In this challenging world, people suffer on a daily basis as they are unable to effectively deal with stress. Their lack of capability of dealing with various psycho-social stressors affects them physically, mentally and socially. This can be attributed to unhealthy lifestyle choices, poor time management and lack of caution and awareness regarding mental health issues.

Lack of consideration of such mental health issues results in a gradual progression of these minor stress-related issues into full-fledged mental disorders, which start to greatly impact the individual’s daily functioning.

This begins to manifest as a variety of cognitive, behavioral, and emotional issues that affect the individual’s sleep, appetite, occupational functioning, social functioning, personal functioning, physical health and much more. As time passes by, more and more people are being subject to mental health issues and remain undiagnosed, and hence untreated.

Among the most common of them is depression. The World Health Organisation (WHO) has stated that depression will be the leading mental disorder to affect the global population. Before we talk about how to counter this, let us first try to understand what depression is.

What is Depression?

Depression is a mood disorder characterized by a sad mood, low self-esteem and loss of interest. Depression can also be defined as a disorder characterized by negative thoughts, feelings and actions that affect an individual’s psycho-social functioning. Depression is a very serious mental health condition that requires psychological support. Sadly, it generally goes on unnoticed, and hence undiagnosed and untreated. The most common symptoms of depression include:

● Helplessness
● Hopelessness
● Worthlessness
● Sad mood
● Lack of interest

Depression also affects an individual’s sleep and appetite. As it worsens, it is common for individuals to experience suicidal ideations and/or engage in suicidal attempts.

Mental Health First Aid Course and treating depression

A mental health first aid course helps to keep ourselves safe against depression, to protect our loved ones and/or offer support to the wider community in the fight against depression. It is a structured course that aims to offer professional training and certification to individuals to be able to provide ‘first-aid’ or ‘immediate care’ or ‘grassroot intervention’. It also helps to safeguard individuals against the various stressors through psycho-education that is aimed at building awareness. A mental health first aid course helps to address mental health issues such as depression, anxiety and substance addiction (against many others).

What’s more? The course covers major topics such as:
● What is stress and its types?
● Stress in the workplace
● The implications of stress
● Identifying the various psycho-social stressors
● The negative or coping strategies against stress
● Ways to cope against stress effectively
● The biology behind stress
● Strategies and tips to prevent stress
● Major psychological disorders
● The biopsychosocial model

The mental health first aid course is the need of the hour and will help you to deal with people having depression and at the same time, help keep yourself safe. With the growing need for mental health support, a mental health first aid course is exactly what the community needs right now!