Down With Depression & Anxiety

Even before the pandemic, depression and anxiety have been on the rise in the industrialised world for some time. This seems at odds with reason when you consider that, as a society, we are more educated and understanding of these issues than ever before, we (mostly) live in the safest and most plentiful environments in human history and compared to our ancestors we have unimaginable freedom and quality of life.

 

However, this does not mean that we live in a time where every individual feels that they are able to live a life with meaning, connect with others in an authentic way or have security for the things they consider important. The truth is there are many reasons why we are seeing a rise in depression and anxiety, but there are also may ways that we can turn the tide!

 

Firstly, it is important to remember that both depression and anxiety are terms which can apply to illnesses themselves or symptoms of other illnesses. Take depression for example; a person can be diagnosed with a Depressive Disorder such as Clinical depression, which describes the main illness that the patient suffers from and can have many symptoms such as consistent low mood, increased irritability, lacking motivation and feeling overwhelmed by decisions and other regular occurrences. However, these symptoms can also be caused by many other issues such as physical inflammation, chronic sleep deprivation and malnutrition, to name just a few. So although Depression can be an illness in and of itself with certain symptoms, the word can also be used as a description of this collection of symptoms, which in turn can be caused by other illnesses.

 

It is also important to consider that a person can become depressed or anxious as a reaction to situations or circumstances in their lives and that these same symptoms can also be caused as an unwanted side effect of some medications.

 

So clearly, when both anxiety and depression can be disorders in themselves, symptoms of other illnesses, emotional responses to negative events or side effects of medications, they cannot always be treated with the same methods if we hope to cure the underlying cause.

 

This campaign is dedicated to raising awareness around the symptoms, causes, treatments and preventions of anxiety and depression, we will be frequently updating this page with new content so watch this space or join our Mailing List and never miss an update!