Podcast draft 1

Approximately one in six adults in the U.S. suffer from depression, and this podcast aims to answer questions about the causes and prevention of depression. Depression is linked to lower volumes of gray matter in the brain, which can be influenced by various factors such as environment, relationships, and substance abuse. Peer pressure and lack of guidance can lead to alcohol and substance abuse in adolescents, impacting their mental health. Adults play a crucial role in shaping children's mental health, as seen in a South Korean study where teachers implemented meditation to improve students' mood and motivation. Attitude and mindset are also important, as a negative outlook can contribute to depression. Depression is not genetic, but rather a result of poor upbringing and societal pressures discouraging family values. Parents have a significant influence on their children's mental health, and neglect can perpetuate a cycle of susceptibility to depression. One in every six adults in the U.S. suffer from depression. How is this number so high? Is depression genetic? Can depression be prevented? These are questions that I will be answering in today's podcast. Hello, everyone. My name is Garrett England, and I will be talking about mental illness and depression. Depression is a very confusing topic. It is mostly unclear how many develop depression, but in this podcast, I will be uncovering the real root. By discovering the origins of depression and how one can become depressed, we can then discover how to combat depression and how to stop it from ever showing its face. In this podcast, we will first look at examples of developing depression, then we will go into how it can be prevented. Finally, we will then end the podcast by returning to the question of where depression really comes from. How do we understand depression? In our brains, there is a substance called gray matter. According to research from Heineken and colleagues, gray matter controls the emotions, decision making, and self-control part of our brains. People who have been diagnosed with depression have lower volumes of gray matter inside of their brain. The gray matter volumes in our brains can be altered by many different things. Some of these things include the environment that you put yourself in, the people that you surround yourself with, or the things that you put in your body. A study was conducted that monitored children's volumes of gray matter after they consumed alcohol and substances over time. The study found that the children who continued to drink and smoke had exponentially decreased gray matter volumes inside of their brains. It also was observed that after the children were done using the alcohol and substances, their gray matter continued to decrease two to three days after the use. Kids today are pressured to indulge in these types of activities every day and every week. Society has pushed that drinking and smoking are cool, and to fit in, you must conform to the next cool trend. Peer pressure is a main reason for why children fall into this trap. Without proper guidance and support from parents, teachers and friends, adolescents are very susceptible to the temptation of alcohol and substance abuse, which in turn will affect their overall mental health in the future. For kids and teenagers, adults play a very important role in their lives. Kids are always watching what their parents are doing, and how kids and teenagers act reflect how they were raised by their parents. That is why adults must be present in kids' lives to better their overall mental health. A study that was conducted in South Korea is a great example of the impact that adults have on children. Teachers in South Korea were dealing with unmotivated and sad students. This was because the students were just coming back to school from COVID, and the in-person switch from online learning was alarming and stressful for these students. It was hard for these students to stay focused and be motivated to learn, so the South Korean teachers began to implement into their days times for students to meditate and calm down. The teachers taught the students how to clear their heads and relieve stress to focus on a goal. The mood of the students was noted to improve immediately. The students were more productive and motivated to learn, and the transition from online learning became seamless. This is just one example of how mindset and environment can affect mood and depression. Now let's talk about attitude. Attitude is everything when concerning depression. But what really is depression? The American Psychiatric Association defines depression as a serious medical illness that negatively affects how you feel, the way you think, and how you act. A common trait of someone who suffers from depression is a poor mindset. Your mindset can affect how you perceive others and yourself. One source that I found that was great at explaining what the causes and sources of depression were was the book Depression, Causes and Treatment. In this book, it states, There, for instance, is an outstanding contrast between the depressed person's image of him or herself and the objective facts. A negative mindset can lead to misinterpretation of objective truths. A bad mindset feeds depression. If one surrounds oneself with positive people in a positive environment, like the South Korean teachers created in the previous example, then the bad mindset of depression can be prevented. Positive thinking reduces stress. Stress is a big factor in the development of depression. Negative attitude is everything. If you have preconceived life, as negative, it will be hard for you to find joy in anything. People are also not born with a negative outlook on life. Babies are too ignorant to even form that type of opinion. This means that a negative attitude must be cultivated, learned, or experienced. My point is that a negative attitude in depression does not come naturally. Let's look at a couple examples of where this type of depression mindset is most commonly created. So now we're going to answer the question, where does depression really come from? Now that we know what depression is, you're probably wondering how can it be prevented and where does it really come from? Depression can be affected by many things. In a lecture given by Dr. Charles Rainson, he explains what can cause depression. Dr. Charles Rainson is a professor at the University of Arizona, part of the Department of Psychiatry. Dr. Rainson explains that clinical depression can happen when something happens to your brain, but most depressions can come from your mindset, lifestyle, and your environment. No one is born with depression or stuck with depression. It is cultivated and developed over time through the choices you make and the environment you put yourself in. That is why I believe where depression starts is at home. In an article with the title, Managing and Preventing Depression in Adolescents, it states that parents play the biggest role in the foundation of the children's brains. There are many crucial signs that show depression developing in children. These signs include the refusal to go to school, behavior changes, substance misuse, anxiety symptoms, academic failure, or unexplained physical symptoms. These signs cannot be ignored. These symptoms are detrimental to a child's development and mindset. When the child that experiences this neglect grows up and has a family, it will be hard for them to parent their children a different way than that they were parented. This will be causing their children to have the same susceptibility of depression that they have and causing a cycle of genetic depression. This is why depression gets confused with being genetic. Depression isn't really genetic. It is a series of children who grow up from poor households. And this has become the norm. Society has been pushing and pushing away from the nuclear family, encouraging men not to get married and settle down and have children and raise children the correct way. Society pushes people to stay single, to not burden themselves with the weight of children and raise the next generation. This kind of negative societal pressure is what is dooming parents to cause their children to be susceptible to depression.