Recognize, Understand & Manage Depression with Dr. Marsha Brown | DB Speaker Series

 

Deconstructing Sadness: Must-Have Tools to Recognize, Understand, and Manage Depression

DifferentBrains.org is excited to present Clinical Psychologist Dr. Marsha Brown’s webinar “Deconstructing Sadness: Must-Have Tools to Recognize, Understand, and Manage Depression

Dr. Marsha D. Brown is a Licensed Psychologist with extensive experience in the assessment, evaluation, diagnosis, and treatment of individuals of all ages. She is regularly sought out by professional and media organizations for her expertise in mental health, stress management, and self-care. Dr. Brown’s independent practice specializes in helping individuals and companies in the legal, mental health, and law enforcement fields to improve performance and quality of life through better stress management, boundary setting, and overall balance. Dr. Brown is also the host of the new podcast, The Self-Care Chronicle. In each episode, Dr. Brown chats with a different mental health professional about their own stress management and self-care. Visit drmarshabrown.com for more.


TRANSCRIPTION   


 

Emily Buckley

Hello everyone and good evening and welcome to the first ever Different Brains webinar. I am very excited as today we have a very special guest with some awesome information to share. But before we get into I would like to give you a little bit of background about different brains and myself. My name is Emily Buckley and I’ve been a different brains intern for almost two years. I recently graduated from Florida State University on a pre medical track and received my bachelor’s degree in psychology with a minor in biology. I’ve developed a love for different brains because of the amazing work we do to educate and bring awareness to society for neurodiversity.

 

Different Brains is a nonprofit organization that strives to encourage understanding and acceptance of individuals who have variation in brain function and social behaviors, known as neurodiversity. Our mission has three pillars, one to mentor neurodiverse adults in maximizing their potential for employment and independence, to to increase awareness of neurodiversity by producing interactive media, and three to foster the next generation of neurodivergent self advocates. Here in different brains, we promote awareness through the production of a variety of neuro diverse media content, including our multiple web series, blogs, podcasts, movies, and documentaries, all available for free at different brains.org. We also feature a mentorship program through which we aid individuals in taking the first step towards achieving their goals, finding their voice, expanding their social skills, and understanding of the professional world. To find more information on different brains, our content or our mentorship program, please visit our website at different brains.org

 

But for now, the reason we are all here today, we are so honored to have this guest with us. Dr. Marsha D. Brown is a Florida licensed psychologist with specializations in forensic and clinical psychology. She has extensive experience in the assessment, evaluation, diagnosis and treatment of children, adolescents, adults and families across a variety of settings. forensically she conducts psychological evaluations and Family Court. She is also hosting a podcast being launched on November 24, called the self care Chronicle, which is available on Apple, Spotify, Google and Stitcher. After the lecture, Dr. Brown will be answering any questions you may have. So feel free to submit your questions throughout the webinar through the q&a option at the bottom of the screen, which will be monitored by different brains intern Sarai Welch. So now, without further ado, Dr. Marsha Brown.

 

Marsha Brown

Thank you so much. Hi, thank you, everyone, for joining us today. And thank you Different Brains for having me. I’m going to go ahead and share my screen with everybody. Okay. So as you know, today, we’re going to be talking a little bit about deconstructing sadness. And we’re going to talk a little bit about depression. So we’re going to talk about what depression is, we’re going to talk about some tools to recognize it, to understand it and to manage it. So let’s go ahead and get right into it. So in terms of what we’re going to talk a little bit about today, we have about 30 ish minutes, and then we’re going to leave some time for questions at the end, we’re going to talk about what depression even is, because before we talk about something, we want to make sure that everybody is on the same page in terms of what we’re looking for. And what we’re looking at. We’re then going to talk a little bit about COVID-19 and depression, we’re going to go over some myths about depression that you may or may not have heard. And then we’re going to talk a little bit about what to do if you or a loved one has symptoms of depression, what do you do, and then we’ll talk a little bit about when it’s time to get help. I do want to mention, again, we have about 30 minutes today. So this isn’t meant to be an in depth or comprehensive talk on depression. It’s just really meant to give a basic overview and a basic understanding of depression and how to spot it and what to do if you encounter it.

 

Okay. So first, when we talk about depression, you know, a lot of people have their own idea of what depression is, what that means to them. And, really, when we’re looking at it in terms of, for example, for a psychologist, we’re really looking at is depression is a mental illness, it’s considered a mental illness. It’s a mood disorder under mental illnesses. And as you probably may have pictured in your mind, in terms of what depression is, it involves sadness, okay, but it’s not just sort of down in the dump sadness, because we all get sad sometimes, right? It’s normal. It’s a normal part of life. Sometimes we’re sad. Sometimes we’re feeling a little bit down in the dumps. But really what it becomes constant want to become something that you just can’t sort of get out of when that becomes for an extended period of time. And when it interferes with your life, then that’s when we’re looking more towards somebody that we would say is depressed, it’s when the sadness just won’t go away, and you can’t really shake it off. Okay. So that’s what we’re talking about here when we’re talking about depression. All right. So let’s talk a little bit about symptoms of depression.

