Depression is one of the most common mental illnesses. The symptoms are familiar to everyone: lack of strength and desire to act, melancholy, low self-esteem, days seem dark, and food tasteless. Depression can prevent you from living a full life no less than pain or trauma, because emotions are an important part of our lives and it is dangerous to underestimate their impact on health. Depression and physical condition Very often depression is accompanied by symptoms of somatic diseases. A large number of “foggy” complaints - fatigue, insomnia, weakness, pain in the back, chest, muscles or pain that is difficult to localize - with high reliability indicate depression, even if the patient does not talk about emotional distress. Abroad, ordinary doctors can diagnose depression. In our country, human psychological problems are not taken into account at all. Doctors provide long-term treatment: they give numerous referrals for tests and prescribe medications, but the complaints do not disappear, and their causes remain unclear. There are situations when patients are accused of taking up time, distracting from “normal people” and lying, because nothing should hurt. Thus, the local therapist avoids responsibility for the fact that he cannot help, simply because he did not understand or did not admit that the real cause of the problem is simply not in his competence. As a result, patients themselves begin to ignore the disease and give up trying to understand the reasons for their poor health. Unfortunately, when mental problems are obvious, they still usually do not turn to psychologists and psychiatrists, since they are considered charlatans. People are afraid that rumors will spread that they are “crazy” or that they will be treated in a “madhouse.” Many people think that emotions can simply change over time, and you shouldn’t pay attention to them. Finding yourself in a dead end In 1967, as a result of experiments on rats, M. Seligman discovered a phenomenon that was called “learned helplessness.” The animals were divided into two groups, both were placed in cages where they were shocked, but only one of the groups had the opportunity to end their suffering. It turned out that the group that did not have such an opportunity acquired a negative experience of helplessness. Because of this, even having the opportunity to get out of an unfavorable situation for themselves, the rats of this group still remained in the cage to receive electric shocks. It is very important to add that these animals’ immunity deteriorated and their resistance to tumors and infections decreased. Subsequently, the concept of “learned helplessness” was successfully transferred to humans. And now the onset of depression is associated with early experiences of suppressed activity. It is known that depression often occurs after severe losses. The fact is that a person has values ​​- “things” that become of great importance. Values ​​are both support and the very direction of any activity. Some values ​​are of such great importance that losing them or not being able to possess them is like death for a person. That is, a person drives himself into a dead end. As a result of experiencing a subjectively dead-end situation, there is a refusal to act and search for a way out, from activity and life itself. Low self-esteem I remember how in the 90s, men from a plant in Severodvinsk committed suicide during month-long delays in wages. They were depressed because they were unable to feed their family, and for an adult man it is important to be useful to loved ones. Depression is closely related to self-esteem. Of course, when there are no valuable things or opportunities, self-esteem drops. The person begins to feel insecure and vulnerable. If the situation does not change for a long time, all attempts to overcome difficulties fail. Self-esteem drops to such an extent that a person comes to the conclusion that his life is completely useless and has no meaning. There is a way out. Many remember how in 2005 in the Moscow metro they began to change the “no exit” signs to “no passage” . This was done for the reason that in Russian the phrase “there is no way out”.