.
Stella, Budweiser, Heinekin, Kronenbourg, Strongbow |
5%
|
1.25
|
2.5
|
2
|
2.5
|
-
|
|
Extra strong beer, lager or cider eg.
Special Brew, Diamond White, Tennants Extra |
8-9%
|
2.5
|
4.5
|
3
|
4.5
|
9
|
|
Alcopops eg.
Bacardi Breezer, Smirnoff Ice, Reef, Archers, Hooch |
5%
|
-
|
-
|
1.7
|
-
|
-
|
|
Wines & Spirits
|
Strength
ABV |
Small glass/
pub measure |
Wine glass
|
Bottle
750 ml |
|
Table Wine
|
12-14%
|
-
|
1.5 - 2.5
|
10
|
|
Fortified wine
(sherry, martini, port) |
15-20%
|
0.8
|
2-3
|
14
|
|
Spirits
(whisky, vodka, gin) |
40%
|
1
|
-
|
30
|
How much am I drinking?
Most of us under-estimate the amount we drink. One way to check on this is to keep a diary of how much we drink over the course of a week. This can give us a clearer idea of whether we are drinking too much. It can also help to highlight any risky situations - regular times, places and people when we seem to drink more.
Diary Table
|
DAY
|
HOW
MUCH? |
WHEN?
|
WHERE?
|
WHO
WITH? |
UNITS
|
TOTAL
|
|
Monday
|
||||||
|
Tuesday
|
||||||
|
Wednesday
|
||||||
|
Thursday
|
||||||
|
Friday
|
||||||
|
Saturday
|
||||||
|
Sunday
|
||||||
|
Total for week
|
Warning signs
- You regularly use alcohol as a way of coping with feelings of anger, frustration, anxiety or depression.
- You regularly use alcohol to feel confident.
- You get hangovers regularly.
- Your drinking affects your relationships with other people.
- Your drinking makes you feel disgusted, angry or suicidal.
- Other people tell you that when you drink you become gloomy, embittered or aggressive.
- You need to drink more and more to feel good.
- You stop doing other things to spend more time drinking.
- You start to feel shaky and anxious the morning after drinking the night before.
- You drink to stop these feelings.
- You start drinking earlier in the day.
What if I am drinking too much?
- Set yourself a target to reduce the amount of alcohol you drink.
- Avoid any high-risk drinking situations(check out your diary).
- Work out other things you can do instead of drinking.
- Involve your partner or a friend. They can help to agree a goal and keep track of your progress.
Depression and stopping drinking
Dos and Don’ts of Drinking safely
- Do sip your drink slowly - don’t gulp it down.
- Do space your drinks with a non-alcoholic drink in between.
- Don’t drink on an empty stomach. Have something to eat first.
- Don’t drink every day. Have two or three alcohol-free days in the week.
- Do provide non-alcoholic drinks as well as alcohol on social occasions.
- Do ask your doctor or chemist if it is safe to drink with any medicine that you have been prescribed.
- Do keep to the target (amount of alcohol per week) you have set yourself.
- Do check your drinking every few weeks with your drinking diary.
Finding Help
- Your general practitioner
- Self help groups, such as Alcoholics Anonymous or AlAnon
- Voluntary alcohol agencies
- Specialist treatment in the NHS - your general practitioner who will also know how to contact specialist services.
References
Helpful Organisations/ Websites
Depression Alliance Information, support and understanding for people who suffer with depression and for relatives who want to help. Self help groups, information, and awareness raising for depression. Tel: 0845 123 23 20
Alcoholics Anonymous Contact details for all English AA meetings. There is a quiz to determine whether AA is the right type of organisation for an individual, and a frequently asked question section about AA and alcoholism. Tel: 0845 769 7555. email: aanewcomer@runbox.com
Alcohol Concern This site provides information and articles on a range of topics surrounding alcoholism. Includes 18 excellent factsheets crammed with information that would be very useful for professionals such as Alcohol and the Law and Drink-drive accidents, a search engine, and a good list of alcohol related links. Tel: 0I71 928 7377 email: contact@alcoholconcern.org.uk
Al-Anon Family Group Support group for friends and families of alcoholics. Includes a frequently asked questions section, pamphlets and other literature, and information on group meetings in the UK. Tel: 020 7403 0888
Institute of Alcohol Studies The IAS is a charity aimed at improving education about alcohol in the UK. The site provides publications on alcohol, as well as news. There are a large number of factsheets dealing with all aspects of alcohol in society, complete with facts and figures. Tel: 0207 222 4001. info@ias.org.uk
Recommended Reading

© 2006 Royal College of Psychiatrists. This leaflet may be downloaded, printed out, photocopied and distributed free of charge as long as the Royal College of Psychiatrists is properly credited and no profit gained from its use. Permission to reproduce it in any other way must be obtained from the Head of Publications. The College does not allow reposting of its leaflets on other sites, but allows them to be linked directly.
