|
Login New User? Register |
Written by: DEPRESSION AND ITS EFFECT ON MARITAL AND SOCIAL RELATIONSHIPS (111) Noble deeds and hot baths are the best cures for depression. (Dodie Smith) I dare not marry; the future looks unsettled (William Wilberforce, Slave abolitionist). Depression is melancholy minus its charms—the animation, the fits. (Susan Sontag (b. 1933), U.S. essayist) When we're unemployed, we're called lazy; when the whites are unemployed it's called a depression. (Jesse Jackson (b. 1941), U.S. clergyman, civil rights leader) Only one endowed with restless vitality is susceptible to pessimism. You become a pessimist—a demonic, elemental, bestial pessimist—only when life has been defeated many times in its fight against depression. (E.M. Cioran (b. 1911), Romanian-born French philosopher) During depression the world disappears. Language itself. One has nothing to say. Nothing. No small talk, no anecdotes. Nothing can be risked on the board of talk. Because the inner voice is so urgent in its own discourse: How shall I live? How shall I manage the future? Why should I go on? (Kate Millett (b. 1934), U.S. feminist theorist, literary critic, essayist, autobiographer, sculptor) Depression moods lead, almost invariably, to accidents. But, when they occur, our mood changes again, since the accident shows we can draw the world in our wake, and that we still retain some degree of power even when our spirits are low. A series of accidents creates a positively light-hearted state, out of consideration for this strange power. (Jean Baudrillard (b. 1929), French semiologist) Combining paid employment with marriage and motherhood creates safeguards for emotional well-being. Nothing is certain in life, but generally the chances of happiness are greater if one has multiple areas of interest and involvement. To juggle is to diminish the risk of depression, anxiety, and unhappiness. (Faye J. Crosby (20th century), U.S. professor)
How Is Depression Different From Regular Sadness? Everyone has some ups and downs, and sadness is a natural emotion. The normal stresses of life can lead anyone to feel sad every once in a while. Things like an argument with a spouse, a friend, a breakup, doing poorly on a test, not being chosen for a team, or a best friend moving out of town can lead to feelings of sadness, hurt, disappointment, or grief. These reactions are usually brief and go away with a little time and care.
Depression is more than occasionally feeling blue, sad, or down in the dumps, though. Depression is a strong mood involving sadness, discouragement, despair, or hopelessness that lasts for weeks, months, or even longer. It interferes with a person's ability to participate in normal activities.
Depression affects a person's thoughts, outlook, and behavior as well as mood. In addition to a depressed mood, a person with depression can also feel tired, irritable, and notice changes in appetite.
When someone has depression, it can cloud everything. The world looks bleak and the person's thoughts reflect that hopelessness and helplessness. People with depression tend to have negative and self-critical thoughts. Sometimes, despite their true value, people with depression can feel worthless and unlovable.
Because of feelings of sadness and low energy, people with depression may pull away from those around them or from activities they once enjoyed. This usually makes them feel lonelier and isolated, making the depression and negative thinking worse. Depression can be mild or severe. At its worst, depression can create such feelings of despair that a person thinks about suicide.
Depression can cause physical symptoms, too. Some people have an upset stomach, loss of appetite, weight gain or loss, headaches, and sleeping problems when they're depressed
Africans have a belief system that hardly understands that a medical problem like depression can wreck havoc in one’s life. Africans tend to see everything in life through superstitious prism. That’s why nobody dies a natural death in Africa as his or her people will accuse somebody else of having killed him/her; that’s why nobody fails in life’s endeavour without pointing an accusing finger to someone else as being behind it. Ironically Africans seldom commit suicide as it is seen as an abomination. But Europe, North America and Asia have recorded overwhelming suicidal rates. The taking of spouse’s life is not an African system. Marriages do fail in Africa, but, it hardly result to death of one of the partners. Nigerians abroad should take only the best out of their host countries. It is easier for a black person to turn into a white than a white to turn into a black. The pigment under the black skin is hard for the whites to come by, that’s why they spend a lot of money in solar houses (solarium) to tan their skin. The sun is energy and heat is life; without the sun, there will be no life and whenever the sun dies out, all living things including human beings will die because the planet will froze up. The reason why we have black and white people is because of the sun, all human beings evolved from Africa and from there spread to all parts of the world. Those that emigrated to Europe, America and Asia had their skin turn into white (mutation of gene) over a space of time because of the cold weather. The point here is that most of the blacks in the African continent don’t see anti-social behaviours as having anything to do with medicine and they seldom seek medical help for them; they prefer to live out any problem that comes one’s way. Suicide is not in African people’s dictionary, despite the fact that life is too hard for so many of them, taking one’s life by oneself is the last option they have, they prefer to be suffering and smiling than to end it abruptly (that’s good in a way).