 

Common symptoms are really just being in a place where you’re not really enjoying the same as that you used to. So if there are certain interests that you used to have, and you’re no longer enjoying them, or they’re kind of boring to you, or you’re just not really interested in doing them or exerting the effort to do them, that could be assigned, having major changes in weight, and or appetite. So if you, if a person gains a lot of weight, technically, it’s over 5% of body weight, change a 5% of body weight. So that’s either losing weight, or gaining weight, because for some people, when they’re depressed, they don’t really like to eat free, doesn’t quite taste right to them. And they just don’t, you know, want to eat anything. Other people when they are feeling depressed, they just eat and eat and eat and eat. And so those changes in appetite during depression, can lead to significant weight loss or weight gain, depending on which way it swings for some people. Something else to keep in mind is that for people who suffer from depression, when they have multiple episodes of depression over time, these symptoms don’t necessarily stay the same.

 

So for example, if they have one episode of depression, they may not feel like eating anything, and they may lose weight. And so maybe a couple of years later, if they go through it, again, they may eat, you know, everything in sight, and they may end up gaining weight. So it really just depends on the person, it depends on the episode. So also, with depression, you see major changes in sleep. So for example, a person that when they’re depressed, they feel like they just don’t want to go to bed, they sleep and they sleep and they sleep and they just do not want to get up. You can also have changes on the other ends of the spectrum, which would be a person who can’t really sleep because maybe they can’t shut off their head, maybe they’re just ruminating, they’re thinking about all of the things that they’re concerned with. All the things that are going on in their lives, everything that they are sort of hyper focused on, you can also have changes like not being able to fall asleep, so just sort of tossing and turning, you can also have changes in sleep, like not being able to stay asleep. So for some people who have depression, even though they may be able to fall asleep right away, they may wake up in the middle of the night and just toss and turn and not be able to get back to sleep or shutter shut their mind off.

 

There can also be some trouble with just you know, some people describe it as foggy headedness, so that that difficulty concentrating, feeling like they can’t really focus or can’t really think or can’t really solve problems as well as they used to be able to those things can be symptoms of depression, also just fatigue or exhaustion or just being very tired all the time. without really feeling like you can identify a reason why you’re feeling tired all the time. Also, any of these feelings, feelings of excessive guilt, or feeling like feeling like you are worthless, or useless or helpless or hopeless. So feeling like you know, I know this situation is bad. I’m, you know, I’m unhappy. I’m sad wherever it is. But feeling like there’s nothing that you can do to stop it, you’re helpless to change the situation or make things better. Also, feeling hopeless, like there’s no hope this isn’t going to get better. It’s just going to continue to get worse or it’s just going to continue to stay the same. So really, those kind of feelings are the things that you’re looking for, in terms of symptoms of depression. And again, I just want to mention that it’s different from everyone.

 

And it’s not just just so we’re clear, it’s not just one of those things where if you, you know, have experienced or you’ve seen someone experienced one of these things on the list, then you know, that means that they are experiencing depression, it doesn’t really work like that there are a lot of different sort of qualifiers in terms of how long the symptoms have been experienced the number of the symptoms that have been experienced. And that’s, you know, beyond the scope of what we’re talking about today. But just keep that in mind that just having one of these on the list, one of these experiences does not mean that a person automatically would meet the threshold for depression, or a diagnosis of depression. And finally, a common symptom of depression is just thinking about suicide or thinking about dying. So for some people, you’ll, you’ll hear a lot of people, when they’re depressed, they say, like, you know, if I, if I didn’t wake up tomorrow, I would be okay with that. So that kind of thing, where it’s just, they’re thinking about what it would be like, if they didn’t wake up, maybe they think about, you know, if I didn’t wake up, that would be fine. Maybe they think things like, you know, if I didn’t wake up, or if I weren’t around, maybe my family would be better off, or maybe my friends would be better off, or maybe everyone would be better off. It’s those kinds of thoughts. And again, if you’re experiencing several of these things, it may qualify for a diagnosis of major depression, depressive disorder, that sort of diagnosis, there would have to be an evaluation by a mental health professional, but we’ll talk about that in a couple of minutes. So these are some of the common symptoms of depression that you know, you may or may not be familiar with, you may or may not know, someone or you yourself may have experienced them.