Interesting and original:

Lori, the pert and pretty nurse, took her troubles to a resident psychiatrist in the hospital where she worked.
“Doctor, you must help me,” she pleaded. “It has gotten so that every time I date one of the young doctors here, I end up in bed with him. And then afterward, I feel guilty and depressed for a week.”
“I see,” nodded the psychiatrist. “And you, no doubt, want me to strengthen your willpower and resolve in this matter.”
“For God’s sake, NO!” exclaimed the Nurse. “I want you to fix it so I won’t feel guilty and depressed afterward.”

Depression always goes hand-in-hand with an eating disorder. Together the two rob a person of their happiness and self-worth, and easily wreak havoc on innocent lives. Unfortunately, we are living in a “pill society” and, more often than not, therapists tend to treat depression alone with drugs instead of with a more psychological basis and along with the eating disorder. It’s amazing to look at the statistics and discover the multitudes of people who suffer from depression while this, just as with eating disorders, still appears to be an enigma to understanding. Hopefully the information contained here will help clear some of the fogginess of sadness away…
overview
Depression is not biased - it affects anyone at any race and age and economical standing. It can strike at any moment; it doesn’t need a tragic incident to trigger onset. Over 19 million over age 18 are considered to be clinically depressed, or 1 out of 5 people in general society. Depression is so common that it is second only to heart disease in causing lost work days. More frighteningly so, untreated, depression is the number ONE cause of suicide (appx. 13,000 people died from suicide in ‘96 alone).
the.many.forms.of.depression
There are indeed three different kinds of depression - normal, mild, and then severe. I have found personally that those with eating disorders tend to range between having mild and severe depression.
normal.depression - This is a natural reaction to the loss of a loved one, one which has caused sadness, lethargy, and in serious cases, grief to the point of loss of appetite, insomnia, anger, obsessive thoughts about the lost person, and never ending guilt. What is different about normal depression from mild and severe cases is that most people eventually recover and return to their typical moods after encountering normal depression. When the moods of a person do not lift and instead continue, then mild depression is setting in.
mild.depression - When a person is chronically depressed, possesses low self-esteem, and has some symptoms of severe depression, then they are considered to have mild depression. With mild depression the person can still function through their daily life, but it is very hard for them and they are known as having “the blues.” Many times the mildly depressed person has nothing to hold accountable for their change of moods. Doctors and therapists should carefully watch over a person with mild depression because often times the mild depression will start out this way, but eventually progress into severe depression.
-
- I am the voice inside your head and I control you
I am the hate you try to hide and I control you
I am denial guilt and fear and I control you
I am the lie that you believe and I control you
I am the high you can’t sustain and I control you
I am the truth from which you run and I control you
I take you where you want to go
I give you all you need to know
I drag you down, I use you up
Mr. Self Destruct-NIN
severe.depression - The person with this feels utterly hopeless and feels such great despair that they lose all interest in life, causing the person to be incapable of feeling pleasure. Sometimes the person will be unable to eat for days or be incapable to get out of bed. Trying to do these activities when severely depressed, the person feels anxious, irritable, agitated, and chronic indecisiveness. Sleep disturbances such as insomnia are not uncommon. Just as with mild depression, severe depression often does not set in after a traumatic incident or the loss of a loved one. However, the intense feelings of grief, guilt, and unworthiness are experienced just the same. Untreated, an estimated 25% of sufferers try to kill themselves after suffering for 5 years with this horrible mood disorder.
why.does.this.happen?
Often trying to figure out which triggered what (Did the eating disorder trigger the depression, or the other way around?) ends up being a game of whether the chicken or the egg came first, so I don’t even bother. What’s more important to me is finding the main trigger to the depression currently. Obviously the helplessness and hopelessness that comes from anorexia and bulimia is plenty enough to aggravate someone’s moods. The person with the eating disorder feels helpless - they feel out of control, while desperately searching for control by starvation and/or purging. At the same time, they feel like failures for not losing enough weight and not doing it fast enough (making a twisted accomplishment). The current state of the medical community also doesn’t host many rays of light, as it isn’t uncommon for a severe case to be called “hopeless” and “incurable,” or for a mis-understanding and mis-educated doctor to call someone with an eating disorder “selfish” and “manipulative.” It’s extremely hard to “think positively” and to “just read a few self-help books” and then magically, POOF, be ok. Depression doesn’t work that way, and inevitably it is aggravated and made worse. The person may occasionally able to have a once in a blue moon GENUINE happy moment, but for the majority, they are down in the dumps (often believing they deserve to be there).