But some Europeans, Americans and Asians will take their life whenever they experience even a quarter of what some Africans are experiencing and smiling over it. We all have read or heard about women that locked up their children in the car and drove the car into a lake or river or the one that killed her child and stored her in a deep freezer for so many years; we have also read about a man that wiped out his family of three and at the end took his own life; what of the school shootings that have happened so many times in America and Europe. This kind of behavioural disorder hasn’t happen in Nigeria. So since we are in America, Europe, Australia or Asia, when abnormal behaviour starts to manifest, we have to seek medical help immediately as that might help save a life or two later along the line. We are abroad now and should see depression and other behavioural disorder as problems .
What Happens in the Brain When Someone Is Depressed?
Depression involves the brain's delicate chemistry — specifically, it involves chemicals called neurotransmitters. These chemicals help send messages between nerve cells in the brain. Certain neurotransmitters regulate mood, and if they run low, people can become depressed, anxious, and stressed. Stress also can affect the balance of neurotransmitters and lead to depression. Sometimes, a person may experience depression without being able to point to any particular sad or stressful event. People who have a genetic predisposition to depression may be more prone to the imbalance of neurotransmitter activity that is part of depression. Medications that doctors use to treat depression work by helping to restore the proper balance of neurotransmitters.
There are also various specific forms of depression:
Dysthymia is a mood disorder. Here people who have it may feel mildly depressed on most days over a period of at least two years. They have many symptoms resembling major depression, but with less severity.
There is Pessimistic personality case. People who have low self-esteem and a negative outlook are at higher risk of becoming depressed. For some people, depression can be intense and occur in bouts that last for weeks at a time. For others, depression can be less severe but can linger at a low level for years.
Many Nigerians have been barely holding on to sanity, keeping it (sanity) by sheer determination. People fell from grace to grass leading them to start feeling unimportant and this might have set off a bout of depression in them without them knowing or acknowledging it.
Many Nigerians instead of working as doctors, lawyers, public servants, military officers, business executives, nurses, experts in one field or the other as they were doing in Nigeria before coming to overseas, found themselves working as cleaners, security men, drivers, gardeners, packet distributors etc. Nothing can be as demoralising as this and may affect the person involved mentally. Many Nigerians were “somebody” or “big men” while in Nigeria and all of a sudden, they missed their way and found themselves in North America, Europe, Australia or Asia where instead of being sirs/madams as they were in Nigeria, started calling others that are not as educated as they are sirs/madams; instead of being “somebody” or “big man”, they turned into “nobody” or “unknown man”.
Some women thought that once they are in America, Europe, Australia or Asia, they can start working immediately, but, they must have to pass the nursing council exam, if they are nurses and it might take some of them years to pass it; those in non-English speaking countries will need to do the language courses to be able to utilize their certificate(s) and that can take years. When things didn’t work out as quickly as they want them to, they will be in despair. Without working, a woman might not have all the money she needs and the amount her husband gives to her will never be enough no matter how much. People prefer to earn and spend their own money. It can be depressive when somebody lacks the wherewithal to buy or do things he or she wants to.
Another form of depression that doctors may diagnose is called adjustment disorder with depressed mood. This refers to a depressive reaction to a specific life event (such as a death, divorce, or other loss), when adjusting to the loss takes longer than the normally expected timeframe or is more severe than expected and interferes with the person's daily activities.
On Tuesday January 29, 2009, in Los Angeles, a man upset over job lost killed his wife, 5 kids and himself. The man fatally shot his wife, five young children and himself after he faxed a note to a TV station claiming the couple had just been fired from their hospital jobs and together planned the killings as an escape for the whole family. "Why leave our children in someone else's hands," Ervin Lupoe wrote in a letter posted on the KABC-TV Web site.