 

So let’s talk a little bit about some of the things that might sort of contributes to feelings of depression. So we’re all aware that 2020, apparently, 2020 has been quite a year, we’ve had the pandemic, which just sort of disrupted all of our lives, impacted the world. And so what we’ve seen is an increase in depression. Unfortunately, we’ve just seen that there’s so much going on, at any given time, we’ve seen unprecedented changes to our lives in, you know, early 2020. I think that for many of us, it’s not most of us, if you had told us, you know, this was coming in 2020, like it is a year ago, you had said, you know, that things were going to be like this, I think a lot of us would have had difficulty wrapping our heads around it, right? Because this is just completely different from anything we’ve experienced before. We been, you know, have been locked down, there have been quarantines, we have had to you know, change to, you know, online format for meeting for work, things like that. And it’s disrupted a lot of our lives socially, career wise, things like that. So, collectively, a lot of people are dealing with, you know, the fear of getting sick, that constant fear of, you know, what is this virus? And will I end up you know, subtracting it, and what will that do? To me what you know, happens with my loved ones, you will have that grief over the loss of life, though, you know, many people know someone who has been impacted by COVID, or has died from COVID.

 

So, and even if, you know, you don’t know anyone personally, you know, we’re constantly seeing on the news on the internet, everywhere we look, we’re constantly seeing what the death count is, and it’s constantly going up. And, you know, we’ve been watching this since about march in terms of people getting sick and people dying. And that has an impact on us because we’re constantly seeing this everywhere we look. We also have trauma from just the widespread death and disease around us. This social distancing, that we’ve, you know, never done before. And, you know, it’s causing us not to be able to do the normal things that maybe we used to do on a regular basis. For example, go to the grocery store, go to the movie theater, go to the gym. This social distancing, and the physical Having to distance ourselves from people has, you know, put into play a whole new variable that we, you know, really hadn’t imagined even a year ago. For a lot of people, they have a lot of financial concerns. So a lot of people lost their jobs, or they were, you know, reduce their hours may have been reduced. For people that may have been able to keep their jobs, maybe their job depended on, you know, customers coming in people physically being present in their place of business. And all that was taken away, in terms of housing for a lot of people there are, you know, housing insecurities and worries about being able to keep a roof over over their heads, not having access to social support systems, not being able to go out and do the things that you were able to do before.

 

So really a lot of different communities. And so, you know, as I said before, with COVID, we’re seeing, we’ve seen an increase in depression. And the, in the Journal of the American Medical Association, there was a study that was recently published that talked about the increase the significant increase in the number of Americans to now meet the criteria for a diagnosis of depression, versus the number who met those criteria prior to this pandemics. And it’s actually three times as many people meet the criteria for depression. Now during the pandemic, and they did prior to the pandemic. So it’s impacting all of us. And the people who are, you know, lower income have a lower amount of savings are extended or exposed to more stressors. So frontline workers, people who are in business that are businesses that are considered, you know, necessary businesses, all of this impacts us. So even if we’re, again, even if we’re not directly impacted, we’re still seeing it around us, we’re still seeing this happen.

 

So in terms of thinking about depression, thinking about how the environment can lead to depression, or how the environment not can lead to depression, but how the environment can be one of the triggers for later development of depression. These are some of the things to just sort of keep in mind. Okay, so now that we’ve talked about these things that can be factors in developing depression later on. Let’s talk a little bit about myths about depression. I’m not sure if you’ve heard any myths about depression, but I hear a lot of them all the time. And so I like to just sort of address them when I can.

 

So the first myth is, you know, I hear a lot of people say, you know, just have to power through it, you have a stronger mind, you have to just sort of Don’t think about those things, don’t think about sad things will be fine, just power through if you are strong minded enough, you’ll get through depressions. And, you know, to be very clear, that is completely untrue. Depression is, as I said, a mental illness and mental illness is not the result of a weak mind or a lack of willpower. And just remember, depression can strike anyone doesn’t matter what you know, mental fortitude, or anything like that. And you know, depression in the strong mind are really two things that are, are related.

 

So next myth, depressed people could just snap out of it, if they were motivated to stop feeling sorry for themselves and adopt a positive mindset. That’s not true, either. Depression is not caused by a negative mindset. And a person who’s struggling with it can’t just snap out of it, they can’t just shake it off, you know, depressions very complex, and there are a lot of different factors that go into whether or not a person will develop depression, and also how that will impact their lives. So just keep in mind that that’s not not true. It’s not about you know, snapping out of it.

 

Our next myth is depression only happens in response to a major event like a trauma. So, you know, we talked a little bit about COVID-19 and depression and how we seen a significant increase in the number of people who, you know, meet the criteria for a diagnosis of depression after the pandemic or during the pandemic versus prior to and so, you know, although things like, you know, major traumas, this, you know, pandemic Make difficult situations, in general can trigger episodes of depression, it’s not always the case. And another thing that, you know, I always like to point out is that, you know, just because someone looks fine on the outside, just because, you know, they look like they’re okay. You know, they can still be depressed on the inside. You know, one of the things I like to say is, everyone’s struggling with something, we’re all struggling with something no matter how it looks on the outside, there to be a whole different story on the inside.

