Sahar- ul- nisa Haroon
Depression is basically a mood disorder involving disturbance in emotions. It is marked by great sadness, feeling of worthlessness and guilt, withdrawal from others and loss of sleep, appetite, sexual desires and other usual activities.
The formal DSM-IV (Diagnostic Statistical Manual) diagnosis of depression requires “at least two weeks either depressed mood or loss of interest and pleasure”.
There should be the presence of the four important symptoms in a person to be diagnosed as “depressed” such as sleep and appetite disturbance, loss of energy, feeling of worthlessness, suicidal thoughts and difficulty in concentrating. Aaron Beck, a famous psychologist, is of the opinion that “depressed individuals feel as they do because their thinking is biased towards negative interpretations”. So, thinking is the central theme to thrash out.
‘Vulnerable’
Childhood is a stunning period of life, but it needs to be cared or handled properly to fetch out the best developed personality of an individual. It seems that here I am a Freudian. But, nonetheless true that this beautiful stage of life needs ‘attention’ to live the rest of life ‘tension-free’. It is the childhood in which we form our “schemas”.
Schema is the tendency to see the world positively or negatively. Acquisition of these schemas affects the personality of an individual. A child is a plain slate; it is the environment and heredity which paint this slate with different colors. So what is the best color for children is the decision mostly taken by parent or guardian and I guess every parent wants to paint this picture beautifully, with the best colors.
All that you need to do is to help your children to form positive schemas so that it can help them to avoid depression. We should enhance positivity in the environment of a child so that the development can take place in proper way.
‘Positivity”
A depressed person has very less satisfying social contacts due to low self esteem, and positivity can help him to expand his social world. Depression is also the root cause of various anti-social activities which enhance the negativity in the society on the larger pace. The negativity of an individual engulfs the whole society in negativity. The positive interactions can aggravate the positive self-image and sense of worthiness among depressed persons. In psychological terms, we call it “cognitive distortions” and “attributional styles” and in layman’s language we call it ‘how an individual think and perceive his or her environment is responsible for depression’.
Home environment is a source to develop thought and cognition that can lead to depression; so positivity has to be had from the home itself. And, at home the mother is the most important source.
Positive thoughts are a prevention against depression at an early stage or we can say before its possible onset. We should not wait for depression to occur and then cure it. Try to prevent it before its occurrence. Positive thoughts help to enhance the self efficacy, resilience, adjustment and over-all well being of an individual. They help to believe in yourself and capabilities to cope up with any situation, which increase the efficacy of a person about perceived abilities and competence to given tasks.
‘Self belief’
All it needs is a belief in yourself that “you can” and this attitude comes from being positive in life. In life long journey it’s not that we will see only the golden side of life there are also some dark sides. However, the attitude of an individual towards darkness makes all the difference. Let’s have an example- two children of different mental set up were chosen and both were shown a glassof water, two children perceived it differently one perceived it as glass half filled with water and another perceived it as half empty. The child who perceived it as half filled is the one who perceives the positive side of things and other was the one who focuses on the emptiness of things.
Definitely there is the marked difference in life with these two different attitudes.
Life is the next name of struggle, not only struggle however it also an inspiration to win it; all it need is to have a positive attitude to handle it effectively. It is our inner world which beautifies and inspires us to live the outer world efficiently. Nobody has the authority of our inner adornment but it’s our self that has to work over it with positivity in thoughts. Self beauty comes from within the individual; through the process of thinking which of course should be positive. Thinking is the process by which a person interlaces his world and revolves round it and perceives the world through this lenses which can be of positivity or negativity.
So think positive and keep depression at bay!
(The author is a scholar at Aligarh Muslim University)
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