Just because you feel sad and depressed for a few days does not mean that you have depression.  Depression can last for years, it’s a serious illness.  Each year about 15 million Americans suffer from this illness.  The sad fact is that only a third of those Americans will ever seek help for their affliction.  All too often people avoid recognizing or admitting that they suffer from depression because of the negative archetypes associated with mental illnesses.  Depression is a progressive illness.  It will get worse without treatment or depression medication.  Ignorance in this case isn’t bliss. 

Depression is caused by a variety of factors.  It can by biological, genetic, physical and emotional.  It can be given birth by the very environment that the victim lives in.  It can be caused by stress brought on by even more detrimental factors.  Complicated diseases like depression aren’t easy to crack.  The human mind is very complicated as well.  Work continues into the mind and brain and how they work, what makes them tick.  We know that depression is caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain.  More about the way this process works is learned each day.  The phrase is “learning is half the battle” and with depression knowledge is power.

There are a variety of depression medications available to treat this illness.  Quick fix schemes exist too, but they don’t work.  Make sure the treatment has been studied and scientifically proven to address depression.  At one time asylums and mental institutions were filled to the brim with mentally ill people.  Fortunately that has all been changed.  In 1988 the anti-depressant ‘Prozac’ first hit the market in the United States.  It has bee proven effective and is still in use today although it does come with side effects.

Since then a new class of anti-depressants has become popular as well.  The SSRI or (Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors) like Paxil, Zoloft, Lexapro, Celexa, and Luvox are all being used to treat depression today.  These work even though they too show some side effects.  There are also numerous natural herbal depression medications available on the market.  The majority of these that have been proven to work as well as the anti-depressants contain the St. John Wort extract ingredient called ‘hyperforin’.   If this ingredient is used in the proper strength it is effective.  Be careful, do your research and you will find effective depression medications.