The AP (Jan. 29, 2009) wrote: Stressed by war and long overseas tours, U.S. soldiers killed themselves last year at the highest rate on record, the toll rising for a fourth straight year and even surpassing the suicide rate among comparable civilians. Army leaders said they were doing everything they could think of to curb the deaths and appealed for more mental health professionals to join and help out. At least 128 soldiers committed suicide in 2008, the Army said. And the final count is likely to be even higher because 15 more suspicious deaths are still being investigated.
A man that brought her wife from Nigeria should be careful not to leave her feeling lonely. The man should always make his plan in such a way that he will be at home at least every evening with her for the first few months, at least until she gets used to her new environment. A girl fresh from the university or nursing school or whatever, and being plucked from Nigeria to overseas as a wife where she knows nobody except her husband, who she doesn’t even know too well, can be distressed. There may be no time for interaction with others, because, people are all engaged in one thing or the other; just different from the situation at home where there are family members and relatives always around. A family without children might be the worst hit, the man goes to work, and the wife stays alone in the house.
If a man engages in illicit business that might take him to jail, once he brings a wife from Nigeria, he should give up on the bad things he is doing to avoid going to jail while the wife that just came from Nigeria that knows nowhere or anybody will be stuck. She can loose her sanity because of that and depression will keep her company. Many Nigerians brought their wife from Nigeria but were thrown into jail within that period, leaving the poor girl to her confusion of not knowing what to do without the person she came over to meet.
A lady friend of mine that is in her late 40s has completely white hairs since she was in the 20s. She told me that her hairs turned instantly white when she lost her husband to death when she was in her 20s. She later remarried, but, the marriage didn’t last because she couldn’t get over the death of her first husband and that affected her second marriage.
Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) If you usually become depressed only during the autumn and winter, it could be due to not getting enough daylight! You may benefit from spending time sitting in front of a special light box. It is the recurrence of the symptoms during certain seasons that is the hallmark of this type of depression.
Cold weather can unleash depressive tendencies in a person. Think of it: somebody that have lived all his/her life in Nigeria and then had to move to Europe, America or Asia where there is winter season. When the winter sets in, one has to “pad” him/herself with many clothes at a time and still they might not be enough to wade off the cold in his or her body; the fingertips, toes and ears are usually frozen and will be biting, when one stays in the open for a long time. Inside the house might not provide all the warmth and comfort despite the fact that the heater is on; when somebody has no car, he/she will rely on buses and trains for movement and that will entail going out in the cold to wait for the bus or train that might not be very punctual because of the winter chaos. All these can set off depression in a person especially those that arrived only to find out that what they are getting abroad is not what they really bargained for – those that thought that life overseas will be bed of roses only to arrive to a life as hard as a stone.
I love narrating personal experiences in order to buttress my point: my first journey outside Africa was in late winter. I flew out with KLM on my way to Hong Kong in1992; we had to stopover in Amsterdam before proceeding. We had to wait for about ten hours at the Schiphol Airport Amsterdam. I had only a suit without an overcoat. Despite the fact that the heatings were on in the Terminal Building, I was freezing, teetering and shivering. We arrived Amsterdam early in the morning, then about 09.00 hours, the sun came out. As a novice, I asked my travelling companion if it wouldn’t be better to go outside to take in the heat from the sun rather than staying inside and freezing? My companion that have lived in the United states for so many years before relocating back to Nigeria, nearly laughed himself to death because of my question; he told me that if I steps out of the terminal building with my dressing, that I might get frozen to death, that the sun is out, but, that the cold has absorbed all its heat away.
Europe, America and some part of Asia can be as cold as anybody can imagine. Safe for places like California, Florida, Houston and some other places, life can be nasty because of cold. Sometimes experiencing the changes in weather can change somebody’s metabolism, like when every where gets dark around 15.00 hours during the winter season and the breaking of the dawn (coming out of the sun) happening as early as 05.00 hours. Some parts of the Scandinavian countries are very cold. Parts of Norway and Russia see sunlight only for about 3 months in a year meaning that for about 9 months in a year, they have 24 hours darkness; the same is true about Greenland in that part of the world. People in these countries will always be moody and depressed. People might ask if Nigerians are in those places? There is no country in this world, no matter how remote or challenging it may be, that you can’t find at least a Nigeria. There might be some without any Nigerian, but, out of about 202 or more countries of the world, they will not be upto 10 in number without Nigerians. Nigerians can survive where others see as unliveable.
