Depression Informative Speech

Introduction: Hello, my name is Monica Price and I’m going to open my

speech with a question, “How many of you have felt down or depressed at
some point?” … So, everyone. Now, my follow up question, “How many of
you have felt down or depressed for a period of months or even years?” …
Now the subject I will be educating you on today is a very personal topic that
has affected my life for quite a few years now. The sensitive topic is chronic
depression. Not one-off day here and there but weeks, months, or even
years. The three points I will educate you on are the possible causes, the
symptoms I struggled with, and the different treatment options that are out
there. Firstly, we will talk about the possible causes of chronic depression.

Body: Now mayoclinic.org cuts the possible causes down into four separate
causes. The first one being physical differences in the person’s brain. There’s
been a correlation of misfiring of neurotransmitters in the brain that causes

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the imbalance of chemicals in the brain. There’s also been a big correlation

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of genetics playing a role in causing depression. For example, people with a

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parent that has depression can be more susceptible to becoming chronically
depressed. Major life events can also play a part in causing depression. Some

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examples of events include, death of a loved one, financial problems, and
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traumatic events such as war or domestic violence being the top two. Now
that I’ve gone over the causes, I will talk to you about the symptoms of
chronic depression.
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For my second point I have more examples and what better examples can I
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use for this than my own experiences. The first sign I became aware of was a
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persistent ongoing emotional numbness. I had good things happen during

that time like the birth of my niece Abigail. An event that I should be ecstatic
for but there was nothing. Like the movie the never-ending story, a
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nothingness was in the land and that’s how I could describe the feeling.
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There were also physical signs like sleeping too much or sleeping too little,
eating too much or too little, and chronic fatigue. When I say fatigue, I don’t
mean just tired. I mean like getting up in the morning, showering, and
getting dressed for the day was as physically draining as running a
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marathon. Because of those symptoms I had issues socially as well. I started

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gaining weight, I almost failed out of school despite being on the deans list
the semester before, and I isolated myself from my friends and family
because they either a) Didn’t understand or b) Got tired of me being
depressed. I’ve been told multiple things. “Why can’t you just get over it?”,
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“Happiness is a choice, just choose to be happy.”, and my favorite “You’re so

selfish. I’ve had way more happen to me in my life and worse to deal with
than you!”. So, the symptoms got worse and worse until I had a near death
experience that jarred me into realizing I did not want to die and I needed
help. So, this brings me into my final point what I’ll be educating you about
and that is available treatment plans.

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 The mayo clinic’s website breaks it down into three categories that can be
and are encouraged to be used together for full effect. Of course, the first
one is a medication regiments with specific medications to help even your
moods. Almost all of you I’m sure have heard the term antidepressants which
is true to their word. They’re meant to help even out your moods but
medication by itself usually isn’t enough to get better. Most doctors
recommend psychotherapy as well. Now there’s multiple types of
psychotherapies but the ones that are usually recommended for depression
are cognitive behavioral therapy or interpersonal therapy. There are also two
procedures a person can go through in extreme cases where both
psychotherapy and medications have failed and those I will say in ascending
order of how you should use them. The first one is called Transcranial
magnetic stimulation or (TMS) for short. Explain TMS.
The last and most extreme treatment is Electroconvulsive therapy or
(ECT). Explain ECT. Now, I am going to move on to the conclusion this

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speech.

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We went over a lot in this presentation. I educated you about the possible
causes of major depression. We talked about the symptoms and how chronic

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depression can affect a person’s life. Then, we discussed the treatment
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options from least extreme to most extreme. I hope you learned something
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from this speech but if you don’t remember anything I’ve said please
remember this. I challenge you guys to learn more about mental health and
how prevalent it is in society. That way you can be educated enough about
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depression and mental health that when you come face to face with it in
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either yourself or with someone you love, you’ll be able to ask for help or
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help someone going through it. That is my challenge and if anyone has any
questions for me I’ll be here all semester.
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