 

So just, you know, always keep that in mind. If you can get out of bed and go to work or school, you’re not depressed, is another myth. And that’s not true. As we, you know, mentioned before, you know, people can be struggling with a whole lot of different things, so many different things. And, you know, we don’t necessarily know about it, because we’re not REM. So a lot of people who struggle with depression, they may still go to work, they may still go to school, they may still, you know, try to engage as much as they can, and the things that they need to engage in depression has varying levels of severity, different impacts on people’s lives. So it’s not a matter of, well, if I’m up and going, I must be fine, I must not be depressed or, you know, that person must not be depressed. That’s not generally, you know, the way it works, depression can look, in many different ways, many different ways. Okay.

 

So now that we talked about, you know, what some of the common symptoms are, what some of the myths are, you know, the way that COVID-19 has impacted our lives and how that could be a contributing factor to, you know, triggering depression in some people. So, what if you have seen this? What, if you have seen this in yourself, or what if you’ve seen this in a loved one, you know, what is there to do? What are some things that might help to sort of mitigate the impact of whatever might be going on whatever the environmental factors might be, whatever, whatever a person is dealing with at the moment, some things that may help is talking to the MHP as a mental health professional, and just, you know, going to talk to somebody about what’s going on and see if you can come up with a game plan to get you back to where you feel like you’re able to function again. Also, it helps to keep a routine. And I think this is especially relevant for our situation where we’ve got the pandemic that’s still, you know, raging around us.

 

And so for a lot of us were, you know, working from home, or you know, only working in an office a few days a week, but we have altered schedules. And there are a lot of things that we can’t control, in terms of our schedules in terms of work in terms of, you know, the kids being at home, because maybe they’re doing online school, or whatever the case may be. But it helps to keep a repeat, because that’s one thing that you are often able to control. So that just means you know, getting up and going to bed at the same time, having meals at the same time, making sure that you’re exercising things like that to sort of maintain some semblance of normalcy. Also reaching out to your support network, it’s been difficult because a lot of times we’re used to seeing people face to face or we were at the beginning of 2020 prior to everything shutting down. But it’s really important to keep those connections so that you do have somebody to talk to you do have somebody to, you know, just connect with on a regular basis.

 

Also, you know, if you see somebody else that is in distress, or somebody that seems like they’re sad, or they’re not feeling so well. Don’t ignore it, don’t say, they’ll snap out of it, or, you know, I’m not going to bother or, you know, I you know, don’t want to intrude, ask them, ask them how they’re doing. Ask them is fair, okay? Just, you know, sometimes it just helps for people to, you know, to feel better to make a connection and also to know that somebody cares enough to ask how they’re doing. And then self care. So making sure that you are eating well. So you know, now that we’re you know, at home we might not necessarily be going to the gym or exercising as much as we used to. And so, you know, there are comfort foods around and for a lot of people when they feel you know, stressed out or some there’s there’s a lot going on, you know, first thing to go is the diet in terms of eating more comfort foods and eating foods that are a little bit less healthy. Also making sure that we get enough sleep, get, you know, and also exercising, getting get move and get your body moving. So these are again, five things to try. So, of course, that begs the question. What if none of these things work? What if you’ve tried these things, you’ve talked to someone, you’ve kept a routine, you’ve reached out to your support network, you’ve done all these things, but you still just, you don’t feel right, you’re very sad, you feel like things aren’t going well, and you just can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel.

 

So that’s very important. And it’s very important to be aware of that. Because if it may be time to get help, and so how do I know when it’s time to get help? What are some of the things that might be happening? So a few slides back, we talked about thoughts of death, or thoughts of dying thoughts of, you know, maybe the world would be better off, if I weren’t around, or, you know, maybe if I didn’t wake up tomorrow, I’d be okay with that. That is definitely a sign that it’s time to go and get some help, being unable to do what’s necessary to care for yourself. So just being a place where not taking care of the like showering and grooming and things like that, or just feeling overwhelmed. Or always, you know, if you just feel like you need someone to talk to you, you don’t have to wait until things are overwhelming in order to reach out and get help. But these are some things that you know, should serve as red flags so that if you do experience them, you’re going to want to go and talk to somebody. Okay? And if you just feel like you’re not really coping very well with everything that’s going on. And that’s okay, because a lot of people are not this is unprecedented. There is no, you know, no one before us has experienced this. So there’s no way that we can talk to someone and get some tips on what’s going on. So if you did decide to get help, will, what would happen, how is depression treated? What does this even entail? First, there’s an evaluation by a mental health professional. And then there would have to be, you know, if you meet certain criteria, there would have to be some type of diagnosis. And then come your treatment options.