The point here is that the weather can also be a factor. The winter doesn’t allow people to recreate much outside. People are consigned in-doors, within the four walls of their little home; some will be staring on the walls or ceiling all day long; the T.V. might not be showing things of interest, or a person looses interest in watching the television and then life becomes boring. A woman due to loneliness, because, the husband is working all day long and she has no where to go, might hang around the phone, waiting for it to ring so that she can talk to somebody; she might not have the opportunity to talk to her people and friends in Nigeria as she wants to due to the bill she can incur from that and calling card might not always be readily handy and when none of these happen, she will be eating herself away little by little with worries and that in the long run might affect her mentally. When this frustration sets in and persists, can lead to depression!
Heat wave can also affect one psychologically; high level of heat or cold can make one restless and when that is persistent, can disturb the body mechanism that can set off depressive tendencies.
Before I travelled to Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Houston etc, I never knew that a place can be hotter than our own northern Nigeria . I was astonished to discover that these cities mentioned above can be unbearably hot. Anybody living in any of these places without an air-conditioned house or car will find it extremely difficult to cope up with the heat there because the weather condition in these places will make a person not really prepared for it, to loose his/her cool and composure.
Getting to the East Coast, one finds a different kind of problem in terms of adverse weather condition. The winter months in places like the New England Area can be very often, nasty. Alaska, Canada , Siberia in Russia, Minsk in Belarus, Kiev in Ukraine etc are well known cold places. Places like Hartford Connecticut (that I might call my home if I were to settle down finally in USA); New York etc are usually frigidly during the winter months due to their proximity to Canada. Anybody in these areas without a car will be hesitant to go out when the winter sets in (unless when it is a must), and when outside, one has to be prepared to have his/her fingertips, toes, ear frozen and painful and these keep one uncomfortable and also lead to lack of concentration in what one is doing, it can be devastating.
America has the extremes of good and bad. Let’s look at the havoc wrecked by the winter in some parts the country since the middle of December 2008 till end of January 2009. I crave for your patience as I will take much of your time here:
We saw how bitter cold and high winds chilled Midwest recently. Pedestrians had to brace themselves from a fierce wind and temperatures hovering around zero in Michigan. Recently, cold weather wreaked havoc on Chicago and environs that heavily bundled Midwesterners had to shuffle quickly from place to place in a bid to spend as little time as possible outside in bone-chilling, subzero cold. Commuters in Dayton, Ohio, were greeted with zero-degree temperatures. Recently, the temps were in the single digits in Toledo, Cincinnati and Columbus. Recently, social service workers in Chicago conducted well-being checks and hosted more than 100 people in an overnight warming center, while officials activated an automatic phone message system that called residents to warn them of the cold.
Recently, in northwest Ohio, about 5,000 homes were without power. Recently, in western New York, blowing snow forced authorities to close a 134-mile stretch of the state Thruway from Rochester to the Pennsylvania border. Tow trucks was dispatch to remove stranded vehicles. Recently, in Portland, the streets of downtown were mostly empty, with pedestrians only occasionally forced to the unshovelled sidewalks to make room for slow-moving cars. Motorists were told to use chains on state highways. It was amazing then, that in Portland, the roads were snow packed, covered with ice and freezing rain. Recently, even hardy Minnesotans buckled to the cold, calling off a Minneapolis holiday parade that is always automatically cancelled if the wind chill dips below minus 20. Recently, the authorities in Boston, that are no stranger to chilly weather, cancelled public schools in the face of an overnight freeze and wind gusts of up to 50 mph. In North Dakota , Bismarck was on track to break a 1916 record for snowfall in December.
