Alcohol is one teratogen that could greatly have an effect on the woman’s pregnancy. People may not be aware of its danger and still allow a woman to drink alcoholic drinks during her pregnancy, but the result of this would be carried by the baby for the rest of his or her life. Alcohol is one of the known causes of mental and physical birth defects specifically in the United States. Though, this is only a possibility, the rate is high.

There is an incident where a pregnant woman consumes alcohol, a disorder called Fetal Alcohol Syndrome would take place in the embryo. Alcohol crosses the placental barrier and can inhibit fetal growth, create distinctive facial stigmata, damage neurons and brain structures, and cause other physical, mental, or behavioral problems. The main effect of FAS is permanent central nervous system damage, especially to the brain. Developing brain cells and structures are underdeveloped by before birth alcohol exposure, often creating an array of primary cognitive and functional disabilities including poor memory, attention deficits, impulsive behavior, and poor cause-effect reasoning, as well as secondary disabilities for example, mental health problems, and drug addiction.

The signs and symptoms of a having fetal alcohol syndrome are low birth mass, small head circumference, developmental delay, organ dysfunction, facial abnormalities, including smaller eye openings, flattened cheekbones, and indistinct philtrum (an underdeveloped groove between the nose and the upper lip), epilepsy, poor management, poor socialization skills, such as difficulty building and maintaining friendships and relating to groups, lack of curiosity, learning difficulties, including poor memory, inability to understand concepts such as time and money, poor language comprehension, poor problem-solving skills, behavioral problems including hyperactivity, inability to concentrate, social withdrawal, stubbornness, impulsiveness, and anxiety.

As said earlier, damage of the central nervous system is the main feature of fetal alcohol syndrome. Central nervous system damage can be assessed in three areas such as structural, neurological, and functional deficiencies. Structural impairments may include microcephaly (small head size) of two or more standard deviations below the average, or other abnormalities in brain structure. During the first trimester of pregnancy, alcohol impedes with the migration and organization of brain cells, which can make structural deficits within the brain. During the third trimester, damage can be caused to the hippocampus, which plays a role in memory, learning, emotion, and encoding visual and auditory information, all of which can create neurological and functional CNS impairments as well.

The evaluation of neurological deficiencies will take place when structural deficiencies do not exist. Neurological problems are showed as either hard signs, such as epilepsy or other seizure disorders, or soft signs. Soft signs are broader, nonspecific neurological impairments, such as impaired fine motor skills, neurosensory hearing loss, poor gait, clumsiness, poor eye-hand coordination.

Functional impairments are assessed when structural or neurological impairments does not exist. Functional impairments are problems due to prenatal alcohol exposure (rather than hereditary causes or postnatal insults) in observable and measurable domains related to daily functioning, often referred to as developmental disabilities.

The production of birth deficiencies is not a measure on the amount of alcohol being ingested. There are differences in the processing’s of alcohol in women. Other factors differ the results, too, such as the age of the mother, the timing and regularity of the alcohol ingestion, and whether the mother has eaten any food while drinking.

Alcohol quickly goes through the placental barrier and the fetus is not at all equipped to get rid of alcohol than its mother, so the fetus tends to accept a high concentration of alcohol, which remains longer than it would in the mother’s system. That explains why the child is the one largely affected when in fact it is the mother who consumes the alcohol. This such a sad truth.

Victims of sex and love addiction has a found a way to help their illness. Sex and love addiction was born. This was founded by a former Alcoholics anonymous member. Though, he had been sober, he was unfaithful to his wife for a period of time. He founded sex and love addiction anonymous as an attempt to discontinue his compulsive sexual and romantic behavior.

“Bottom-line behaviors” are persuaded to be identified on members of the organization. The organization identifies these behaviors as “any sexual or emotional act, not regarding its initial impulse may be, which leads to loss of control over rate, frequency, or duration of its occurrence or recurrence, resulting in spiritual, mental, physical, emotional, and moral destruction of oneself and others.”

