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Blues music is fun to hear in a bar, but having the blues all time is no party. That’s what living with depression has been described as. It can make the simple things of life seem impossible to do. Life in our high stress, fast paced life is tough enough. Going through it with depression can be a nightmare. Depression is often a medical condition, but there are sometimes physical causes that can be controlled. Only when physical causes are all ruled out as causes, is medication necessary. Medication causes troubles of its own and some believe it should only be used when there is no other option. Before going to a psychiatrist and asking about medication, its important to examine your symptoms and see if you may be clinically depressed. Some classic symptoms of depression are:
1. Not sleeping or sleeping too much
2. Lack of motivation
3. Loss of appetite
4. Irritability
5. A feeling of being overwhelmed
More symptoms and a larger overview of depression can be found at: mayoclinic.com/health/depression/
In our microwave society where we don’t want to wait for anything, medication seems preferable to life changes. After all, who wouldn’t rather take a pill and be done than make a lot of changes in ones life? It seems that on tv and in movies we see more and more evidence of people who are depressed taking drugs like Prozac and others to manage their illness. What we don’t see as much are the real life pitfalls of medication. There are the waits at the pharmacy every month, the costs, the cumbersome pills that must be taken anywhere you vacation, and the risk of missing a few doses and falling into a dangerous state. It is an option to treat depression with medication, but what about if there are physical causes? What if these causes could be controlled by the patient’s actions and make the depression go away? I think this would be a much better way to deal with the depression than through a life-long dependence on medication.
So what are the physical causes of depression? There are 4 that seem to pop up on every site or in most literature I’ve read:
1. Stress. Stressful life events, particularly a loss or threatened loss of a loved one or a job, can trigger depression. Stress can be reduced by changing jobs, taking an extended break from ones job, or working out a stress management routine in ones life. Unfortunately for some this isn’t possible or they aren’t willing to take these steps. In these cases, medication may be warranted.
2. Medications. Long-term use of certain medications, such as some drugs used to control high blood pressure, sleeping pills or, occasionally, birth control pills, may cause symptoms of depression in some people. Medication itself can have side effects that cause depression. In this case, if the patient can’t go off the medication causing the depression, then another may be necessary to counter its effects.
3. Personality. Certain personality traits, such as having low self-esteem and being overly dependent, self-critical, pessimistic and easily overwhelmed by stress, can make you more vulnerable to depression. Cognitive psychological therapy can, arguably, help change some parts of ones personality that could theoretically help cure depression.
4. Alcohol, nicotine and drug abuse. Experts once thought that people with depression used alcohol, nicotine and mood-altering drugs as a way to ease depression. But using these substances may actually contribute to depression and anxiety disorders. It is possible for some people to stop drinking and smoking and help their depression.
To conclude, I think medication is a miracle of science and should be considered after all other treatments are tried. People who take medication are not “weak” but rather they are people who simply have a chemical imbalance and drugs are there to bring them into stasis. On the other hand, if any of the four physical causes of depression are present in a person, they owe it to themselves to try and eliminate these causes from their lives. Our microwave society needs to slow down and consider the burden that medications cause. If someone thinks taking a pill is better than putting forth some effort to change, they should think again because in some cases the medication can be cloaking a deeper issue that will only get worse if not addressed.
Sites consulted:
depression.com/causes_of_depression.html
mentalhealth.about.com/od/depression/a/depressionc...
mayoclinic.com/health/depression/DS00175
I'm Damien Riley, author and teacher. Here you'll find "think outside the box" posts on psychology and inspiration. 
I truly agree that sometimes people who are depressed will look for the easy out just to not feel the pain that depression brings. I suffer from bipolar and it is getting better thanks to insightpros.com but still it was a long road to get here, I have addiction problems and anyone that thinks that things get better being high or drunk are wrong it does make things worse all around and I had to learn that the hard way. I am on my way back and seem to be smiling more now but it is work but it can be done and it is worth it!
If you’re managing bipolar then it should be thanks to yourself and the right meds and treatment … not necessarily insightpros. But if they are helping you get those things then that’s great! All my best in your path to living with bipolar.
I agree that you have to make lifestyle changes and if you can’t reduce some of the stressors, then you need to find positive outlets to release some of that stress. I chose dancing and that works for me! I’ve been experiencing depression and anxiety since my teens. Unfortunately, though, one of my major depressive symptoms is terrible body aches. That makes it extra hard to get up and get going sometimes. I had tried a lot of the anti-depressants out there years ago and the side effects were horrible for me, so I decided to go with nothing. This fall, though, I had one of my worst episodes ever and the dr. suggested Cymbalta, which was known to work on people who have physical pain along with depressive symptoms. It did work and I have no side effects from the med at all. It’s not a quick fix, though, like anxiety medication is. It took weeks, maybe even 2 months, before I really felt like my non-depressed self. It was only at this point I could really make some of the necessary changes needed to reduce some of my stressors—like having the kids do a little bit more around the house since I’m working full time now. Sometimes I think the right medication might be an ok first step to get you where you need to be so you can make some changes.
Very good advice. And people in general need to face that some depression just can’t be fixed without medication. The problem is though that some people don’t look for the physical causes and usually psychiatrists will give you medication rather than address them all. It’s better to avoid meds when you can, in most stuff I read.