The winter visited the East and the West USA with a vengeance: On Monday, Dec. 22, 2008 , in downtown Portland, the weather outside was frightful. From Portland, Maine, to Portland, Ore., the last-minute holiday shoppers shivered and stranded travellers hoped for the best. In New Hampshire , the deep snow added to the misery for nearly 11,000 customers still in the dark from an ice storm more than a week earlier. Nearly 50,000 customers remain without power across northern Indiana because of an ice storm the week before. Bad weather also delayed Christmas travellers in the West Monday, Dec. 22, 2008, while snowstorm iced roads and grounded flights in Chicago. There were long, snaking lines at virtually every ticket counter at the airport Monday (Dec. 21, 2008) morning. Some travellers said they had spent 12 hours waiting for a ticket agent, taking turns sleeping while others held their places in line. The baggage claim area was littered with mounds of unclaimed luggage 6 and 7 feet high. Hundreds of travellers were marooned even in Los Angeles, where the line to rebook Alaska Airlines flights to the Pacific Northwest stretched out of the door. Flights were cancelled and delayed at airports on both coasts. Hundreds of travellers were stranded at airports in Phoenix; SeaTac, Wash.; and Arlington, Va. A lot of people slept on hard cold floor in the Terminal Buildings. The Greyhound terminals in Portland, Ore., and Seattle remained shut down due to the weather Monday ( Dec. 22, 2008) — no buses in, no buses out. More than 100 stranded passengers in Seattle were sent to three homeless shelters or allowed to stay at the station. At the Old Town station in Portland, about 100 people set up a second home. Many travellers spent their Christmas Eve at O'Hare International Airport. The Airport was forced to cancel about 100 flights.
Storm also blanketed the West and Northwest with snow while ice glazed Midwest: Slippery roads and cold was blamed for 10 deaths in the last week of December of 2008 in Indiana; eight in Wisconsin; five in Ohio; four each in Kentucky and Missouri; two in Kansas, three in Michigan, and one apiece in Illinois, Oklahoma, Iowa, Massachusetts and West Virginia. Midwest and New England were not spared the snow storm. On December 28, 2008 , A Maryland teen was killed when he lost control of his SUV on an icy road and ran into a telephone pole near Union Mills. In Michigan a 49-year-old man died when his snowmobile collided with a snow plow on December 27, 2008, in Dorr Township ; motorists also died in Illinois and Indiana. The Northern Plains faced frigid storm that was en route east; that in the last week of 2008 and the first week of 2009, we saw a 59-vehicle crash in New Hampshire and another in Connecticut that involved 13 vehicles. Most residents in New England heeded the authorities' warnings to stay off roads after the storm dumped up to 9 inches of snow in some areas in Massachusetts and sleet and freezing rain across Rhode Island. The bitter cold that stalked the upper Plains earlier brought bone-chilling misery to the East.
In January 2009, ND got blizzard on top of December's record snow while sharp cold wave shocked upper Midwest, with temps upto -36. On Monday, Jan. 12, 2009 , residents of Bismarck, N.D. and those of the upper Midwest bundled up or just stayed inside upto Tuesday (Jan. 13, 2009) as a wave of bitterly cold air barrelled south out of the Arctic, following on the heels of a fast-moving blizzard. Some schools closed because of the cold and temperatures hit the single digits as far south as Kansas and Missouri. Airlines cancelled more than 300 flights from Chicago’s two airports (Jan. 13, 2009). Indiana police reported numerous crashes on slippery highways, including a truck that overturned and spilled 43,000 pounds of cheese, closing a busy highway ramp for eight hours during the night in the Gary area. Many stretches of north-western Indiana highways were snow-covered, icy and hazardous.
On Monday Jan. 12, 2009 in Minneapolis, Shocking cold wave dropped temps to 40 below zero; the temperatures crashed to Arctic levels the following day as a severe cold wave rolled across the upper Midwest on the heels of yet another snowstorm, closing schools and making most people think twice before going outside. A 51-year-old man in northern Wisconsin died from exposure after wandering from his Hayward home early Tuesday (Jan. 13, 2009). His son reported him missing and said he was prone to sleepwalking, and deputies followed footprints in the snow to find the man about 190 yards from his house. Mid of Jan. 2009, blowing snow and frigid temperatures pounded the U.S. The biting cold that hit northeast kept even skiers at home. On Jan. 14, 2009, Columbus, Ohio was hard hit while from Montpelier, Vt. the cold wave expanded into the Northeast with subzero temperatures and biting wind that kept even some winter sports fans at home. the morning. Some schools closed altogether. Homeless shelters were busy. "We don't want anyone out there," said Kathryn Paquette, homeless outreach specialist of Southern New Hampshire Services in Nashua, N.H., which found rooms at rooming houses, motels and shelters for dozens. Honda Motor Co. even cancelled two shifts at three Ohio plants so that their roughly 5,000 workers wouldn't have to risk the cold and slippery roads.
