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Hello - I'm Doctor Chris Fordyce, Group Health's Medical Director for Healthy Aging.
Today I want to talk about depression, a problem that I see in my office nearly every day.
Unfortunately, a major disabling depression will affect one in ten of us in our lifetime.
And for those of us who do develop depression, the recurrence rate is at least 50%.
The most common symptoms of depression are feeling sad, feeling blue, feeling little pleasure
in doing usual activities, not having any energy, feeling like we're worthless or at least
have much lower self-esteem than we had at other points in our lives.
Depression is truly a chemical imbalance in our brain,
and all of us, if we are under enough stress for a long enough period of time,
will deplete those chemicals that allow us
to once again feel well, and to become chemically - as we call it - depressed.
There are three primary areas of treatment:
The first is what can we ourselves do to help us
re-integrate or re-activate our well-being center.
The second is counseling, which may help us deal with
the stressors that got us into the depression in the first place.
And finally, medications can be a life saver for many people with depression.
The good news is that depression is very treatable.
Partner with your doctor. Make a plan for yourself.