Side Effects Of Depression

Research on depression is also increasing around the world. Every day we know a little more about this disease, but a permanent cure has not yet been found. Psychologists, psychiatrists, sociologists and anthropologists evaluate it from different points of view and there is no consensus on which is the best treatment. Today, in addition to seeing how this disease affects us, we will see the side effects of depression, something that is hardly talked about.

A first way to fight depression is to inform ourselves about its causes, manifestations and effects. Science has found surprising data on the consequences of this disorder in our lives. We will tell you what some of them are right away.

Depression impairs memory

People with depression have more problems with their memory. A study developed at Brigham Young University, concluded that those who are depressed suffer a kind of clouding in memory. This is one of the main side effects of depression.

This was verified by a simple experiment. A group of people who had been diagnosed with depression and others who were healthy met. All were presented with a set of objects and asked to retain them in memory. Then they were given the image of another group of objects and asked which of them they had already seen.

Depressed people were less able to identify which objects they had already seen and which they had not. Apparently, they could not retain details and therefore were insecure when it came to remembering. It was as if they had a veil in front of their gaze and could not fully perceive reality.

There is reduction in brain size

At Yale University, some studies were made in which it was observed that many of the depressed people had also suffered a reduction in their brain volume. Another of the side effects of depression where neurons had become smaller and that caused a kind of shrinkage in the vital organ.

By having smaller neurons and less brain volume, the connection between these cells was poorer. This probably resulted in poorer and less effective intellectual activity.

To reach these results, the scientists used analysis of brain tissues in depressed people and others who did not suffer from this disease. The researchers concluded that these organic changes also affected the functioning of the brain’s prefrontal cortex; therefore, functions such as decision-making and impulse control were also affected.

Better time management

It may seem curious, but another of the side effects of depression is that depressed people achieve a more accurate perception of time than others. In an experiment carried out at the University of Hertfordshire, it was possible to detect that those who suffered from depression were able to calculate the passage of time very accurately.

To explain this phenomenon we speak of “depressive realism”, a characteristic that is present in sad people. It is a trait that induces you to perceive everything unadorned, in a crude way and without high emotional expectations. This gives a certain neutrality that allows depressed people to be very precise about the passage of time.

More and more people have these side effects of depression, because this disease is more and more present among us. Learning to prevent it by taking care of our mind and maintaining a lifestyle as healthy as possible will make us feel much better and will prevent depression from appearing one day by surprise, destroying us.