To aid their group members on the road to recovery, Sex and Love Addiction Anonymous utilizes the 12-step program and the 12 traditions. The excellent thing with the organization is that since everyone is a victim, they are empathic about each other’s experiences and feelings. Thus, they claim to understand what the other person is going through and are able to offer support through sharing and meetings. As quoted, “we found in each other what we could find nowhere else: people who knew the depth of our pain. Together we found hope and the care of a loving Higher Power. Our commitment is to help others recover from sexual addiction, just as we have been helped.”

Sex and Love Addiction Anonymous’ twelve-step program are the following:

1. We admitted we were powerless over sex and love addiction – that our lives had become unmanageable.

2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood God.

4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

5. Admitted to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.

6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.

7. Humbly asked God to remove our shortcomings.

8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all.

9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.

10. Continued to take personal inventory, and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.

11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with a Power greater than ourselves, praying only for knowledge of God’s will for us and the power to carry that out.

12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to sex and love addicts, and to practice these principles in all areas of our lives.

And here are their Twelve Traditions:

1. Our common welfare should come first; personal recovery depends upon S.L.A.A. unity.

2. For our group purpose there is but one ultimate authority — a loving God as this Power may be expressed through our group conscience. Our leaders are but trusted servants; they do not govern.

3. The only requirement for S.L.A.A. membership is the desire to stop living out a pattern of sex and love addiction. Any two or more persons gathered together for mutual aid in recovering from sex and love addiction may call themselves an S.L.A.A. group, provided that as a group they have no other affiliation.

4. Each group should be autonomous except in matters affecting other groups or S.L.A.A. as a whole.

5. Each group has but one primary purpose — to carry its message to the sex and love addict who still suffers.

6. An S.L.A.A. group or S.L.A.A. as a whole ought never to endorse, finance, or lend the S.L.A.A. name to any related facility or outside enterprise, lest problems of money, property, or prestige divert us from our primary purpose.

7. Every S.L.A.A. group ought to be fully self-supporting, declining outside contributions.

8. S.L.A.A. should remain forever nonprofessional, but our service centers may employ special workers.

9. S.L.A.A. as such ought never to be organized; but we may create service boards or committees directly responsible to those they serve.

10. S.L.A.A. has no opinion on outside issues; hence the S.L.A.A. name ought never to be drawn into public controversy.

11. Our public relations policy is based on attraction rather than promotion; we need always maintain personal anonymity at the level of press, radio, TV, film, and other public media. We need guard with special care the anonymity of all fellow S.L.A.A. members.

12. Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our traditions, ever reminding us to place principles before personalities.

Everyone has their abnormal persona. We all have that craziness within us. It is just a matter of how we deal with our differences and extremities that we are able to handle our craziness. Moreover, many ask if mental illnesses really do exist. The English-speaking world has not always used medical language to illustrate the behavior we now label as symptomatic of mental illness. Illlustrations were sometimes framed in quite different terms, such as possession. What we now call mental illness was not always treated as a medical problem. Non-English-speaking nations in the West have had changes in their linguistic usage and their treatment of the mentally ill roughly parallel to Anglophone countries. Anthropological work in non-Western cultures suggests that there are many cases of behavior that psychiatry would classify as symptomatic of mental disorder, which are not seen within their own cultures as signs of mental illness.

However, nowadays, it has been argued that mental disorders are really existing mental conditions that may have caused disruption in a person’s thinking, feeling, mood, ability to relate to others and daily functioning. Just as diabetes is a disorder of the pancreas, mental illnesses are medical conditions that often result in a diminished ability for coping with the ordinary demands of life.

Mental illness does not choose an individual to carry the burdens of the disorder. Mental illnesses are not the outcome of personal weakness, lack of character or poor upbringing. Mental illnesses are curable. Most people diagnosed with a serious mental illness can experience relief from their symptoms by actively participating in an individual treatment plan. In addition to medication treatment, psychosocial treatment such as cognitive behavioral therapy, interpersonal therapy, peer support groups and other community services can also be components of a treatment plan and that assist with recovery. The availability of transportation, diet, exercise, sleep, friends and meaningful paid or volunteer activities contribute to overall health and wellness, including mental illness recovery.