Along with an eating disorder triggering and aggravating depression, biological problems also affect mood disorders such as this. Studies on seratonin, also known as the “feel good” neurotransmitter, have caused some interesting findings to come up - some showing that you can be born with messed up levels and that alone can cause a 4 year old to be diagnosed as clinically depressed. The basics of seratonin are if it falls too low, depression and other complications occur, and starving and/or purging always messes up this chemical. Usually when someone with anorexia is in what is known as “starvation mode” (occurs generally when the weight has fallen below 98 pounds and the body just goes completely bonkers and manic), depression is almost solely biological. Some therapists even require that a patient’s weight be raised up past 98 pounds before they will treat them for the eating disorder and/or depression because it is too hard to have the person think clearly at such a weight and condition that the body is in.
depression treatment
Just as with any additional disorder, depression MUST be treated along with the eating disorder. Often depression treatment includes Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) which identifies the ten forms of distorted thinking found in depression (see below). Besides CBT, there are many anti-depressants that are used. These include the famous Prozac, Zoloft, and Paxil. It is true that generally after a person is taken away cold turkey from their anti-depressant that they relapse back into old thinking patterns and the depression re-surfaces, however, when treated along with Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, most are able to be “weened” off of the anti-depressants without many problems. The key is to learn better rationalization techniques along with using the drug as just a little “booster,” so that in the end you have learned how to rationalize and use logic for your problems well enough that you no longer need anti-depressants.
the.nine.forms.of.distorted.thinking
- All-or-Nothing Thinking :
This is the black or white thinking pattern. If the person is not perfect they are nothing and a total failure. If the victim gets an A- on a test it’s the end of the world - Labeling :
The person makes a mistake and instead of thinking that hey they made a mistake no big deal they label themselves names such as a failure or pathetic. Another example of this is having a parent yell at you for forgetting to do a chore. Instead of thinking that you’ll remember next time you may label yourself totally worthless and because of that your parents don’t love you now. - Over-generalization :
This is when a person makes a slight blunder and believes they will never get it right. (”I relapsed again; I wont ever be able to recover.”) - Mental Filtering :
ED victims tend to do this quite a lot. Say a friend commented on a piece of art work but then added that one of the colors was a little off. Instead of remembering that 99% of the art work is great looking the person dwells on the negative part of what the friend said and filters out any positive remarks. Many times the ED victim will say that they are good for nothing and that no one gives them any positive remarks but they do not realize that any positive remarks that they have been given they have immediately dismissed. - Discounting the Positive :
This thinking is when you do something well such as cooking a good meal and then when given positive remarks on it you immediately think things like “Well, anyone could have done it,” or, “It wasn’t that great…” - Jumping to Conclusions :
You assume the worst based on no evidence. You decide that another person is reacting negatively to you. (”I know she didn’t really mean it when she said I wasn’t fat; she’s lying just to be nice.”) - Magnification:
This is the exaggeration of importance of problems and minor annoyances. An example of this would be an eating disorder victim not exercising for a full hour and thinking that what he did before was worth nothing. - Emotional Reasoning :
Ever confuse your emotions for reality? This is when the thoughts of ‘I feel fat so therefore I am fat’ come up. The self-demanding tip-off’s include ‘must’, ‘ought to’, and ‘have to’. - Personalizing the Blame :
These thoughts are another very common trait among eating disorder victims. The person believes that things beyond his or her control are the victim’s fault. (”I ate yesterday and that’s why the plane crashed,” or, “If I had gotten an A+ instead of an A then my mom wouldn’t have a migraine today.”)
Personally, I have found that a major key in helping rid depression is realizing that we all have limits and faults, but that that is OK, and that there are better ways of dealing with things than self-destruction. One particular quote has been especially helpful, and it goes a lil’ something like this: Most depression or anxiety-producing events are not inherently awful. What makes them feel distressing is the way we react to them.

