The Unfortunate Events of this Game Called Life

The Unfortunate Events of This Game Called Life

In what ways does depression affect people’s daily lives? Depression can impact every area of your life, including but not limited to how you sleep and eat, your education and career, your relationships, and health. Social media can also be a big factor of a teen’s mental health today. Individuals suffering from depression often develop addiction, such as alcohol and drug abuse or other addictions. Depression doesn’t just occur for an individual but it can affect your friends, family, co-workers, and everyone around you.

In addition, depression may impact how you perform at work or your levels of concentration, and can negatively affect productivity.

Social media has dramatically changed the way we communicate, socialize, and make and maintain friendships. While there are benefits to living in a digital world, there are also some risks that come along with it. Today, adolscents miss out on critical social skills development when they spend the majority of their free time connected to and interacting through a screen. Teens spend so much time managing connections online that they aren’t dedicating enough time trying to maintain personal relationships. Because of the abusive use of technology, it has impacted the development of other important social skills, such as: empathy, leadership and communication skills. Communication is now slowly going away to a point where teenagers have trouble even having face to face conversations because of the fact everything is always done through a text message or social media.

Also, this is why young adults tend to get social anxiety. Because we live in a digital era where we tend to isolate ourselves which can become neglectful. This matter is often overlooked and hard to confront. The rise in depression is evidence social media users have become more socially isolated, lower self-esteem, and more depressed. A 2012 study found that the more time young adults usesocialmedia, the more they are likely to be depressed or have depression in the future. The way social media can affect mental health is social comparisons with other people on the internet. Especially girls, experience pressure to appear perfect online. The need to appear to have the perfect hair, to look skinny, to have the perfect group of friends, or the need to get a lot of likes has consumed teens. Loneliness can also occur when friends on social media seem more popular and attractive which is why triggers depressive feelings. Comparing our lives with othersis mentally unhealthy.

A Croatian study (Pantic et al., 2012) found that time spent on Facebook by high school students was positively correlated with depression. These findings were mirrored by Rosen et al. (2013), who found that participants who spent more time online and those who performed more Facebook image management evidenced more clinical symptoms of major depression. A study of American university students found that more intense Facebook use predicted increased loneliness (Lou et al., 2012).

Also, according to Kalpidou et al. (2011), college students who reported having higher numbers of Facebook friends experienced lower emotional adjustment to college life. Further, the same study found that college students who spent more time on Facebook reported having lower self-esteem than those who spent less time. In conclusion, it is in everyone’s best interest to take a moment to disconnect from the virtual reality and get in touch with the world. We’re losing social skills, the human interaction skills, how to read a person’s mood, to read their body language… too much exclusive use of electronic information dehumanizes what is a very, very important part of community life and living together. Vincent Nichols.

Depression can be an obstacle to every aspect of a person’s life, especially one’s academic performance and work life in different ways. People who struggle with depression have a hard time managing work responsibilities, and also making it harder to be fond of their job. Difficulties with concentration, and decision-making make it harder. When an employee is depressed, it can affect not only the employee’s capacity to be productive and their happiness, but the mood of others and their capacity to get things done as well. Lack of motivation and energy can often deprive a person from completing the work. These issues often begin with instances like being late for work or follow a pattern of being absent due to sickness. People that are depressed also tend to hop from job to job because it is hard for them to stay in one workplace for a long time.

Managing work responsibilities with people with depression is difficult and even more for college students. Hass, and Rowland conducted a study in 2005 to determine the relationship between depression and academic performance. In this study, there were two groups: the students with depression and the control group had no diagnosis of depression, and no report of at least three symptoms of depression. While the students with depression were diagnosed at the on-campus Health Centre. For the purpose of this study, academic performance was measured by a student’s GPA. Students completed a survey that asked them about their employment status, and whether their mental health impacted their ability to attend class, study, and complete assignments. The results of this study showed that a diagnosis of depression was associated with a lower GPA of 0.49. Results has shown that depressed students reported missing more class, tests and assignments compared to the control group. They also dropped more courses and missed more social events.

Depression has a major effect on physical health. While it affects people emotionally and mentally, it also has physical effects. It changes how yourbrainfunctions and can also have a big effect on your body. It contributes to a variety of physical problems that affect everything from yourheart to your immune system. Many of the physical changes caused by depression, such asinsomnia, weaken the immune system. All the changes of the body can lead to a vicious cycle that’s tough to break without treatment. It can also lead to over eating or appetite loss depending on the person. Using food to cope with depression is very common and often leads to obesity illnesses and eating disorders. irregular eating patterns can lead to physical issues in the digestive system including stomachaches, cramps, and constipation.Aside from affecting your mood, thought processes, sleep schedule and digestive system, depression also impacts one of your most important organ, your heart.

When a person is depressed, stress hormones surge through the body, causing the heart rate to quicken and blood vessels to tighten. This puts your body into a prolonged state of emergency, which can eventually lead to severe chest pain, heart attack or stroke.
From personal experience, my first year of college was full of rollercoasters. Students find that they have more freedom than in the previous years of high school, but they also find that their friends and family are no longer with them to help with decision-making and problem solving.While college is a time for learning, for new experiences and self-discovery for students, it can also be a time for anxiety, stress and depression. I was having a hard time in school, I couldn’t concentrate, I was always tired, and trying to balance school and everything else in my life was very difficult.

During this time of my academic studies, I lost my grandmother. My grandma had been diagnosed with cancer. It happened so suddenly, all I could feel is shocked, angry, and sad all together. My grandmother had lived with me and my family my entire life. Although, we didn’t always get along, I never felt so loved and cared for. There was always food on the table ready for me, and always there when I needed something. She was influential, and taught me to never give up on whatever I wanted to get from life.

To work hard and have faith in everything. She had been sick in the hospital for a month, and one night I was sitting around in my room and got a weird gut feeling. My mom had walked into the house to get some blankets to take to the hospital and she had asked me if I was going to the hospital I had told her no. The whole time my grandmother had been in the hospital I didn’t visit her once, just because I know it would have hurt me to see her suffering.

That night though, something told me I had to go see her. 2 a.m. came around and I will never forget seeing my grandma for the last time with no life in her, lying in bed, cold no longer breathing. I was given some time to say goodbye, but it never felt long enough. I no longer wanted to do anything. I had no motivation for school, work, or to even socialize with the people around me. My days consisted of sleeping all day, and being up all night. My mind was everywhere, but as time passed by I realized that my grandma wouldn’t have wanted me to be living this way. I had come to the conclusion that she had lived her life already, and It was time for me to keep living mine. That was the moment I stopped suffering and I started living my life like I was supposed to. I knew that the only thing she would have asked of me, was to live life to the fullest and continue to achieve all the goals I desired. The only person that was going to put myself back onto my two feet was me.

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