5 Common Myths About Depression

Well over 15 million Americans suffer from severe depression, anxiety and stress. Many people that suffer from depression, stress or anxiety have a much harder time wondering why they suffer from the disorder. It is difficult to comprehend due to the many myths about depression. These are a few of the myths about depression.

1.) Air pollution has also been used as an excuse for why individuals go into a state of depression, stress or anxiety. The notion here is that the inhaling of polluted air, with toxic and poisonous chemicals can cause depression and stress. If this could be true, that would mean that those people who live in New York City, Los Angeles, Houston and any other big city would suffer from depression, because they are the largest cities in the United States with large scale air pollution caused by buses and cars. Are they known for their high people with depression rates? No. Most likely because they don't have very many. This also would imply that those who live in small cities or rural areas don't have people who suffer from depression, anxiety or stress. This is false.

2.) Poor dieting, such as eating too may unhealthy foods or not eating enough healthy ones. Half the world's population don't get enough food at all and many great leaders and great thinkers don't eat the recommended foods. This does not mean they suffer from depressions, stress or anxiety. A lot of Americans diets consists of mainly junk food but they don't suffer from any form of stress or depression. This makes you raise another question: do those who follow the nutritional scale not suffer from depression, stress or anxiety? This whole notion of poor dieting causing depression goes out of the window because many Americans suffer from the problem regardless of whether or not their diet is healthy or not.

3.) A chemically imbalanced brain. This is a theory with no basis. This theory states that low neurotransmitters levels in the brain leads individuals to suffer from depression and anxiety. Drugs are often the method used to treat chemical imbalance. There are no tests administered to figure out which chemicals are low in the brain and which ones are just fine. Therefore drugs are prescribed with out knowing exactly what chemicals in the brain need treatment. This the method makes it impossible to tell whether the drug treatment is effective or not. Between 60-70% of those who stop taking drugs to treat their depression enter into an even deeper state of depression or anxiety. Sometimes antidepressants are ineffective because they don't treat the problem. Like mentioned earlier, chemical imbalances in the brain have not been clinically proven to cause depression, stress or anxiety, therefore leaving you to wonder why are chemical imbalances being treated.

4.) Suffering from depression, anxiety or stress is in the genes. It is partly true that if your parents suffered from depression or anxiety you will too. There has not been any links found genetically to depression, stress or anxiety, but children can learn the same behavioral models as their parents which will more than likely lead to depression, stress or anxiety.

5.) A traumatic event in your life such as a divorce, death, relocation or any other major event that would cause someone to go into depression, stress or anxiety. All people face traumatic events at some point in their life, the event is not what causes the depression, stress or anxiety, it's the way one handles the situation that does.

There you have it, the 5 most common myths about depression, stress and anxiety. These 5 myths are not the only myths used to explain why one suffers from depression, stress or anxiety, but just a few of them.