Sometimes, recovering from mental illness is quite impossible due to the stigma attached to it by the society one lives in. When the person is cured inside a medical institution, he or she is given ample treatment and is treated as if they are normal. They are given proper care and attention so as to promote recovery. However, when they go out into the real world after some time, society, upon knowing their past, would most likely mock them and treat them differently. Society would look at them as someone who still has the mental disorder and resultingly, it would make them feel worse and thus, could trigger an occurrence of the mental illness once again.

The feelings of inadequateness would cause problems for a person with mental disorder. He would think that he I not valuable to live in this world given that he could not function properly anymore. However, support from family and friends would be a great help for the patient to view life differently and positively. Thus it is the role of the family to provide the patient with love and care so as to sustain his recovery.

Life Threatening Risk: Cocaine Laced with Levamisole

** ALERT **

We always do our best to provide information and help to all of our readers from an unbiased and non judgmental standpoint. In that spirit, we want to make sure that if you or someone you care about is using Cocaine or using Crack that they be aware of the following information and they should seek professional medical help immediately.

Alcohol and other drug programs across California should be on the lookout for a dangerous substance levamisole that is showing up with increasing frequency in illicit cocaine powder and crack cocaine, most recently in San Francisco and Los Angeles.

Levamisole is a veterinary anti-parasitic drug and it severely reduces the number of white blood cells in humans leading to an acute condition called agranulocytosis that should be treated at a hospital. Ingesting cocaine mixed with levamisole suppresses immune function and the body’s ability to fight off even minor infections. People who snort, smoke, or inject crack or powder cocaine contaminated by levamisole can experience overwhelming, rapidly-developing, life threatening infections.

Agranulocytosis manifests the following symptoms:

• high fever, chills, or weakness
• swollen glands
• painful sores (mouth and anal)

infections that won’t go away or get worse very fast, including sore throat or mouth sores; skin infections; abscesses; thrush (white coating of the mouth, tongue or throat); pneumonia (fever, cough, shortness of breath)

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) began alerting medical professionals, substance abuse treatment centers, and other public health authorities in September about the risks.

Used in veterinary medicine, levamisole is currently approved for use in cattle, sheep and swine as an anti-parasitic agent. Formerly used in human medicine for treating autoimmune diseases and cancer, it is no longer approved for human use.

SAMHSA is working with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the Food and Drug Administration, the Office of National Drug Control Policy, and other federal and international organizations, as well as state agencies to monitor the levamisole issue. CDC will publish a case report analysis in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report and will work with state health departments to systematically collect information on cocaine-associated agranulocytosis cases. Information from this effort will be used to guide treatment and prevention initiatives to address the public health concern.

According to the DEA and state testing laboratories, the percentage of cocaine specimens containing levamisole has increased steadily since 2002, with levamisole now found in more than 70 percent of the illicit cocaine analyzed last July. In addition, a recent analysis in Seattle, Washington, found that almost 80 percent of individuals who test positive for cocaine also test positive for levamisole.

ADP is asking all providers to report suspected and confirmed cases of agranulocytosis associated with cocaine abuse to their local health departments. Cases can also be reported to local Poison Control Centers (1-800-222-1222), which may assist in clinical management and additional reporting. For further medical/technical information, contact Nicholas Reuter, SAMHSA Nicholas.reuter@samhsa.hhs.gov

This Cocaine Related Health Alert was sent to us to help keep you informed. The SAMHSA stands for Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). If you or a loved one need help with cocaine addiction or abuse please call the number on this site, or if you require medical attention contact a medical professional right away.

In the 1970s, cocaine was expensive and considered a “status” drug. The introduction of cheap crack increased the convenience of this substance, and crack has become the drug of choice for many drug users, especially for inner-city disadvantaged youth. This has been the beginnings of the growing crack addiction. Crack’s convenience, ease of concealment, wide availability, and low cost has increased its use. The reality that crack is smoked rather than injected has added to its popularity.

Moreover, drug addiction is not only occurring to people on the streets. It is not new to us that celebrities have their “shining moments” when it comes to substance dependence. They may look pleasant and very much happy in front of cameras, but their deepest secrets are yet to be revealed. A number of celebrities have already been into rehabilitation to fight their crack addiction, heroin, or even alcohol addiction.

