Question: why do people get deppresed?

Helen O'Connor answered on 14 Jun 2011:

The brain has a huge number of chemicals or neurotransmitters, and all of our emotions are caused by different mixtures and levels of these – which can be triggered by different situations. Low serotonin and low dopamine can cause sadness or depression. Sometimes people get depressed because of something that happened – like someone close to them died – and this type of depression can often get better by itself, maybe with some counselling to help talk about feelings.

Other people seem to have a chemical imbalance in their brain, and some anti depressants can help them feel better.

We know so much more about the brain, and how to treat depression now – which is really good as people aren’t so afriad of admitting they feel depressed which means they can get help.