 

So if there’s an evaluation, there’s a diagnosis in the mental health professionals believe that the mental health professional believes that you may be suffering from depression, there are a bunch of different treatment options. That’s, again, kind of beyond the scope of what we’re talking about today. But know that you have options know that you know, therapy may be an option, medication may be an option, both may be an option. But there are also other methods. A lot of people sort of are hesitant, and sometimes a little bit afraid that it might mean that you know, they have to go on medication or whatever the case may be, there are a lot of fears about what seeking treatment means. And just know that you know, with treatment, you have options. You’re part of the process of deciding what needs to be done, what can you do what can be done to help you. So just know that you definitely do have options. And some things to remember. Again, it’s okay to ask for help. It’s okay to not be okay. There’s nothing there’s nothing wrong with that. We can’t all you know, we can’t be superheroes.

 

We’re not superheroes, we’re human. And humans need help from time. So it’s okay to ask for it. Also, remember that depression can strike anyone, it doesn’t matter, their race, their gender, their socioeconomic status or their age. Depression is not something that just happens to women, it happens to men as well. It happens at all ages, all socio economic statuses, it’s construct anybody. And also it’s okay to acknowledge, you know, your own feelings of distress, and other feeling other people’s feelings of distress, it’s okay to acknowledge that, you know, not doing so well, things are not okay, that’s perfectly fine. Don’t have to pretend that everything’s okay or pretend that none of this exists. Okay, so talking a little bit about resources, really quickly. The National Suicide Prevention lines, phone numbers here, there are also text messaging services that you can just text instead to some people prefer you know, instead of making a phone call, they prefer to text so these are definitely resources. And then if you go to my website, I have an information sheets that you can have emailed to you that is just some information on, you know, depression and some additional resources. Okay. And so now We have some time for questions. So does anybody have any questions?

 

Sarai Welch

Okay, Dr. Brown? So our first question that we have from Nintendo, is the person predisposed to being depressed? Or does certain situations caused depression?

 

Marsha Brown

That’s an excellent question. It’s actually both. So depression does have a hereditary component. But also environmental factors can play a role. situational, environmental factors can play a role. And I also want to mention, though, that just because there’s a hereditary component, you know, there is some part of it that makes it likelier that you may develop depression, if you have, you know, for example, a parent or a sibling or something like that. But just because you have someone in your family that has suffered from depression doesn’t mean that you’ll automatically develop it, it really depends on a number of factors that come into play in terms of whether or not a person will develop it.

 

Sarai Welch

Okay, our next question is from Preston fish, Cheryl TX, what’s the best way to approach a depressed person?

 

Marsha Brown

That’s a really good question. And I would say my, my answer is, it depends. It depends on a few things. I would think about, I’ll say some things that I would think about, in terms of how I would approach it, I would think about the relationship that you have with that person, whether it’s, you know, a close relationship, whether it’s sort of a passing relationship, whatever the case may be, and, you know, keeping that in mind, decide, you know, how you might approach the person, I would say, do it. If you do decide that is a, you know, something that you’re going to do. And I’m assuming you’re talking about approaching someone who has depression, to talk about, you know, how they’re doing and know, you know, whether or not there’s anything you can do to help or that you’re just there to listen, I would also say, maybe a private conversations would be a good idea better than doing it in, you know, group setting, or public setting or something like that.

 

Because it is a is, you know, very private and, you know, we don’t know how a person would react. And I would also say, you know, although we have a lot of people around us that we love, we care about, we want the best for them. It’s not always necessary for us to give other people advice, sometimes it’s really helpful to just let somebody know that you’re there to listen, you’re there for whatever, you know, they need, whether it’s just to talk about what’s going on to vent or if they, you know, would like some, you know, suggestions in terms of brainstorming, then, you know, you’re happy to do that as well. But if you are encountering someone who seems to be in dire straits, though, seems to be you know, really thinking about harming themselves or really just in a bad place that’s causing a lot of concern. I would say that, you know, you need to get some help, because it may be beyond just a conversation or beyond anything that you as a friend or a loved one can do.

 

Sarai Welch

Okay, our next question is from Randy Freelander he has any particular treatment or practices that work better with depression, with a diagnosis of also Asperger’s.

 

Marsha Brown

Depression and Asperger’s, I would say for that you want to ask your whoever your mental health professional is, because there are a lot of factors with CO occurring diagnoses that make it so that certain treatments may be more effective than others. But really, even though a person might have these two diagnoses doesn’t mean that that person will absolutely respond to a certain type of treatment. You know, sometimes when we have, you know, some support for some, you know, research evidence that certain types of treatments may may work or may be effective. with certain populations. There’s this idea that anyone who falls into that population should automatically go into that type of treatment. And I just want, you know, to kind of everyone to be aware of that and kind of think that everyone’s an individual, and it really depends on the person At a number of factors at home at school work, whatever the case may be, in terms of what type of treatment should be pursued for this person.