Long before Lindsay Lohan and Britney Spears hogged the headlines with their wild child antics, there was Drew Barrymore. At the age of nine, Drew was already smoking cigarettes. She was an alcoholic at 11, a marijuana smoker by 12, and a cocaine addict by 13. She went to rehab twice and even attempted suicide when she was 14. Right now, that is all in the past. Her wild child days behind her, Barrymore has grown into a sober, responsible and productive woman. Aside from starring in a slew of hits, she has also become a producer, forming the production company Flower Films with friend and partner Nancy Juvonen in 1995. Her company is responsible for hits like Charlie’s Angels and 50 First Dates. Quite a turnaround for a woman with a childhood as messed up as hers.

There are actually two sides to this Oprah-Winfrey-was-a-drug-addict story. On one hand, there’s the memorable TV moment in the 90s when she tearfully told in her own talk show that she had smoked crack cocaine while in her 20s, but never said anything about dependence on the drug or anything else. On the other hand, there’s the more latest allegation made in a tell-all book by a former boyfriend that Oprah was actually a habitual cocaine user in the 80s, and was in fact under the influence during her show tapings.

Right now, we can clearly see that Oprah Winfrey has triumphed over the use of cocaine. As of September 2008, Forbes has predicted Oprah as having a fortune worth over $2.7 billion. CNN and Time Magazine dubbed her “arguably the world’s most powerful woman”. She is quite the success story, sordid drug past or not.

Anyone of all walks of life could be a victim of crack addiction. Life is tremendously unpredictable. On a certain point we are having a good laugh with friends living the good life, the next time we know, we are shaking and craving for a drug we never thought we couldn’t seem to live without. People may be aware of the effects of drugs if abused, yet they still give in to curiosity, probably, or to pressure and thus end up living miserably. However, there is always hope for every addict in this world. Life doesn’t end in addiction. Giving up is ends life.

However, sometimes, there are people who are not able to adjust to certain events in their lives and are unable to control their emotions and deal with what they are feeling. An emotional problem is not just a simple problem. An individual is not able to function well due to the disruption of its emotions. Usually, people would make use of defense mechanisms as to cover up their emotional problems. However, this would in turn cause some disruption in their daily lives. And, moreover, it could affect the people around them. Moreover, emotional problems could be caused by alcoholism or any addiction problems. When one is addicted, the person does not only become physically attached to the object of addiction, but also he or she becomes emotionally attached to the object of addiction.

Emotions Anonymous is a twelve-step organization, similar to Alcoholics Anonymous. It provides to people whose emotions are causing difficulties in their lives. Emotions such as depression, anxiety, fear, loneliness, anger, compulsion, and obsessions are the most common in which the members had to deal with. Emotions Anonymous was started on July 6, 1971. Emotions Anonymous meetings are self-supporting by voluntary contributions of its members. Emotions Anonymous is not allied with any sect, denomination, politics, organization, or institution, nor does it endorse or oppose any causes. The main objective of Emotions Anonymous is to show its members how to stay well emotionally and how to help others to become emotionally well.

This is the twelve-step program being used by Emotional Anonymous:

1. We admitted we were powerless over our emotions — that our lives had become unmanageable.

2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.

4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

5. Admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.

6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.

7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.

8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed and became willing to make amends to them all.

9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.

10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.

11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.

12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

With emotions anonymous, people in all walks of life are able to seek aid from others and may find comfort and guidance from those who have been there and had done that, or even share compassion with people are experiencing the same thing. Indeed, social support is very important and could be a cure to emotional illness.

Then, he seeks for help from hi loved ones. He looks for the aid of an expert to intoxicate him from the drug. Rehabilitation centers give help to those who have substance use problems. They provide medical help as well as psychological and social aid. However, rehabilitation may not be adequate for the full recovery of the person. The patient should be equipped with the right values and abilities in facing the real world after rehabilitation.

