This is how depression really affects our lives. Step by step

Living my age is a perfectly ordinary life, maybe even better than average, until depression came and made it pay heavy prices in every aspect of its life. And she's not the only one who paid a price for her depression. Dr. Amir Froman on the truly difficult impact of depression

"Because of depression, I'm not at all interested in spending time with the family." Woman holding her face (Photo: shutterstock)

Depressed woman (Photo: ShutterStock)

It was a rainy autumn evening and strong winds were blowing, moving the branches of the trees and tearing them off. Through the whistling of the wind, there was barely a knock on the door - hesitant, wondering if she could enter. I opened the door, where my age stood, pale, tangled with hair, how many leaves fell into it, dragged itself to the armchair and collapsed with a heavy sigh. I congratulated her. She answered with a nod. "What's wrong?", I asked.

I knew that if I didn't ask, she might remain silent throughout the session. "I'm sick of it," she said, suddenly picking up the leaves on her head, debating for a second what to do and giving up. "I'm tired of sitting in front of the computer for hours ... I've been tired of smearing this job, for three years now I've been sitting in front of the computer and to this day I've only been able to write three pages. The beauty of pages but only three. My son said, "Sometimes it seems like you don't want to spend any time with us, all the time writing your degree." And suddenly I realized he was right - I suddenly realized that because of depression, I wasn't at all. She wants to spend time with the family. Everything makes me suffer, I just want to be quietly left ... I'm tired of it. "

How do you know it's time to go mental health?

Gili (pseudonym), 31, is married and the mother of two children, turned to treatment after several rounds at a variety of other therapists. No detail in her resume could imply that suddenly, without any prior notice, she would experience a depressive attack at age 28: she was the successful child of the family, surrounded by friends throughout her high school years, served as a TA officer, and after a year of permanent service began attending university for a degree. She started as a student at a high-tech company dealing with telecommunications infrastructure. Initially, she worked as a receptionist, but her high qualities impressed all her subjects and soon became the assistant vice president of the company. When she completed her bachelor's degree, she continued to work for the company and within about three years, with the retirement of the VP, replaced her role.

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She met her husband, who was a theater director, at the university. They married and brought two children into the world. In the years since the couple decided that in light of my age's respectable salary, she would take most of her household income. Her husband worked as a freelancer for about half the job and took care of the home and raising children. The couple planned to have another child, but then "the case" happened as Gili calls it - horror became pancreatic cancer and within six months she passed away in agony.

What initially appeared to be a "normal" mourning process turned into a severe depressive state within a few months: Gili's mood was poor and every day she burst into tears because of minimal stimuli - like a story in a pet about disappearing. Throughout the day and especially in the morning, she felt exhausted and powerless. Every task, even the simplest, became impossible. She couldn't enjoy activities she had enjoyed in the past - for example, she no longer enjoyed spending time at the beach, couldn't enjoy a number or a movie and even when she tried, feeling unable to concentrate on reading multiple lines, constantly found her mind wandering.

Days and days of staring at the computer screen

The mornings became a nightmare; she forced herself out of bed in the morning, but getting ready to leave the house became impossible. Every morning, she found herself sitting in front of her makeup mirror for minutes, staring aimlessly. There were delays to work, there were days when she would arrive before noon, finding herself apologizing daily to her managers, employees and colleagues. Even when she got to work, she tried to avoid meetings because she felt unable to have a meaningful conversation or give guidance to employees. There were days when she found herself sitting alone in the office for a day, only dealing with requests and demands from her surroundings.

When she got home - the picture was similar; she could do nothing but lie in bed in front of the television. Over time, projects at work began to get stuck. It was no longer possible to hide its poor function. The boss told her he agreed to stay with the company but had to move to another part-time position, which severely damaged her salary. Gili thought that at least, she could now dedicate more time to finishing her master's degree - all she had to do was write the final paper, but could do nothing but spend days on days staring at the computer screen. After an agonizing year, Gili turned to a psychiatrist and was diagnosed with major depression (great depression, in Hebrew).

Depression does not only affect the person suffering from it

Depression is the most common psychiatric diagnosis: two in ten people will suffer during their lives in one form or another of depression, most of them from major depression, the more severe form of the disorder. Depression is a life-threatening disorder. Between 7 and 15 percent of those with major depression are shaking hands. There is no need to utter words about the serious damage to the family following the suicidal act. But beyond the suicidal fact and its consequences, the depression disorder has other prices, most of which are paid by the patient and the circles around him - the family, the community and even the workplace.

The price of depression continues for generations to come. Illustration of a depressed man with a dumbbell on his leg (Photo: shutterstock)

Antidepressant illustration (Photo: ShutterStock)

Depression leads to a decline in academic achievement, low earning capacity, unemployment and disability. For example, it has been found that teens who are depressed are 60 percent more likely to not graduate from high school, for all its significance. Pre-marital depression is one of the mental disorders that predict divorce later. When one partner is depressed, communication between the couple changes, their affections decrease and the level of marriage satisfaction decreases. The ability to function as a parent is also impaired in the case of depression - especially in the mother, but also in the father. The effects are particularly evident in toddler parents and especially among low socioeconomic mothers. This functional impairment apparently increases the risk of depression in the child, thus doubling and tripling the price of depression that continues for generations to come.

The effects of depression on the job market were examined by the American Center for Mental Health in the Workplace. The financial burden of depression on the US is found to be about $ 210 billion a year. This amount is half of the medical costs for treating the disorder, but the other half is due to the effects of depression on the organization's output. Surprisingly, only a fraction of that cost is attributed About 80 percent of the cost is due to the decline in the output of workers who continue to work while depressed, which causes a decrease in concentration and other cognitive disorders, a lack of energy and a decrease in ability to initiate, all of which have a price paid by the employee, the employer and ultimately the state.

Depression causes functional disability

Further to these findings, in a World Health Organization (WMH) survey conducted in 15 different countries, the impact of various illnesses - physical and mental, on respondents' functional disability was examined. Major depression was the disorder that caused the highest functional disability - even when compared to diseases such as cancer, heart disease and diabetes.

Depression has been linked in many studies to behaviors that impair physical health: smoking, alcohol use, obesity and non-medication for other diseases. These are probably the factors mediating the relationship between the onset of depressive disorder and the onset of later physical illnesses: heart disease, stroke, diabetes and certain cancers.

In summary, as you can see in my age, depression is not "just" depression. Beyond the patient's mental suffering, the disease has extensive circuits around it. Depression is just the stone thrown to the lake and the waves are expanding to the family, community, workplace and finally to the national and world levels.

So what can be done? First, the state must allocate the resources that are worthy of such significant illness - to research, medical, nursing and rehabilitation personnel. Among other things, there is room for the National Insurance Institute to take serious consideration of the functional impairment resulting from the depression and to provide "financial crutches" to the injured. In addition, the accessibility of depression patients to mental health services must be improved with the understanding that each week that goes by without treatment increases the damage significantly. And for this reason, as there is publicity and publicity on other health issues (vaccines, smoking cessation, sexual abuse and domestic violence), the public should also invest in public awareness of the importance of early treatment for depression.

Dr. Amir Froman is a senior psychiatrist, Mental Health Center Ramat Hen, Clalit Health Services