 

Sarai Welch

Okay, our next question is from Neil F. He asks, Do you feel many of today’s depressed people will get better when virus when the virus is no longer a fear? Is COVID-19 caused or triggered the depression?

 

Marsha Brown

So, that’s a really good question as well, what we, what we’re seeing in terms of some of the more recent research that’s coming out is that yes, COVID-19 has been a factor for a number of people in terms of some of the variables that go into developing symptoms of depression. You know, who knows what’s going to happen, you know, after COVID-19, in terms of the lasting effects, I think that not just the the people who’ve had a front row seat, or who’ve just been kind of watching, we also have the impact of people who have actually had and survived COVID-19. So I think that those individuals as well may have lasting effects of it, I really don’t know, I mean, there’s no way that we can really predict that right now. But the hope is that, you know, when these things, improve in terms of, you know, the constant fear of just, you know, going to a grocery store, or just, you know, going somewhere, encountering people that you don’t know, may lead to contracting this potentially deadly virus. Once that that fear goes away, once we’re not seeing people, you know, the count going up for the people who have died of this, hopefully, that will decrease some of what’s going on in terms of these like mental health impacts of open.

 

Sarai Welch

Okay, Paula Day asks what are some things you can do to help the elderly who have been told to stay inside away from all of their families, because they have been placed in solitary confinement?

 

Marsha Brown

Yeah, that’s what, that’s what it pretty much comes down to right there no isolated, because they’re at higher risk. And so they can’t see their families, they can’t see their loved ones, I would say that still keeping those social supports and those social connections is important. So finding ways, whether that’s by video conferencing, telephone calls, whatever the case may be, in some facilities, if the if the elderly person is in a facility, some facilities will actually have facilitate connections between loved ones and the person who’s, who’s staying in the facility. You can also there are different applications that that can send a device to the person’s home, so that they’ll be able to connect with and their family will have the other device, but they’ll be able to connect. So I would say, really, you know, being able to keep those social connections, and if at all possible, still keeping some some of some whatever a routine and still, you know, if a person is able to if they’re mobile, still trying to at least, you know, walk around, you know, the residence or, you know, just keep sort of moving, if at all possible, if they have that ability.

 

Sarai Welch

Kay Bonner asks, does acknowledgement of depression, bring about more fear to individuals that have any questions, so acknowledging the fact that a person has depression?

 

Marsha Brown

Um, I don’t know that it brings on more fears, if I’m understanding the question correctly. I think that possibly, in terms of this, there’s a lot of stigma surrounding mental illness in general and also depression. So there may be you know, by acknowledging the depression or by, you know, telling someone that you have depression or by seeking, you know, help there maybe for a person who’s depressed in the back of their minds, all sorts of, you know, self judgment or all sorts of understanding of this, there is that stigma and so thinking about what people are the mistake or what this means about me as a person, so there can be that kind of increased fear or increased worried, but it doesn’t, you know, acknowledgement doesn’t you know, necessarily make the depression worse. And that sense if that makes sense.

 

Sarai Welch

Dr. Robertson asks, would you say the individual’s response to or perception of the trauma is much more important than the stressor itself?

 

Marsha Brown

Yep, I would say that, um, it is very important in terms of their, their perception, perception of what happened and their understanding of what happened to them and their understanding of, you know, their ability to manage the impact of it, the feelings surrounding it, and their ability to sort of whatever it may be, you know, pick up the pieces and sort of move forward in their lives. So yeah, their perception of it is incredibly important.

 

Sarai Welch

William Ford asks do support groups work well for depression, or does individual treatment work better?

 

Marsha Brown

I think it depends, it depends on the person. So you know, everybody is going to respond to treatment a little bit different, differently. So for some people, a group is feel more supportive. And it feels like they have this network of people who are there supporting them, not judging them who are, you know, in their corner, and then for some people, they would prefer to have just kind of a one on one and talk to one person that they can, you know, build a rapport with and establish trust with so it really just depends on the person and what their needs are and what their symptoms are, and a number of different factors.

 

Sarai Welch

Okay, and anonymous attendee asks, What are the numeric estimates for those who meet the diagnosis diagnostic criteria for depression? Is the current of the covid 19 pandemic being derived from, they also ask the follow up question asking Is this considered more a case of a situationally appropriate or temporary diagnostic, a diagnosis of depression than a long term clinical depression, such as major depressive disorder?

