Depression may be a mood disorder characterize by persistent feelings of sadness, hopelessness, and a loss of interest in previously enjoyed activities. For a diagnosis of major clinical depression (MDD), the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) of Mental Disorders (DSM-5; American Psychiatric Association, 2013) requires the presence of depressed mood or a loss of interest or pleasure in daily activities for quite a fortnight . The depressed mood must represent a change from the individual's baseline, leading to impaired functioning. The presence of 5 (minimum) out of nine specific symptoms is additionally required, nearly a day. Recent global prevalence estimates indicate that approximately 98.7 million people worldwide are suffering from depression. Lifetime prevalence estimates for depression vary from 8-12% of the adult population, with 12- month prevalence estimates ranging between 3% and 6%. Epidemiological research using data from six European countries also indicates the greater prevalence of depression amongst women (8.75%) than men (5.01%), with marked gender differences for MDD persisting across all age groups .
How can we make recovery from depression?
• Women’s experiences of depression are found to be related to continual interactions between the ‘self’ and ‘other/s’. When these interactions occur within the context of societal gender expectations that ladies would engage in self-sacrificing and self-silencing behaviors, depression developed. Recovery from depression is facilitated by women rebalancing their focus of care faraway from others and onto themselves, by getting to their own needs as against the requirements of others. Intimate relationships, increasing their self-agency, and the skill to interact in self-care practices help to recover the depressive psychological state.
• Societal gender expectations are related to ‘normalized recovery’, whereby recovery from depression would return women to “productive roles reception and work”. Women’s perceptions of recovery are found to contrast with societal perceptions of recovery as an easy process, whereby symptoms are reduced through medication and ‘normal’ functioning resumes. Women’s ability to interact in self-care practices and recovery from depression, emphasizing the role of self-agency and skill to require control of one’s life. Recovery is also found to be a “complex process that involved translating emotions, multiple meanings, and gender expectations about oneself as a lady at mid-life”. By redefining recovery beyond normalized, biomedical definitions, women are ready to develop knowledge about themselves and identify self-care activities that help shift their self-perception from ‘deficient’ to caring for themselves and meeting one’s own emotional needs. Perceptions of recovery should shift from deficit models to viewing recovery as a social practice, whereby women realize opportunities to embody different ‘beings and doings’ through self-care.
• Men’s perspectives of recovery of self is identified as central to recovery. However, men placed importance on reconstructing a valued sense of themselves and their own masculinity that embraced socially constructed gender identities. Men’s recovery from depression is facilitated through the incorporation of values related to hegemonic masculinity (those emphasizing control, strength, and responsibility to others) into rich narratives. However, the pressures of conforming to gender expectations are related to suicidal behavior during a minority, who perceive suicide as either courageous or the last word means of building control, according to gender expectations
• Associations between social support and therefore the outcome of major depression. These are found that size of social networks and subjective social support are the foremost significant predictors of depressive symptoms at follow-up, except for depression scores at baseline. Improper expectations of social support have typically predicted higher depression levels. Impaired subjective social support is strongly related to major depression, with stronger effects found for men quite women, and middle-aged adults quite older adults.
• Recovery is also related with health beliefs, non-depressive psychopathology, and higher levels of baseline functioning, clinical severity at baseline, medication, and treatment adequacy. Whilst patients prioritize restoration of positive affect in recovery from depression, physicians are found to prioritize alleviation of symptoms, and enhancements in functioning and quality of life. Furthermore, patients describe assessing recovery from depression on the idea of observation and human interaction, as against more traditional symptom-based definitions of recovery.
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