Depression
Is depression, a social epidemic, still threatening people throughout the world? Depression is a mental illness that severely impacts a person's thoughts, emotions, and behavior. It says in Cleveland Clinic (2023) that “depression is common. Researchers estimate that nearly 7% of adults in the United States have depression every year. More than 16% of U.S. adults—around 1 in 6 people—will experience depression at some point in their lifetime.” It also says that some of the causes of depression are brain chemistry, genetics, stressful life events, medical conditions, and medications. Over the years, it has become one of the most widespread mental illnesses in the world. “The prevalence of depression in U.S. adolescents and adults increased 60% in the past decade.” (CDC, 2025) In recent years, new treatments such as therapies, antidepressants, and overall self-care have been very helpful in helping people manage their depression. Depression is a big problem in our society, but as we grow and advance, new treatments are available and can help prevent any more damage to a person’s mental health.
It should be noted that even though the number of people that experience depression is high, there are a lot of treatments available to the public. One of those main treatments for depression is therapy. In the article “How Depression Is Treated," it argues that “there are many types of therapy to help with depression, including psychodynamic therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, and interpersonal therapy.” It also talks about what each one does, “Psychodynamic therapy is a therapy that helps understand how the person got depressed because of their childhood. Cognitive behavioral therapy is a therapy that helps give coping skills to overcome negative thoughts and behavior patterns. Interpersonal therapy is a therapy that helps give patients skills and strategies to help improve and make healthy changes in four areas: enhancing social support, decreasing interpersonal stress, facilitating emotional processing, and improving interpersonal skills.” (Pg 5) Therapy is argued to be very helpful in controlling depression and keeps it from getting worse in “How Depression is Treated”.
Firstly, psychodynamic therapy helps a person to function like a normal person and helps them with their relationships with people. It also helps “improve self-esteem and helps them manage their aggression.” (Benefits of Psychodynamic Therapy and How It Works, 2026) It goes on to say that how effective the therapy works depends on the patient and how bad their depression is. It also talks about how some treatments are going to be longer than others depending on the plan and that the length can be anywhere from lasting months to years. Psychodynamic therapy is effective as long as the patient is willing to take the time to get better. Secondly, according to Benefits of Psychodynamic Therapy and How It Works (2026), unlike psychodynamic therapy, “cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), a type of talk therapy that helps a person overcome inaccurate or negative thinking to approach challenges more clearly and effectively, is significantly greater." “Cognitive behavioral therapy is the most evidence-based form of talk therapy for patients with depression.” (How Depression Is Treated, n.d.) There have been many studies about cognitive behavioral therapy and how it is very effective and has helped many people with depression and will continue to help individuals with depression. Lastly, in "How Depression Is Treated," interpersonal therapy is described as a therapy that helps someone to relate to other people. Interpersonal therapy is to help people with acute major depression. Someone that has interpersonal therapy usually will go once a week, at least, for about five months. Interpersonal therapy is extremely helpful for a person that has severe depression.
Along with therapy, antidepressants are arguably one of the most effective ways to treat depression. According to Pharm J. (2023), "There are five common antidepressants that doctors will usually prescribe: selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors, atypical antidepressants, serotonin modulators, and cyclic antidepressants.” He also talked about how someone needs to get professional help if they take antidepressants. “Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are antidepressants that are prescribed to patients the most because of their low side effects. SSRIs help stabilize a person's mood and help them feel happiness and well-being." (Pharm, 2023) He also says, "Serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs) work by increasing serotonin and norepinephrine levels in the brain. Norepinephrine is a hormone and a neurotransmitter responsible for transmitting signals across nerve endings." Another medication for depression is atypical antidepressants because it increases dopamine, serotonin, or norepinephrine levels in the brain. Serotonin modulators are a type of drug used to help bring serotonin levels up in the brain. The last antidepressant is cyclic antidepressants. "There are two types, tricyclic and tetracyclic antidepressants. They prevent the reuptake of serotonin and norepinephrine in the brain, thus elevating mood and alertness." (Pharm, 2023). Antidepressants are highly effective in treating depression.
As well as, therapy and antidepressants, overall self-care is a way to manage depression. “Although self-care isn't a permanent solution for professional help, it can help some people. Some ways to do self-care are taking dietary supplements, exercise, meditating, being social, and getting enough sleep.” (How Depression Is Treated, n.d.) Doing all these things may not heal everyone with depression, but they can help them live a bit calmer and easier life as they go through depression.
Conversely, psychodynamic therapy may seem like it helps; it doesn’t usually have lasting effects. Also, in How Depression Is Treated. (n.d.) it says that cognitive behavioral therapy only allows a certain number of meetings with each patient, so that's not going to help anyone. In addition, self-care isn’t a reliable way to cure depression. Even though not all treatments seem like they don't work, it is just because treatment works for different people. In Benefits of Psychodynamic Therapy and How It works (2026), it says “although psychodynamic therapy is not as effective as other treatments, psychodynamic psychotherapy promotes certain kinds of emotional growth that extend beyond the duration of the therapy.” It also says that effort is needed between both the patient and therapist. In order for it to be effective, the patient will need to be open and willing to explore distressing or uncomfortable thoughts and feelings. Even though one treatment doesn’t work for a patient doesn’t mean that none of them do.
In conclusion, depression is still everywhere and is still affecting people, but there are many treatments to help manage depression. As the years have passed the number of cases of depression have gone drastically, but as the years go by, new treatments have come along and are highly affective. Depression is a social epidemic that is continuously getting knew ways to help fix it.