Groups such as alcoholics anonymous, emotions anonymous, and cocaine anonymous are fellowship groups that provide spiritual enhancement and life skills program to people who wish to receive them. Anybody who is determined to alter and turn away from such addictions or someone who merely wants to help victims recover form the darkness they were in is very welcome to join the fellowship. Here, people help each other in recovering from their problems. The fellowship believes that the best people who could understand addicts are those who have been addicts themselves. Sympathy and compassion will never be enough. Someone who has experienced any kind of addiction would really understand the feeling of an addict and thus, would be able to give the right comfort and support.

Such groups does not just rely on spiritual and medical help. They also make use of the twelve-step program. This twelve-step program was first created by the alcoholics anonymous. This consists of twelve steps on how to deal with the addiction, emphasizing acceptance, surrender, and self-awareness. The twelve step program tries to impart that there is one very potent being above us all, and that we should surrender all our weaknesses to Him and al will be well. Of course, man should do his best to become a better person and God will then do the rest.

Here is an example of the famous twelve-step program from Overeaters Anonymous:

1. We admitted we were powerless over our emotions — that our lives had become unmanageable.

2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity.

3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him.

4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.

5. Admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs.

6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character.

7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings.

8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed and became willing to make amends to them all.

9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure them or others.

10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it.

11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out.

12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message and to practice these principles in all our affairs.

With the twelve-step program, individuals who have become victims of addiction are given optimism that it is not too late – that life does not end in addiction. In fact, it even opens a new door, a new episode in our lives in which we should live meaningfully.

Takin in heroin or methadone will have no effect at all when subutex binds tightly to the opiate receptors. This drug is generally used in narcotic drug treatment programs, and prescribed in varying doses. The effects of subutex are less pronounced than those of other opiates, giving the individual the feeling of being somewhat “normal” once more. Buprenorphine is an opioid that is used to wean people off their addiction to stronger opioids such as morphine, diamorphine (heroin) and methadone. It is prescribed as a replacement for such drugs. By acting on the identical opioid receptors as other opioids, buprenorphine prevents the physical withdrawal symptoms that happen when these drugs are stopped. Physical cravings is then being stopped. Over time, the dosage of buprenorhpine is gradually reduced until it can be discontinued completely. Moreover, buprenorphine replacement therapy for opioid addiction must be used in combination with other medical, social and psychological treatment.

However, after medication, it is not an assurance that the person would become free from drug dependence. One’s body would eventually adapt to the effects of subutex and thus would probably become reliant to it. Meaning to say, the person may be free from heroin addiction but in turn, become a subutex addict. Science has found a substance that could counterfeit the effects of certain drugs such as heroin and methadone, to stop withdrawal syndrome. However, just like any other drugs, subutex still has a negative effect on the body.

Drowsiness; dizziness; weakness; constipation; headache; nausea or vomiting; slow, shallow breathing; mental changes; mood changes (depression); stomach or abdominal pain; liver problems; dark urine; yellowing eyes; skin changes; vision changes; and death due to overdose are some of the side effects of subutex. These effects could be qualified upon using subutex. Moreover, it could worsen if the drug is taken together with other substances such as alcohol.

Subutex (buprenorphine) can cause drug addiction. If the use of subutex is suddenly stopped, the individual may experience withdrawal symptoms and/or the want to decline and consume the addictive drug once more. When taken together with other drugs (antidepressants, alcohol, sleeping medicine, etc.), subutex may boost their effects and cause severe health hazards. Subutex can cause death from overdose if injected with a tranquilizer.

It’s easy access and less expensive price contribute to the increase in the number of subutex addiction cases. The fact that buprenorphine costs less than heroin and is more accessible has hastened the development of illegal markets in various countries. Buprenorphine manufactured in India, for example, is smuggled into Nepal and Sri Lanka, as well as Bangladesh, where it is used by 90 percent of the country’s intravenous drug users, according to a UN Drug and Crime report last year.

It is quite alarming to believe that no single drug is free from becoming an object of dependence. People have to be careful in taking both prescribed and non-prescribed drugs. These definite drugs could somehow be thought of as a traitor. At first they act as if they are giving you positive effects. Then later on, you become dependent to the drug and take the drug

despite the depressing it is eliciting. It’s like the devil that lured you to eat the apple from the forbidden tree and then left you when everything else went wrong.

