Depression or despondency - illness or sin? The sin of despondency comes from being too busy with oneself, one's own experiences, failures, and as a result - the fading of love for others, indifference to other people's suffering, inability to rejoice in other people's joys, envy is born... Archimandrite Lazar (Abashidze, 20th century) Depression, aptly nicknamed American According to specialists, “mental runny nose” is spreading in the world no less actively than a physical cold during the cold season. Currently, according to the American Psychiatric Association, in the United States alone, about 15 million people are affected by this disease every year. According to the World Health Organization, about 5% of the world's population suffers from depressive disorders. More than half of the total number of patients with mental disorders have depressive syndromes of varying severity. Millions of people around the world resort to various types of medications (tranquilizers, antidepressants) just to achieve good health and a comfortable state. There is an opinion that depression is a disease of civilization with its demands on human comfort in life. Despite the prevalence of this disease, the mechanisms of depression have not yet been discovered. Although depression has been called a disease of the 20th and now 21st centuries, this illness is by no means new. Hippocrates also described a similar mental state called “melancholy,” seeing its cause in the filling of the brain with “black bile.” In the Holy Scripture, attacks of depression are repeatedly described on the pages of the Old Testament: for example, King Saul suffered from them, and David’s playing the harp brought him relief. Many passages from the Book of Psalms indicate that the prophet and psalmist David also experienced attacks of heavy oppressive despondency. The verse of King Solomon-Ecclesiastes, telling about the vanity of vanities, is sad. Should we blame the modern information society with its style and pace of life for the spread of depression, if a resident of ancient Judea or ancient Greece was no worse familiar with depressive symptoms than our contemporary? Perhaps the cause of the disease lies in the human soul that has undergone the Fall, which has changed so little over the past few thousand years? Practicing psychologist Anatoly Malish answers the editor’s questions about despondency, its causes and ways to combat it. - What leads to despondency? First, let’s clarify, What is “Despondency”? In historical and Orthodox reference books we find the following definition of it: - Despondency (lat. acedia) - a depressed state of mind, a feeling of resentment, hopelessness and disappointment, accompanied by a general breakdown. all cheerfulness and hope, not finding consolation in anything. It is amazing how the medical term depression fully corresponds to the original interpretation of despondency. Depression is a depressed state accompanied by a constant feeling of melancholy, anxiety, apathy, an indifferent attitude to reality, a painful feeling of guilt and the inability to enjoy life, a desire for loneliness and peace, a subjective feeling of intellectual dullness and lack of will. There are mainly three types of depression (despondency) of their origin: these are caused by organic diseases, for example myocardial infarction, heart failure, hormonal disorders, injuries; Endogenous, i.e. occurring from within, determined by deep, internal processes (including biochemical). Such depression brings special suffering, since a person is not able to feel not only joy, love, interest, but also grief, anger, compassion; And finally, Psychogenic depression. It arises from subjectively intolerable experiences in connection with traumatic situations, and the emotions are so strong that they need to be suppressed (depression - suppression). Manifestationsdepression is quite varied, but mainly it is a depressed mood, slowing down of mental processes, decreased overall tone, slowness of movements, digestion and sleep disturbances. Sadness, loss of interests and deep melancholy with a desire for one’s own death, slowing of mental processes - some laziness of thinking, a feeling of stopping thoughts and inability to perform mental work, slowness of movements, slight, unnoticeable lethargy and freezing of a person for hours in one position. - Is despondency dangerous for health ?Modern medicine quite rightly considers depression (dejection) not just a prolonged bad mood, but a clearly diagnosable disease that requires the intervention of specialists and is quite treatable. All the various external manifestations of despondency are caused by internal changes in the body. A number of substances have been discovered that are produced in the body and directly affect a person’s mood. It has been established that a decrease in the concentration of these substances, disturbances in their synthesis and metabolism lead to depression (dejection). In various cases, this may be due to both physiological and psychological reasons. For example, researchers were able to isolate and study serotonin, which directly controls a person’s mood. It is the decrease in serotonin levels that leads to despondency. The action of many antidepressant drugs is to normalize the disrupted neurochemical processes of serotonin production and metabolism. But this is not very effective in neutralizing the effects of psychotraumatic factors. If the cause is not eliminated, relapses of despondency are possible, and for suspicious people, the return of psychosomatic diseases. - Dejection is called a disease of the soul. And, if this is so, then it turns out that all of humanity is spiritually sick, because there is hardly anyone who would not experience despondency? Dejection (depression) is a common condition that, indeed, knows no racial and geographical boundaries . World statistics show that depression, like cardiovascular diseases, is becoming the most common illness of our time. Millions of people suffer from this disorder. According to various researchers, more than 20% of the population of developed countries suffers from it. But with the right and timely help, despondency loses its severity, and by overcoming it, a person is able to find new meanings in life and directions for spiritual development. We are able to be reborn again and again! This is opposed by ever-increasing passivity and alienation, which are the breeding ground for Dejection (depression). - Does depression have a gender? It is well known that women suffer from depression more often than men. This fact is reliably confirmed by the results of numerous large epidemiological studies in different countries, including Russia. The incidence of depression in women is 2-3 times higher than in men. In modern medicine, female gender is one of the factors predisposing to the development of depression, since it is largely associated with hormonal changes that occur in the female body during childbearing age. The so-called reproductive (childbearing) cycle goes through a number of stages, starting with the appearance of menstruation and ending with their disappearance: the menstrual cycle, pregnancy, childbirth, premenopausal and menopausal periods. At each of these stages, significant changes occur in the composition and quantity of hormones, which are accompanied by physiological changes in all functions of the female body, including the mental sphere. Men, although less likely to become despondent, usually experience it somewhat more severely. Because instead of admitting how they really feel and seeking help or treatment, men turn to alcohol or drugs when they are depressed or upset, discouraged, angry and irritable, or, at times, abusive. others. When struggling with depression, some men force themselves into.