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.  Studies have show that around 15 million Americans are affected by this illness each and every year.  The sad fact is that only a third of those Americans will ever seek help for their affliction.  It’s the mental illness stereotypes, things like the crazy eyed old man, that make people think twice before seeking treatment for depression.  Depression gets worse with time.  It will get worse without treatment or depression medication.  It cannot be ignored.

Many things cause depression.  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.  Depression is a very complicated disease.  The human mind is very complicated as well.  Work continues into the mind and brain and how they work, what makes them tick.  A chemical imbalance in the brain causes depression, that’s known.  We are learning more every day about how the whole process works.  The more we learn about depression the better we can treat it.

There are a variety of depression medications available to treat this illness.  Miracle treatments also exist, but many times these are empty claims.  You have to be careful to seek medications that have been clinically studied and have been proven to display positive effects in the treatment of depression.  There was a time in our history if you were afflicted by anything that was associated with mental illness you were thrown into a mental ward and lost in the system.  Fortunately that has all been changed.  It was 1988 when Prozac, an anti-depressant, first came into wide use in America.  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’.   Some herbal remedies don’t contain this ingredient in the proper strength so they don’t work.  Be careful, do your research and you will find effective medications to treat depression.