I was startled when someone answered the phone and sounded young. At first he asked me a bunch of personal questions about what city I live in, and what school I go to, and I thought about hanging up. But I think they’re supposed to ask a certain bunch of questions so they can understand how to help. He never asked me anything that I thought they could use against me in court, so I answered all of them. Even though I made up my name and where I live, I told the truth about how I started using cocaine and for how long. I told him how my parents got divorced when I was ten, and how they’ve since remarried and started new families. I told him that I started feeling like I didn’t belong in either family, and drugs made me feel happy. Pretty soon I needed the drugs to get through a day at school. The addiction helpline guy at the other end of the phone listened patiently to every story I told, every word I said. And when I paused to hear what he had to say, there was a thoughtful silence before he answered. And he seemed to say just the right things. I really expected that when I called a marijuana addiction helpline they would have a script to follow and just rattle off advice, but it was not the case. This particular alcohol addiction helpline really made me feel like they actually want to listen to people and help them. He even made me feel so relaxed that I even ended up telling him that I had recently been molested by a family member. He sounded genuinely concerned and gave me another number to call in case I wanted to talk to a specialist in that arena. But even thought that was not his area of expertise, he said some really sound words about it.

This cocaine addiction helpline was put together very well. The guy gave me his name and spoke to me like a human being with genuine concern for my life and future. He eased tension by joking around with me and brought me to tears with words that touched my heart. I will never again think twice about calling a marijuana addiction helpline. I don’t think I will use tomorrow morning. And I think I may tell my mom and dad about my problem. We’ll see.

Depression is not just a state of mind but it is also related to physical changes in the brain. Depression is said to be caused by an imbalance of neurotransmitters that carry signals in the brain and nerves. Too much work from the stress respond system propel emotional centers of the brain into overdrive so that negative events make a disproportionate impact and hijack rational response systems. Literally, one cannot think clearly. It makes one think over and over about the difficulties and disappointments one encounter until that’s all one can focus on. The cause of depression can be both blamed to one’s environment and genes. To most, being depressed is inherited. An individual tends to be depressed even when faced with mild stress because it may be inherited. On the other hand, there are people who are not able to adjust to certain changes in their lives, like losing a loved one, or even when after getting married, get depressed. These people may not have inherited depression but still they are prone to be depressed when they are not able to pull through from their sad moments. In addition, a unenthusisastic personality characterized by a low self-esteem, and a negative outlook are at higher risk of becoming depressed. As said earlier, it is normal for people to become depressed but only for a short while. A prolonged depression could always lead to other psychological disorders.

When one is depressed, one may feel hopeless and sad. You always find displeasure in the things that you do. Others either lose or gain weight because of changes in appetite. There are those who cannot sleep at night while others would develop hypersomnia. Also, a depressed person is either restless or feels tired all the time that moving seems to be a great effort .

Gender difference is one factor in considering depression. Women are almost twice as likely to become depressed as men. Reasons could be attributed to changes in the hormones of the body like puberty, menstruation, menopause, and pregnancy. This fact might be debatable because in most cases only a small number of men seek help to cure their depression. Men usually disguise their condition with alcohol or even drug abuse. Moreover, suicide cases due to depression are higher among men than women. Elder people are also prone to becoming depressed. This can be attributed to the fact that most of them are having problems living alone with their children having their own lives already. Seeing themselves useless and unimportant may lead the elderly to feel depression.

Depression doesn’t go away on its own. You must really do something. We are lucky that in the present, treatments are therapies are easily available to teat depression. Supportive therapy assists ease the pain of depression, and tackles the feelings of hopelessness. Cognitive treatment on the other hand, adjusts the negative thinking, expectations, and negative self-evaluations that create depression and sustain it. This therapy helps the person differentiate significant from minor problems and it helps the person to build up positive life goals and a more positive self-evaluation. Behavioral therapy permits the person to try solving certain problems in a more constructive way. It helps the patient develop improved coping skills. These therapies may be combined for a better and faster recovery.

Depression is more of state of mind than of biological basis. Everyone can control their mind. We can say that our minds are very powerful that our thinking affects our judgment and outlook in life, but the individual is capable of allowing these negative thoughts to push them all aside and decide

to view the brighter side of life.