By Thursday, 15 January, 2009 chilly arctic air kept spilling south from Canada. The bone-numbing blast of arctic air that was also chilling the Northeast claimed at least five lives and contributed to dozens of traffic accidents as vehicles slipped and slid on icy roads. Scores of schools in Michigan, Iowa, Ohio, Illinois and upstate New York cancelled classes for Friday Jan. 16, 2009 as officials feared it would be dangerous for students to walk to school or wait for buses.
By Fri Jan 16, 2009, big chill clamped down on upper Midwest, there was also a big chill caused by blast of arctic air that stunned eastern US. Only a lone skier rode the lift at the Killington ski resort in Killington, Vt., on Friday, Jan. 16, 2009. Thousands in Ohio and Illinois lost power for several hours, more than 1 million customers in Tennessee, Virginia and West Virginia, had record electricity demand as businesses and homes cranked up the heat. Between Jan. 26 and 27, 2009, thousands had black out as ice storm wreaked havoc: In little Rock, Ark, tree limbs snapped, blacking out thousands of homes and businesses, and schools and government offices were closed Tuesday (Jan. 27, 2009) as a major storm spread a glaze of ice and snow from the southern Plains to the East Coast. At least 13 deaths were blamed on the weather. Kentucky state officials reported more than 60,000 people with no electricity as ice up to 1.5 inches thick broke tree limbs. About 6,000 people were blacked out in Oklahoma as temperatures hovered in the teens and 20s. About 4,700 outages were reported in the southeast tip of Missouri. Hundreds of public schools, colleges and universities called off classes Tuesday (Jan. 27, 2009) in parts of Arkansas , Oklahoma, Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, Illinois, Missouri and Maryland. In the last week of January 2009, a deadly winter storm barreled into Northeast: In Philadelphia, a winter storm that left more than 600,000 people without electricity barreled into the Northeast. The storm delayed flights and turned the morning rush into the morning slush as communities braced for the worst. On Tuesday ( Jan. 27, 2009), the storm was blamed for at least 19 deaths, and a glaze of ice and snow caused widespread power outages from the southern Plains to the East Coast. Authorities say it could be a week before some communities will have electricity again. The storm that began building on Monday Jan 26, 2009, was blamed for five deaths in Texas, three in Arkansas , three in Virginia, five in Missouri, two in Oklahoma and one in Indiana. Still in the last week of Jan. 2009, more than a million people waited in icy darkness across US. From Little Rock, Ark. well over a million people shivered in ice-bound homes across the country, waiting for warmer weather and for utility crews to restore power lines brought down by a storm that killed 23 as it took a snowy, icy journey from the Southern Plains to the East Coast. But with temperatures plunging, utility officials warned that it could be mid-February before electricity is restored to some of the hardest-hit places. The worst of the power failures were in Kentucky, Arkansas and Ohio. Just getting to their source was difficult for utility crews. Ice-encrusted tree limbs and power lines blocked glazed roads, and cracking limbs pierced the air.
On Wednesday night (Jan. 28, 2009), President Barack Obama declared federal emergencies in Arkansas and Kentucky, clearing the way for the two states to receive federal aid. Also the president didn’t find it funny when his daughters (Sasha and Malia) stayed at home because the schools in Washington area were closed because of snow. For the president, schools in Chicago (where they came from to the White House) never closed because of weather factor. As of January 30 2009, many people without food and water rushed to shelters' warmth. In a place like Murray Ky., residents displaced by a winter storm rested in every corner of a university theater, about 100 of them sprawled in aisles, propped in chairs, curled up on the stage. Some watched a movie while others settled in — but all could sleep soundly with the heat blasting, the assurance of food and water nearby. Many of the people at hundreds of shelters in several states ran out of food and water at their frigid, powerless home in the wake of an ice storm. At least 1.3 million homes and businesses were without power across a wide swath of the country. Since the latest storm began on Monday (Jan. 26, 2009), the weather had been blamed or suspected in at least 42 deaths, including 11 in Kentucky, nine in Arkansas, six each in Texas and Missouri, three in Virginia, two each in Oklahoma, Indiana and West Virginia and one in Ohio. Most were blamed on hypothermia, traffic accidents and carbon monoxide poisoning. Infact emergency officials feared that toll could rise if people stay in their homes without power for too long, because improper use of generators can cause carbon monoxide poisoning.
