BUJUMBURA, March 11th (ABP) – Depression is one of the mental illnesses classified as mood disorders (feelings of sadness and emptiness, irritability, disgust, etc.), which are linked to psychological or mood states.
It is also influenced by hormones and the emotions circulating in the psyche, according to consultant and psychologist Christophe Armel Arakaza Ndoruwanka.
According to him, this illness manifests itself through a decrease in joy and a sense of well-being, characterized by a loss of positive self-image, self-deprecation, or a negative view of oneself. A person suffering from depression may feel unimportant in society, and question all their qualities and skills, he said.
Mr. Arakaza Ndoruwanka noted that a depressed person displays a negative perception of their future, a negative perception of the world around them (friends, loved ones, even the people most helpful to them, etc.).
Other signs, according to him, are isolation and simply locking themselves in their room. They don’t have the same skills as before, they have nightmares until they can’t rest, he continued to say. They have a mood of discontent, which can lead to suicidal thoughts, he pointed out.
He specified that this illness is much more common in women than in men because women are less resilient in the face of traumatic situations, confirmed psychologist Ndoruwanka. He added that a 2019 study on mental health in Burundi showed that 4.6% of the Burundian population that participated in the survey, which consisted of 3,000 households, acknowledged that they displayed signs of depression. These studies show that this illness appears much more often during adolescence because, he pointed out, adolescents may have already experienced depressive episodes during childhood (childhood depression) that may not have been recognized or detected during childhood and which tend to manifest in adolescence in the form of disturbances. Young adolescents need to be understood in society and listened to in order to feel better, he indicated.
Psychologist Arakaza explained that depression can be triggered by traumatic events, including rape, the loss of a loved one, joblessness, financial inadequacy, domestic violence, the presence of a chronic illness, a disability, alcohol or tobacco addiction, or addiction to other substances used to soothe anxiety, etc.
To properly treat this illness, he revealed that psychological care is required to properly determine the causes of the illness, as they are specific to each case. It is also necessary to seek the help of a psychiatric doctor to prescribe medications that will regulate mood, but also to address the causes so that once the person has improved, they cannot fall back into the same situation as before.
It is also essential to work with the community to fully understand the origin. He did not fail to point out that depression can cause other illnesses if it is not treated properly in time, such as bipolar disorders and anxiety disorders, which are characterized by chronic fatigue and remarkable thinness.