words& music, balauru
I see the World
With the same eyes
I “smell” the Magic
With the same nose
I go outside
My soul is cold
Look in the mirror
The child is old
And I cry may pain
With flowers
I look at my years
With regret
I just want
To be happy
A few more hours
Yes I want
To be young again
I feel love
With the same heart
I whisper poems
With the same lips
I go outside
My soul is cold
Look in the mirror
The child is old
And I cry may pain
With flowers
I look at my years
With regret
I just want
To be happy
A few more hours
Yes I want
To be young again
Again
Again
Again
mesajul Holocaustului.Subiectul e plictisitor, stiu, am aflat asta din forumurile romanesti. Chiar si dupa vizionarea filmului Amen, al lui Gavras, tot plictisitor a ramas pentru romani. Azi Romania si-a luat responsabilitatea
pentru pogromuri insa in forumuri literare apar “eseuri” care se intreaba daca Holocaustul a fost mit sau realitate. Ce ma intristeaza sunt comentariile pozitive la eseu : “bun, bine scris etc..etc…” .
Antisemitii incearca sa nege Holocaustul, sa demonstreze ca evreii vor bani de pe urma suferintei lor, ca invinovatesc lumea degeaba, ca l-au omorat pe Cristos si vine un film cu Maia Morgernstern si aprinde putin sentimentele, ca evreii manuiesc lumea din culise, ca ii intereseaza doar banii, si cate si mai cate. O mare parte a antisemitismului din lume apartine arabilor si e usor de inteles de ce. Nici ei nu inteleg mesajul Holocaustului, ii fac pe israelieni nazisti fara sa inteleaga sensul cuvantului. Si ar trebui sa-l inteleaga, din cauza ca cei mai noi nazisti sunt teroristii palestinieni. Dar asta o sa explic mai departe.
6 milioane de evrei au fost exterminati miseleste in timpul celui de-al doilea razboi mondial.
Poporul german, atat de civilizat si cult, s-a lasat transformat intr-o MASINA DE UCIS EVREI SI TIGANI.
Ofiteri si soldati germani care isi sarutau copiii si nevestele, dimineata, inainte de a pleca la slujba,
in timpul “slujbei” gazau miseleste familii intregi ale altora, copiii, femei, batrani. Seara, dupa slujba, se intorceau acasa si-si sarutau din nou familia, faceau sex dupa ce culcau copiii. Si asa in fiecare zi. Un popor de “mai putin ca animalele.” Animalele nu ucid fara sa le fie foame sau fara sa fie amenintate. E inexplicabil de ce au fost asa, inca nu se stie bine de ce. Eu sustin ca, daca nu erau evreii, era alt popor in cuptoarele de gazare.
Din cauza asta, mesajul Holocaustului e ca
ASA CEVA NU TREBUIE SA SE MAI INTAMPLE NICIODATA.
Cu nici un popor, nu numai cu evreii. Pana la sfarsitul timpurilor mesajul asta va fi readus in atentia generatiilor, nu pentru ca evreii vor sa se
“victimizeze” la infinit ci pentru o cauza umana, in principal.
NAZISTII AU OMORAT SISTEMATIC EVREI SI TIGANI DIN CAUZA CA ERAU EVREI SI TIGANI.
Din cauza rasei lor. Teroristii palestinieni omoara evrei si azi, metodic, din cauza rasei lor. Nazisti. Si evreii sunt foarte sensibili la asta. Insa niciodata, dar niciodata, soldatii evrei nu au ucis palestinieni, metodic, din cauza ca sunt palestinieni ci, greu de inteles, pura autoaparare.
A dori sa dovedesti ca Holocaustul n-a existat sau n-a avut o asemenea amploare e si o dorinta prosteasca a unora. Antisemitismul in lume, azi, ia noi proportii. Evident sub influenta araba. Insa nu uitati, nu inchideti ochii, un nou Hitler se poate naste din nou. Un nou popor poate sa devina din nou o masina de macelarit alt popor din cauza rasei lui.
Mesajul Holocaustului : ASA CEVA NU TREBUIE LASAT SA SE MAI INTAMPLE
Dupa cum stiti, in Spania a aparut recent un val de antiromanism. Un DJ spaniol a scos un cantec oribil la adresa romanilor. E cercetat de politie, a fost prins. Asa se intampla cu turcii in Germania, pana si cu arabii in Franta, oamenii urasc minoritatile, imigrantii, nevoia de ura e nemuritoare. Insa prin legi bine respectate si atentie mare, noi atrocitati se pot evita. Si romanii ii urasc pe unguri si viceversa. Rugati-va sa fie pace intre Romania si Ungaria, pe veci. Nu hraniti nevoia de ura, Holocaustul e al tuturor, nu numai al evreilor, trebuie respectat, nu batjocorit cu eseuri bazate pe lucrarile unor profesori nebuni. Scrise de niste tineri care nu stiu ce e aia viata dar se dau drept filozofi.
