ABOUT DEPRESSION
U.S. Adults are Depressed
People Worldwide are Depressed
U.S. Depressed People Commit Suicide each Year
What is depression?
AN OVERVIEW OF DEPRESSION—Before learning more about TMS, I want to illustrate the severity of clinical depression in the United States. 1 in 4 women (and 1 in 8 men) will experience an episode of major depression during their lifetime.
Let’s put it in perspective. This means if you were to see 4 random women in a day, hypothetically, one of them will suffer from an episode of Depression in their lifetime.
Depression is a lot more widespread than we think. Many people suffering from depression live with it for YEARS. Many never find a cure.
Some of the reasons: they don’t recognize they are depressed so never seek treatment. Others DO recognize they are depressed, they seek treatment, but are undertreated or misdiagnosed (maybe with an anxiety disorder) by their doctor. Some people are too apprehensive about seeking help.
At any one time, 7% of US adults (16 million people!) are battling depression. This next statistic is staggering. If you have depression, you have a 30% chance of attempting suicide. Each year in the US, depression will cause 25,000 COMPLETED suicides. Suicide is in the top ten leading causes of death in the US.
CAUSES OF DEPRESSION
The frequency of depression can vary greatly from individual to individual—it may only be a one-time episode, or happen as repeating episodes, or it may be a chronic, never-ending episode of depression.
There are four categorical causes of depression:
First, you may have inherited a genetic predisposition for depression where it occurs in places of your family tree, like your parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles, and/or siblings
Second, depression could be triggered by very high levels of stress in your environment, such as being laid off and your finances are in ruin
Third, you may have maladaptive coping skills where you habitually make bad decisions, such as choosing romances which make your life miserable
Fourth, medical problems may cause depression, such as thyroid disease causing a “hormonal” depression, or the stress of chronic daily pain from a back injury causing disability and therefore depression.
If you have any questions
Please don’t hesitate to call us. My office staff & myself want to see our patients get healthy. That has been my goal since day one in this space.
I am very happy that there is finally an alternative to standard drug-therapy. I’m happy that I can finally recommend something to those who can’t stand the side-effects and/or for those that aren’t getting better with standard drug therapy.
We want to be a stepping stone in your journey to getting your life back from depression.
