Depression is a word that is increasingly being used, but depression is as old as the human race. The earliest episode describing depression can be found in the Bible. True, at that time there was neither the word “depression” nor the word “melancholy”, but there was a story telling about the first king of the Jews, Saul, who lived in the 11th century. BC. This biblical story clearly describes the typical signs of depression - gloomy, depressed mood, aggression, fear, guilt. He was an angry and gloomy boy, mired in despair. As time went on, Saul experienced more and more frequent episodes of gloomy moods, and brighter periods occurred less and less often. The servants told Saul that he would feel better if he heard the lute play. They find David, “who knows how to play, a brave and warlike man, and intelligent in speech and prominent in himself.” “Saul becomes happier and better during David’s game, and soon “the evil spirit departs from him.” In fact, Saul can be called the first music therapist, since he treated depression with the help of music. The term depression itself (from the Latin depressio - suppression) appeared relatively recently - the 19th century, and became widespread only in the 20-30s of the 20th century. For more than two thousand years, depression has been called melancholy. When people say they are depressed, it can mean anything: - “I don’t like my job, it makes me depressed”; - “I have several depressions.” once a week”; - “My husband didn’t buy me the phone he promised, the latest model, I’m depressed”; - “Noisy companies help me a lot with depression.” And so on. But depression is when neither the phone, nor the company, nor work helps, because you don’t want the most important thing - to live. This is a bottomless sadness, an inexplicable pain that sometimes consumes us - and often for a long time - causing us to lose the taste for communication, action, the taste for life itself. In depression, the meaninglessness of existence seems obvious, deafening and inevitable. A love or professional failure, some kind of grief and sadness, betrayal, a fatal illness, an accident - all this sometimes turns out to be a trigger of despair and suddenly tears us away from the category that seems normal to us . The list of misfortunes oppressing us day after day is endless. Life becomes like a lifeless existence, sometimes colorless and empty. According to the World Health Organization, 6% of the population suffers from depression. Today, in the United States, depression is the second “most popular” reason for giving sick leave; in Sweden it is the first. At the same time, 50% of those suffering from depression do not seek medical or psychological help at all. Already in the first year of life, some children can notice signs of emotional disorders, which before schooling turn into serious mental problems, depression and anxiety. Parents need to pay attention to the behavior of young children, since undetected mental health disorders lead to difficulties in learning and communicating with peers at school. In 2-3% of humanity, depression does not depend on external circumstances (stress, prolonged or severe experiences) - this is the so-called endogenous depression, and for others it occurs mainly as a reaction to stress, any life shocks - psychogenic depression. According to research results, those who work in the field of caring for the sick and elderly, nannies caring for small children most often suffer from depression children, catering workers, doctors. Also, the risk of depression among single and divorced people is 2-4 times higher than among married people. Unhappily married women and mothers of small children are very vulnerable. Generalized portrait of a patient with depression: Mostly a woman; She (he) is about forty years old; She (he) lost her mother before the age of 11; She recently had childbirth; In the family had mental illness, possibly associated with changes in mood; She (he) was divorced; During life there were suicidal thoughts, threats,.4321