sursa:
![]()
Dealing with the Depths of Depression
| by Liora Nordenberg | “I am now the most miserable man living. If what I feel were equally distributed to the whole human family, there would be not one cheerful face on earth. Whether I shall ever be better, I cannot tell. I awfully forebode I shall not. To remain as I am is impossible. I must die or be better it appears to me.” –Abraham Lincoln |
Imagine attending a party with these prominent guests: Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt, Robert Schumann, Ludwig von Beethoven, Edgar Allen Poe, Mark Twain, Vincent van Gogh, and Georgia O’Keefe. Maybe Schumann and Beethoven are at the dinner table intently discussing the crescendos in their most recent scores, while Twain sits on a couch telling Poe about the plot of his latest novel. O’Keefe and Van Gogh may be talking about their art, while Roosevelt and Lincoln discuss political endeavors.
But in fact, these historical figures also had a much more personal common experience: Each of them battled the debilitating illness of depression.
It is common for people to speak of how “depressed” they are. However, the occasional sadness everyone feels due to life’s disappointments is very different from the serious illness caused by a brain disorder. Depression profoundly impairs the ability to function in everyday situations by affecting moods, thoughts, behaviors, and physical well-being.
Twenty-seven-year-old Anne (not her real name) has suffered from depression for more than 10 years. “For me it’s feelings of worthlessness,” she explains. “Feeling like I haven’t accomplished the things that I want to or feel I should have and yet I don’t have the energy to do them. It’s feeling disconnected from people in my life, even friends and family who care about me. It’s not wanting to get out of bed some mornings and losing hope that life will ever get better.”
Depression strikes about 17 million American adults each year–more than cancer, AIDS, or coronary heart disease–according to the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). An estimated 15 percent of chronic depression cases end in suicide. Women are twice as likely as men to be affected.
Many people simply don’t know what depression is. “A lot of people still believe that depression is a character flaw or caused by bad parenting,” says Mary Rappaport, a spokeswoman for the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill. She explains that depression cannot be overcome by willpower, but requires medical attention.
Fortunately, depression is treatable, says Thomas Laughren, M.D., team leader for psychiatric drug products in FDA’s division of neuropharmacological drug products.
In the past 13 years, the Food and Drug Administration has approved several new antidepressants, including Wellbutrin (bupropion), Prozac (fluoxetine), Zoloft (sertraline), Paxil (paroxetine), Effexor (venlafaxine), Serzone (nefazodone), and Remeron (mirtazapine).
According to the American Psychiatric Association (APA), 80 to 90 percent of all cases can be treated effectively. However, two-thirds of the people suffering from depression don’t get the help they need, according to NIMH. Many fail to identify their symptoms or attribute them to lack of sleep or a poor diet, the APA says, while others are just too fatigued or ashamed to seek help.
Left untreated, depression can result in years of needless pain for both the depressed person and his or her family. And depression costs the United States an estimated $43 billion a year, due in large part to absenteeism from work, lost productivity, and medical costs, according to the National Depressive and Manic Depressive Association.
Three Types
The three main categories of depression are major depression, dysthymia, and bipolar depression (sometimes referred to as manic depression).
Major depression affects 15 percent of Americans at one point during their lives, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Its effects can be so intense that things like eating, sleeping, or just getting out of bed become almost impossible.
Major depression “tends to be a chronic, recurring illness,” Laughren explains. Although an individual episode may be treatable, “the majority of people who meet criteria for major depression end up having additional episodes in their lifetime.”
Unlike major depression, dysthymia doesn’t strike in episodes, but is instead characterized by milder, persistent symptoms that may last for years. Although it usually doesn’t interfere with everyday tasks, victims rarely feel like they are functioning at their full capacity. According to the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill, almost 10 million Americans may experience dysthymia each year.
Finally, bipolar disorder cycles between episodes of major depression and highs known as mania. Bipolar disorder is much less common than the other types, afflicting about 1 percent of the U.S. population. Symptoms of mania include irritability, an abnormally elevated mood with a decreased need for sleep, an exaggerated belief in one’s own ability, excessive talking, and impulsive and often dangerous behavior.
Genes and Environment
Study after study suggests biochemical and genetic links to depression. A considerable amount of evidence supports the view that depressed people have imbalances in the brain’s neurotransmitters, the chemicals that allow communication between nerve cells. Serotonin and norepinephrine are two neurotransmitters whose low levels are thought to play an especially important role. The fact that women have naturally lower serotonin levels than men may contribute to women’s greater tendency to depression.

_e.jpg)













