Can Depression Be Prevented?

— -- Question: Can depression be prevented?

Answer: Well, depression has many different kinds of causes that combine. Some depressions are purely biological, meaning that something in your brain, in your brain chemistry has changed and you become depressed. Some have that pathway, but they're triggered by external events, by thoughts, by a loss in your life, a loss of a loved one.

So we can't necessarily prevent depression from happening, but we can intervene in many different kinds of ways. If you've been depressed before and take medication, continuing to take that medication is likely to stop depression from coming again. If you're sad and you've lost someone and you have negative feelings, going to talk to someone and perhaps getting medication or talking about it, may stop a depression or a full-blown depression from happening.

In that sense, we can minimize the effect of depression and we can also stop some depressions from occurring.

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