Despite mental problems, including depression, becoming more and more normalized as conversational subjects, many people are still embarrassed about the fact that they suffer or have suffered from depression. It can even be so that you feel like you need to start making up excuses after a while because you are absent for a long time, people think you act weird... Anything to avoid having to admit that you have the 'taboo illness which is in your head'. Another phenomenon which often occurs in depression, is the prevalence of depression in the family of the person who suffers from depression. Is this coincidence? Can this be purely chalked up to our genes? And why does it remain difficult for many families to discuss the subject while several members of that same family suffer from this illness?

Nurture vs Nature in the development of depression

For a long time, many problems were considered to either be caused by genes or surrounding factors. Recent theories however combine both ideas and say that these two factors cooperate in the development of mental issues; depression can thus partially be blamed on genes, but also on environmental factors such as the occurrence of major events, a difficult youth, a divorce... We can thus not easily separate the two from one another. It can be so that people suffer from a depression after a major event in their lives and that there are no genes at play here. It can also be so that young children are already depressed, without anything specific or major happening which the depression can be blamed on. In this last case, the component nature, which considers genes and biology, will have more of an influence than nurture. Only one of the two factors is required for a depression to develop. However, in most cases we see that the two factors together have led to the development of a depression.

Treating all components of depression!

Several articles describe different treatments for depression. These types of treatment can differ depending on the influence of the two factors described above. What all these treatments have in common, is the use of therapeutic techniques to increase the life quality. 15 Minutes 4 me is an online self-help program which was developed by doctors and psychologists. It guides you on a daily basis in the treatment of your depression and its symptoms by working on:

  • Unhealthy habits. The program teaches you to recognize these habits and replaces these habits furthermore gradually with healthy habits
  • Increasing your psychological threshold, so that depression has less of a chance in the future.
  • Prevention: The program works together with you on recognizing symptoms of depression as well as possibly ways to deal with these symptoms, so that you are ready in case they play up in the future.

Depression test? Test your depression here!

Would you like to know whether you suffer from symptoms of depression? Would you like to know to what extent depression affects your daily functioning? Then take the free online depression test here!