 

Marsha Brown

Okay, in terms of the numbers, I’m not sure if we’re talking about like the prevalence of depression right now as it stands during the pandemic. So I’m not super clear on lob, but I will say that in terms of, you know, whether it’s considered a situational thing, or whether it’s considered more long term. So for people who may meet the criteria right now, they may meet criteria for so within major depressive disorder, there are different sort of qualifiers you have like single episode, you can have multiple episodes, you have things like that. So it could be something where if this is the first time that someone has ever experienced these symptoms, and what I mean by these symptoms is enough as of of some of the symptoms that we talked about enough of them to meet the threshold for diagnosing being diagnosed as having major depressive disorder. If it’s the first time that this has impacted them, and they’ve never had these before, it could be thought of as single episode. Depending on what their symptoms are, there are also other diagnoses that a mental health professional might give like, something like an adjustment disorder, or whatever the case may be. But that’s kind of beyond what we’re talking about. We’re just talking about like, the single episodes versus the long term. It can go either way, but it is possible that these people you know that have the single episode may not after this, experience, anything like that, again, there’s a possibility.

 

Sarai Welch

Anita Mitchell asked, What can you say to someone who marginalizes your depression and tells you things like snap out of it?

 

Marsha Brown

That’s a really good question. To people don’t. People don’t always understand depression, they don’t always understand the mental illness and for a lot of people, they really do believe that it’s about sort of mindset, and they think that people should snap out of it. And for some people, it’s because they were they may have been feeling a little down one day or for a couple days and they you know, decided that they were going to just sort of power through it. And maybe they feel like they weren’t able to, you know, someone’s minimizing your feelings and minimizing your experiences. I would question well, I guess depending on who the person is, I would question constantly interacting with them, because they’re likely not helping. But I would also, you know, you know, if you feel comfortable, if you feel like it’s something that you would want to do, you know, maybe, you know, it’s something that it’s education, though, maybe they just don’t know that it’s not something that you can sort of snap out of, some people just don’t know that.

 

And then some people just refuse to see that it doesn’t matter how much you know, information you give them, they’re just not going to see it, there’s a, there might be, there’s a, I think it’s a proverb of some sort that says, there’s nothing so difficult as trying to wake a person who’s only pretending to be asleep. So that popped into my head for this, because there are just some people that no matter how much evidence you give them, no matter what it is that you say to them, they’re just not going to see it there, they’re not going to believe it, they’re not going to hear it. I think that, you know, rather than, you know, spending energy on trying to explain something to somebody, or trying to further educate them past you, if you decide it’s your decision, if you decide that you would like to educate them, if he would decide you would like to know, tell them more about it. Beyond that, like there’s, there’s nothing to be done. And I don’t know that there’s much value in sort of constantly trying to re educate them or constantly trying to the, you know, get them to consider your feelings and to, you know, be less judgmental towards you, quite frankly. So, that’s what I would say.

 

Sarai Welch

Fernando H asks, people with intellectual disabilities, are they more exposed to depression? And is there any data regarding this segment?

 

Marsha Brown

Whether people with like, intellectual abilities are more prone to depression? Um, I’m not sure. Actually, I don’t have I don’t know, of that information. I’m not sure whether or not exists, I’m sure it does somewhere. But I actually don’t don’t have that. So I’m, like, not able to off the top of my head tell you that.

 

Sarai Welch

Pati Fizzano asks, can you share your experience of the best type of intervention for depression?

 

Marsha Brown

So, as I mentioned before, it really depends on the person in terms of what they’re going to respond to. And what their situation is the constellation of variables that go into, you know, what, when they develop depression, why they develop depression, like what led into it, where they are now, what their symptoms are, what the severity is, kind of what the what the the treatment options, or the best course of action would be. Which is why, you know, I always encourage people to see a mental health professional, talk to somebody and let them know what’s going on. Get an evaluation, if you need to, and just know what your options are, so that you can be part of the team in terms of deciding what is the best course of action for you in your current situation under your current circumstances.

 

Sarai Welch

Paula Day asked, Is it commonly known that dancing can help reduce the symptoms of depression?

 

Marsha Brown

I’m not sure it’s commonly known. Exercise, you know, is it can be impactful in terms of reducing the symptoms of depression. So that would fall under that. So I don’t know if it’s, you know, commonly known. But, you know, any, any exercise, any kind of physical activity does help absolutely with depression, but I don’t know. You know, how commonly known I’m not sure if you mean, just among the general public or any mean, mental health professionals. Yes, you know, we know that but I’m not sure if you mean like in general, with the general public, but it actually, it can fizzle out. To be can absolutely help with symptoms of depression.

 

Sarai Welch

Dexter Johnson asks, Do you believe a person’s self worth plays into one’s depression?

