Factors That Contribute To Depression Among Adults Research Paper

Factors That Contribute To Depression Among Adults - Research Paper Example Everyone gets sad at one time or another. But there are those I have seen get depressed – that feeling of prolonged sadness that is always written on the faces of some people. I have had been depressed in my life too. I have seen people get depressed. When you ask someone why they are depressed, some have their reasons, others do not even know why they are depressed. And the number of those suffering from depressing has been growing all over the world and has even attracted the attention of the World Health Organization. Depression has been a major challenge in the world with people of all ages and both gender suffering from depression at homes, in schools, and at places of work. Long time ago, before scientific explanations could be made, depression was seen to be a punishment from God for something human being did or failed to do. It was therefore not seen as a medical condition but as one with religious connotations. According to a Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, depression was most prevalent in persons aged 45 – 64 years. This suggests that depression is most prevalent among older adults hence the need to examine what causes depression in adults. Currently, depression is seen as a major medical condition and studies have shown a rise in the number of depressed citizens all over the world. While cases of depression rise, the factors that contribute to depression have not yet been exhaustively identified making it hard for medical practitioners to efficiently prevent the rising cases. When am depressed sometimes it is because I have lost someone through death, or I am just stressed. Those I see around me getting depressed also have their reasons, some similar to mine, others not. Like I have said before, some of them do not even know why they are depressed. There has been a plethora of opinion articles and studies dedicated to finding out the factors that contribute to depression. Even though the real causes of depression are not known, as most researchers agree, a number of factors have generally been suggested as having an influence on depression among adults. Dr. Carol Miller in her book Nursing for Wellness in Older Adults identifies the factors as demographic factors and psychosocial influences, medical conditions and functional impairments, and effects of medications and alcohol. A number of authors agree with Dr. Miller on these factors. For instance, according to ADAM Medical Encyclopedia, depression may be caused by stressful life events such as death or illness of someone close, divorce, childhood abuse or neglect, and relationship break-ups. Another stressful even related to these factors is loneliness as explained in the article and affects mostly the elderly. These are mostly psychological factors and may greatly impact the levels of depression in adults. One other related factor here is loneliness. Judy Martin in an article in Forbes magazine shows that stress is a major cause of depression at work as stressed employees to do not report their frustrations for fear of being fired at work for complaining. They therefore keep to themselves and depression sets in. As people, especially men, beco me depressed, they tend to hide their depression through alcohol or use of drugs. But it may also be true that in some cases, depression may be caused by alcohol use. As ADAM Medical Encyclopedia explains, men who are depressed are more likely than women to mast the symptoms with alcohol. The author agrees that while this is the case, alcohol use causes depression in adults. This also mirrors the views of Dr. Miller on alcohol as a cause of depression in adults. Medical conditions have also been seen as one of the causes of depress