2024-01-27 13:30:00
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The feeling of loneliness and inner emptiness can be part of depression. Symbolic photo: Paul Zinken/dpa © Red
More and more people in Germany are suffering from depression. “Many people pull themselves together in everyday life,” says senior physician Dr. Johannes Krautheim from the Vitos Clinic in Giessen.
Pour. Day by day the feeling of loneliness becomes more painful. Everyday life feels incredibly empty – and the drive to cope with it has long been lost. There is no sleep and the ability to concentrate has greatly diminished. »Especially when someone has severe depression, their condition is actually almost impossible to describe. It’s much more than sadness,” says Dr. Johannes Krautheim. To illustrate a depressive episode, the senior physician at the Vitos Clinic for Psychiatry and Psychotherapy in Giessen uses the Dementors – ghostly prison guards from the Harry Potter stories. »These dementors extract everything positive from their victims, including hope. In this situation, those affected are completely alone at the same time. “It’s a great image to help you imagine the disease,” explains the doctor.
Lack of motivation and energy
»According to the vulnerability stress model, one can basically say that patients suffering from depression have an increased level of sensitivity and vulnerability. In an acute phase, your barrel practically overflows,” reports Krautheim. According to the diagnostic code, the central symptoms included lack of drive and energy, joylessness and depression. “Many people pull themselves together in everyday life and continue to work even in severe depressive states,” explains the senior physician. An indicator of an illness is, for example, when one “notices that things that are otherwise part of normal everyday life are no longer possible. Another indication could be that people suffer from sleep disorders and can no longer get out of these disorders,” explains the doctor. This could develop into a very distressing condition.
In addition, depression is often accompanied by a feeling of hopelessness. This could be the basis for suicidal thoughts, which are common in the illness. “Depressions are now very easy to treat,” emphasizes Krautheim. The primary contact person is the family doctor, who can refer you to a specialist. “And our clinic has an emergency consultation.” Depression and anxiety have increased, especially in the past few years, which have been marked by numerous crises.
Figures on the Federal Ministry of Health’s website confirm this observation from a national and international perspective: “Almost one in three people suffers from a mental illness that requires treatment over the course of their life. Around ten percent of days absent among working people are due to mental illnesses. Depression, alcohol disorders, bipolar disorders and schizophrenia are among the most common illnesses worldwide. Especially since the last ten years, mental illnesses have made up an increasingly larger proportion of the diagnosis and treatment spectrum in Germany.
Depression is one of the most common illnesses and one of the most underestimated in terms of its severity, explains the “German Depression Aid and Suicide Prevention Foundation” on the Internet. In total, around 5.3 million people in Germany currently suffer from unipolar depression in the course of a year that requires treatment. “The suffering associated with depression is clearly documented in the fact that the vast majority of the 10,000 suicides and approximately 150,000 suicide attempts in Germany each year occur against the background of depression that has not been optimally treated,” reports the foundation.
According to the Federal Ministry’s internet publication, mental illnesses are still taboo in many places. »They cause uncertainty and fear in parts of the population. Accordingly, those affected feel stigmatized and excluded. A social climate characterized by fear and taboo when dealing with mental illnesses is an obstacle to the use of preventive potential. In this sense, prevention and health promotion are closely linked to the problem of stigmatization of mental illnesses. The Federal Ministry of Health therefore promotes public education about the nature and treatability of mental illnesses and is committed to protecting those affected from stigmatization and exclusion.
Krautheim knows that the causes of depression are also physical. »If someone has ancestors who also suffer from the disease, there is an increased risk. Or if something changes in the hormonal balance, that can be a trigger. So there are genetic and hormonal factors. And the social factor: It plays an important role whether a sick person is well embedded in a social network or not.” The feeling of loneliness is particularly closely linked to the illness depression, according to “7. Germany Barometer Depression from the German Depression Aid and Suicide Prevention Foundation.«
»Twice as many people who are currently suffering from depression as in the general population say they feel very lonely (53 percent of those suffering from depression versus 25 percent in the general population). A majority of those affected (84 percent) also describe the feeling of being “separated from the environment” when they are depressed. During a depressive phase of the illness, more than half of those affected (58 percent) report having very few social contacts (0 to 4 social contacts on an average weekday), while in the general population the figure is only half as many (26 percent),” says the Foundation.
However, this does not explain the feeling of deep loneliness in depression. People suffering from depression who had good – that is, more than four – social contacts per day were also significantly more likely to report feeling very lonely (43 percent of depression patients versus 21 percent in the general population). »Even among family or friends, many people in the depressive phase of the illness have the torturous feeling of being cut off from the environment and other people. They feel isolated as if behind a frosted glass pane and cannot feel love or connection when they are severely depressed,” explains Prof. Ulrich Hegerl, Chairman of the Board of the German Depression Aid and Suicide Prevention Foundation. The lower number of social contacts during depression is often a result of social withdrawal, which 82 percent of those affected report. The reasons given for this include lack of strength or exhaustion, a longing for peace and the feeling of being a burden to others.
Help on multiple levels
“Effective therapy for depression starts at different levels,” says Krautheim. First, treatable physical causes such as hypothyroidism would have to be ruled out and treated. Psychotherapeutic depression treatment focuses particularly on reassessing situations and perspectives and training “self-efficacy in places where the experience of helplessness is high.” Biological therapy methods such as medication and regular endurance training played just as much a role as dealing with the social situation. “We have a wide range of effective therapeutic methods for treating depression – we decide the exact composition of the therapy together with the patients based on their individual needs,” says Krautheim. If you are looking for further information, contacts or support, you will also find what you are looking for on the website http://buendnis-depression-giessen.de/hilfe-und-beratung/ of the Alliance Against Depression in Giessen. Photo: private
Chronic illnesses are not uncommon in Germany. Around 40 percent of the population is affected by this, according to the study “Health orientation and information behavior of chronically ill people” by the Health Knowledge Foundation in collaboration with the Allensbach Institute for Demoscopy. “Chronic diseases are now among the most common and economically important health problems in industrialized countries and increasingly in less affluent countries,” explains the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) on the Internet. In particular, cardiovascular diseases, cancer, chronic lung diseases, diseases of the musculoskeletal system, mental disorders and diabetes mellitus are widespread. They influenced quality of life, ability to work and mortality. “In the course of medical progress and demographic change, multiple illnesses (multimorbidity) are increasingly occurring, especially in older age,” reports the RKI. In the “Chronic Illnesses” series, the Anzeiger is currently looking at a selection of these diseases. Discussions with local doctors focus on symptoms, forms of treatment and options for prevention. This time Dr. Johannes Krautheim on depression. (olz)
Johannes Krautheim © Ed
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