 

Sarai Welch

If you mean, like their their self esteem or their appraisal of their own value and their own self efficacy, yes, it can play a role because for you know, as I, if you remember I mentioned towards the beginning, some of the common symptoms include, you know, feeling worthless and helpless and hopeless and feeling guilty about something that happens. So, for a lot of people who are depressed, you know, they feel like they are less than they feel like they are unable to help themselves, they feel like they are not. And sometimes people will feel like they’re not smart enough to get out of this situation, or they’re not, you know, smart enough to solve a problem. But they do have feelings of inadequacy, sometimes, so that can be a contributing factor. They’re just feeling worthless and helpless and useless. And I can’t do anything, right, that sort of thing. Absolutely.

 

Sarai Welch

Monica Robbins says, Thank you for presenting these very important topical topics, wonderful presentation, when you have a patient who you may have a patient who you suspect as being depressed, what approach approach do you take one presents human topics and professions to the patient? And what role does behavioral therapy play in the treatment?

 

Marsha Brown

Okay, excellent questions, in terms of you have a patient that you think has some type of depression, just based on, you know, you you see this person before even working with the first even treating this person before, and something just doesn’t seem right. One of the things that, you know, I mentioned a little bit ago is the idea of don’t ignore it, you know, if somebody seems off or somebody seems down or somebody feels depressed, then by all means, you know, say something, see how they’re doing, you know, ask what’s going on, so you can kind of get a better idea of the situation. And if there are any interventions are any kind of guidance or help that you can offer? And then, can you repeat the second part of the question, I think it’s what role behavioral therapy plays in? Can you repeat that?

 

Sarai Welch

Yes. Let me see. Okay, so she asked, What role does behavioral therapy play in the treatment of depression?

 

Marsha Brown

Yeah, so for example, I think you mean sort of, like, um, other behavioral, cognitive behavioral things like that. So for a lot of people, again, it depends on the person. behavioral therapy can be used to help people to i densify, sort of what their triggers are, as well as figure out what was happening before what you know, their thoughts or behaviors were things like that, and then set in a plan so that they’re able to change their behavior, which can help alleviate their symptoms of depression. So for example, for like, some of the most basic maybe, if Sunday evenings, Sally, who’s, you know, super depressed, Sunday evening, really, really difficult because she gets, you know, very depressed, very down in the dumps. And for some reason, that’s just a very difficult time of day, you might set something up behaviorally, so that Sunday evening, she goes on a walk to, you know, help so that she’s just not sitting there in front of the TV just sort of feeling bad, those sorts of things. So in terms of behavioral therapy, it’s just the idea of working to you know, identify and modify behaviors that will help in terms of the the individual situation and their symptoms. And then you also have the cognitive behavioral therapy, which just looks at the ways in which thoughts affect emotions and then affect a person’s behavior. So those things can play a role in the treatment of depression.

 

Sarai Welch

Okay, so the last question though we have time for it is from Pierre Marsh, as Have you found that nerve divergent individuals have been different on dozens of others and that different kinds of criteria to understanding their depression?

 

Marsha Brown

The middle of that cut out? If I had like, some distortion? I’m sorry, can you repeat that question? One more time, please?

 

Sarai Welch

Yes, no problem. Thank you, Pierre Marsh, as have you found that neurodivergent individuals have a different construct of depression to others in that a different criteria to understanding.

 

Marsha Brown

Okay. So I think that okay. I think that for neuro divergent individuals, in terms of their understanding of their, the symptoms that they’re experiencing, that may be, you know, characterized as depression can be explained in different ways. So that, you know, whatever, whatever the divergence is, it can be explained in a way that they’re able to kind of understand and be able to be part of whatever, whatever plan there is, in terms of treating them. I would also say, though, that, and that’s something that I think is a really good point to raise, I think it’s really important that no matter who it is, that may be experiencing symptoms of depression, it’s really important to present it in a wave that that fits with, what their understanding is, what their experiences are, and things like that. I think that, you know, a lot of times, when a lot of times, sometimes when we are interacting with somebody who might have depression, you know, mental health professionals can use, you know, terms or jargon that is not really understood by the person who’s experiencing it. And so I think that no matter what it’s important to look at who the individual is, look at what their you know, strengths are looked at what their challenges are, look at the way that they understand information, the way that they interpret information, the way that they perceive things, and work with them to make sure that their understanding of what’s going on, what the treatment options are, what the goals are, those things are really important to outlines in treatment, no matter what, no matter who it is that you’re treating, but also it’s important for neuro divergent individual.

 

Emily Buckley

Thank you so much, Dr. Brown for all that amazing presentation.

 

Marsha Brown

Thank you very much. Thanks, everybody. Have a good night.

 

Emily Buckley

Thank you so much to our audience for being here with us today. If you would like to contact us, please take a look in the chat box for all of our social media information, email and website at different brains.org and I also put all of Dr. Marsha Brown’s contact information in there for you as well. Thank you everyone. Goodnight!