Depressive disorder and your responsibility to rightly take care of this sensible issue towards cure---Part 4

How can a depressed person be helped by others?

Both family members and the closest friends can be very helpful for redressing the problems of any depressed person. In this stage the depressed person is found to be helpless and exhausted and must be in need of others. The important point here is, people who have never had any experience before, may not understand the effects correctly.

It is also observed that somebody close to the affected person, even the nearer ones, may unintentionally cause harm to the affected person. That is why this article will give some light to the care givers, so that they can look after the affected person in a better way.

The important things to be done by the care givers for the depressed person 

The 1^st important care giving to the patient

The first and foremost service any care giver can provide is immediately referring the patient to the doctor for proper diagnosis and treatments to be started. In this stage the affected person should be encouraged to carry on with the treatments and not to nudge till the improvements are seen from the treatments. It may take several weeks to see the signs of improvements.

In case, no improvements are seen, some different treatments can be taken. The affected person needs to be accompanied to the doctor for better understanding of the problem for involved in the case. As per the need of the case, monitoring the medications of the depressed person for several months (till the affected person’s condition improves) is also an important issue. In case of any worsening of the patient’s condition, the matter should be reported to the health provider.

The 2^nd important care giving to the patient

Providing emotional support to the patient is the next important service to be given by anyone around the depressed person. In this stage a patient needs patience per excellence, understanding to the best possible parameters, affection to the core, and fullest possible encouragements. 

What you should do for your depressed loved one?

You are to engage the depressed person with your conversation and listen to him / her very carefully. Never try to ridicule the feelings of the ailing person, but must not forget to point out the realities and give maximum possible hope to the person. In case the patient is talking about suicide, never ignore about reporting it to the doctor or the therapist dealing with the case.

The other things you can do are:

Take the depressed person for outings and walks and such activities, which can change the mood of the person. In case the person refuses to go with you, never lose your cool, gently insist on it. Encourage the patient for participating in those activities which used to give pleasures before the onset of illness. The activities may be cultural or religious, sports activities, hobbies etc. But be careful that the affected person does not take anything too much and that also too soon.

Take note that a depressed person requires both company as well as diversion. But in case the person is demanding too many, the situation may lead to feelings of failures.

Cautions to be maintained:-

You must never accuse the depressed person of faking laziness or illness. Try the person not to snap anything out of any activities. With the progression of the treatment, most of the affected persons recover well. So keep it mind, and keep on assuring him / her that with the progression of time the recovery will be sure to come. Your role is very important to deal with the case. Never lose heart, just show your enthusiasms, persistence and willpower to win over the crisis moments.

What will be your source for seeking help for the depressed person?

A health professional will provide complete psychological and physical diagnostic evaluation. This will help the affected person to decide about the type of treatment suitable for him / her. In case of urgent situation, like possibility of committing suicide, the patient needs to be admitted to a hospital for initiating emergency treatments. Different types of emergency services should be availed, if a patient attempts suicide.

It will be not possible for the patient to gauge the help he or she may need. It is also possible that the patient may not be in a position to seek help during his or her helplessness because of depression.

Who can be the right help to the patient?

Always try to store all the emergency services numbers in your phone diary. Even though it is not always needed, but you must know emergency services are needed only for emergencies. The people or agencies that can be of immense help to you are:

• Your family doctor
• Mental health professionals, like psychologists, social workers, psychiatrists, mental health or pastoral nurses and other counsellors
• Organisations who maintain health
• Community based centres that look after mental health
• Psychiatry departments in the hospital and outpatient clinics
• Hospital affiliated community support groups
• Medical school or university affiliated programs
• Social or family service agencies
• Outpatient clinics in the state hospitals
• Programs that assist employees
• Facilities in private clinics
• Societies, providing psychiatric or local medical services

Future of the patients with depressions:

• Many researches are going on to fix a genetic marker for the type “bipolar disorder”. It is also optimized that “major depressions” are likely to be won over very soon. The first thing being optimized is to know about the vulnerability of a child’s depression right from his or her birth and find the preventive ways so that the problem does not prolong, as it is today. The example: - Parents can be taught about the early warning signs. This will help the parents to get their children treated at the earliest and by this way the problem can be arrested very soon.
• The new age of pharmacognetics is very much optimistic of preserving the depression generating genes, which can be turned off. If it is successful, the problem can be completely avoided.
• The purpose of studying the genes in an in-depth way will help the patients to be matched with the available treatments. By this way the treatment’s responses to the drugs or in other words, drug’s effectiveness to the treatment can be rightly ascertained. This is helpful to know about the relation between the psychotherapy regimens and the drugs.
• More researches are going on to investigate about the neurochemicals and their interactions, which are connected to the chemical messengers in the brain & their impacts on the depressive illness.
• Besides these, neurochemicals of latest versions like substance P and neuropeptides are being rigorously studied for some newer discoveries.
• If researches are successful, new drugs, without any side effects, will be developed by exploring more effective ways of treating the depression & its related problems.
• Maternal stress related factors that might be the causes of in-born depressive disorders, are also being investigated very keenly. If the research is successful, development of fetus can be without any womb-defects related problems that are so far believed to come up in many cases in their adulthoods.
• Many more information is being discerned for effectively knowing about the depressive disorders’ treatments which will not only be available but also acceptable to the concerned persons.
• Patients like minorities, individuals, children and adolescents, who live in rural areas or are economically disadvantaged will get maximum help from these new researches. These people are more vulnerable because they cannot get the access to the available treatments due to their respective problems.

To be optimistic in this matter, it is very much obvious that sadness may be inseparable from human life but lessening and eradicating this type of serious problem are sure to emerge very soon.