On Saturday (Jan. 31, 2009) Gov. Steve Beshear of Kentucky called up his entire Army National Guard in addition to 3,000 soldiers and airmen making upto 4,600 Guardsmen pressed into service. It was the largest call-up in Kentucky history, which the governor called an appropriate response to a storm that cut power to more than 600,000 people, the state's largest outage on record. Many people in rural areas of Kentucky cannot get out of their driveways due to debris and have no phone service.
Meanwhile, the heat wave that hit Southern Australia this last week of January, 2009 with a temperature as high as 45,7 degrees Celsius, led to about 30 deaths, 65,000 hectares of land destroyed through bush fires and dozens of homes burnt out in the city of Victoria. We shouldn’t forget the yearly California wild fires also.
The sense in all these is to drive home the point that many of the people caught in the middle of all these are bound to have bouts of depression, no thanks to the weather.
Postnatal depression
Many mothers have “the baby blues” soon after the birth of their baby, but it usually passes after a few days. Postnatal depression is a more serious problem and can appear any time between two weeks and two years after the birth. This, also called postpartum depression, interferes with the mother's ability to bond with her newborn. It is very important to seek help if you are experiencing postpartum depression. People should not forget that postpartum depression is different from the "Baby Blues", which tend to occur the first few days after delivery and resolve spontaneously.
A situation where a woman have to take care of her children all alone because the husband is working and because there is no relative that can help her as obtainable in Nigeria, can create a problem for her. For those that have their mother or mother in-law around, things can be easier. But that creates another problem; the mother of the woman can turn out to be a big problem for the husband or the mother in-law can instead of being helpful turns out to be the nemesis of the woman and might bring cracks to the couple’s marriage. All these can cause depression to the person on the receiving end of it all.
Bipolar disorder (manic depression) Some people have mood swings, when periods of depression alternate with periods of mania. When manic, people are in a state of high excitement, and may plan and may try to execute grandiose schemes and ideas. Also called manic depression, here life can be like an emotional roller coaster; one day a person’s mood is low and he/she feels sad. Then his/her mood gets really high and he/she feels great. It is associated with abnormally high mood and extreme bursts of unusual activity or energy. Then afterward, the sadness comes back.
In United States, at least one person in every six becomes depressed in the course of their lives. One in 20 is clinically depressed. Figures suggest that more women become depressed, but men may find it harder to admit to or talk about it. All age groups can be affected, and it’s important to take symptoms seriously and not to dismiss them as an inevitable part of growing up or growing old. By recognising and treating the symptoms, and getting help, it’s possible to overcome depression, and prevent it from coming back.
There is the Narcissistic Personality Disorder. This is a condition characterized by an inflated sense of self-importance and an extreme preoccupation with one's self. People who suffer from this seldom seek treatment as they do not consider that there is anything wrong with them. Particularly in their early life, they experience little emotional pain as they are so caught up with their own lives, thoughts, plans, and actions that little else can penetrate their psyches. The principal people who experience problems associated with Narcissistic Personality Disorder are those whose friends, family members, and bosses suffer from the condition. It is those who must cope with the narcissist who are more at risk of emotional distress than the sufferer themselves.
What are the symptoms of depression?
Depression shows up in many different ways. People don't always realise what's going on, because their problems seem to be physical, not mental. They tell themselves they're simply under the weather or feeling tired. Major depressive disorder, commonly referred to as "depression," can severely disrupt your life, affecting your appetite, sleep, work, and relationships. If you tick off five or more of the following symptoms, it's likely you're depressed. The symptoms that help a doctor identify depression include:
being restless and agitated If you are experiencing any or several of these symptoms, you should talk to your doctor about whether you are suffering from depression.
Elizabeth Wurtzel, American Author and Actress, in describing her depression said “I start to feel like I can’t maintain the facade any longer, that I may just start to show through. And I wish I knew what was wrong. Maybe something about how stupid my whole life is. I don’t know. Why does the rest of the world put up with the hypocrisy, the need to put a happy face on sorrow, the need to keep on keeping on?... I don’t know the answer; I know only that I can’t. I don't want any more vicissitudes, I don't want any more of this try, try again stuff. I just want out. I’ve had it. I am so tired. I am twenty and I am already exhausted.”
Anxiety
People who are depressed are often very anxious …….. TO BE CONTINUED
Continued from Part 11
Reference:
AP AFP ABC News CBS2 GlaxoSmithKline Michelle New
THE THANKS IS ALL YOURS!!!
|