Causes of Depression

The causes of depression are not always clear and can't be generalized. There are a series of factors that can play a role on the evolution of depression in your life. By better determining and understanding them, you will gain a lot of steps toward your goal of becoming free of depression.

External Causes of Depression

Depression is often associated at a stage in life where you feel disappointed, or you have a sense of loss, like a death of a loved one. Of course, there is common sadness but the difference with depression is that this illness stays for a long time. Usually these feelings of sadness fade away as we learn how to manage them, but in depression, that is not the case.

What is thought now is that there a re a lot of factors that interrelate to create the depressive state. They work one with another, and include also internal causes such chemical imbalance.

Chemical Imbalance as a Cause of Depression

People who have depression often have lower levels of serotonin, norepinephrine and dopamine, three neurotransmitters. Neurotransmitters are involved in the regulation of the brain including mood and emotions.

This imbalance theory tries to link those deficiencies to depression, however this link is still not well understood. For example it is unknown if the depression causes the imbalance, or if it is the imbalance that causes the depression.

Medical Causes of Depression

There are some medical conditions that can lead to depression and depression itself can be a symptom of a medical condition such as hypothyroidism.

Among the illnesses that lead to depression we have:

• Parkinson's Disease

• Multiple Sclerosis

• Alzheimer

Also, there are medications (used to cure other conditions) that can produce depression as a side effect. These medications include: sleeping pills, appetite suppressants, antipsychotic drugs, hormone replacement, birth control pills, corticosteroids, antihistamines, blood pressure medications, muscle relaxants, chemotherapy drugs among others.