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제 11 호 Masked Depression

  • 작성일 2021-08-26
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Kicker: DEBATE (MENTAL DISEASE)


Masked Depression


By Eugene Ha, Editor

eugine16@naver.com


  Are you depressed these days? I think the number of people suffering from COVID-19 depression is increasing as the number of people staying at home and social distancing increases. Although you usually have depression, there are many cases where you do not feel depressed. A disease that comes without showing, in fact, is called masked depression. Have you heard of it? If you have never heard of it, let me introduce you to the ‘masked depression.’ 


What is Masked Depression?

  Masked depression refers to a condition in which a patient's depression is like wearing a mask. He is smiling without showing his gloomy mood, but he has symptoms of depression in his heart. Obviously, he is depressed and does not recognize himself as depressed even though he is in need of treatment. On the contrary, he shows too cheerful behavior rather than being depressed. Thus, it is easy to misunderstand it as "magnosis," not depression. It usually appears in people who are not good at expressing depressing feelings


How about the Symptoms?

  When you have masked depression, symptoms often appear elsewhere in the body, not in the depression of the mind. For example, headaches, sleep disorders, fatigue, loss of appetite, and pain for no reason. People complain that they are sick all over the body and see other departments such as orthopedics. It may be accompanied by "health anxiety" that continues to worry about health even though there are no clear pathological factors.Let's take a look at some of the symptoms.


1. Memory is significantly reduced compared to before.

  Depression and memory may not have much to do with each other at first glance, but if you look closely, they are closely related.

As depression progresses, physical damage is done to the part of the brain responsible for memory. As a result, there are people who experience various cognitive disorders and things that they already remembered become white. However, memory impairment in terms of language where certain words do not come to mind rather than repetitive behavior or memory impairment in certain techniques.


2. It is very difficult to focus on something.

  Many depressive patients experience poor concentration or thinking skills.


3. Rapid changes in appetite and weight

  Some people lose weight and some people gain weight. If you have more appetite and gain weight more than before, you may suspect amorphous depression, a subclassification of depression. It is acting lively in front of others, so it is hard to recognize itself because it is not visible on the outside.


4. Sleep longer for no particular reason

  As interest in daily life itself decreases and motivation decreases, lethargy increases. That's why the body naturally needs to sleep and it takes longer to sleep. On the contrary, insomnia, which is repeated every day, is also said to be one of the symptoms.


  Symptoms may also vary depending on the patient's age. Adolescents are annoyed and rebellious, and middle-aged and elderly people are likely to show anger, emptiness, and suspicion. In the case of older people, symptoms such as insomnia, attention span, and memory loss are frequent. It can also be seen as 'falsatile dementia' with rapid memory degradation. Fake dementia is 'fake' dementia, so it improves together when depression improves together.

Therefore, it is necessary to suspect depression if you do not feel depressed, and if the test results continue to show advanced symptoms even though there are no particular physical problems.


How can we find out if we have mask depression?

  In TestKorea, you can receive TEST KOREA'S On-line Computer Scoring Masked Depression Inventory (TMDI). It is available to all age groups from 18 years of age and older, and the degree of change in depression can be checked if carried out regularly. A total of 21 questions will take 5 to 10 minutes. This objective examination would be more appropriate for self-diagnosis.


How can we cure it?

1. People with depression are also afraid of how others will feel about them and how they will react to it, and they should relieve their stress and take a psychological sense of stability.

2. Let's have a regular lifestyle.

3. Let's eat food that helps ease tension.

- Lactium, which stabilizes negative emotions such as fear and anxiety, is an ingredient found in milk and milk powder that is effective in relieving stress-induced irritating reactions. Let's take it for mental and physical stability.

4. Let's eat a variety of nutrients in balance.



  In the Covid-19 era, which still continues in the second semester, we must look at not only health but also our minds. If we leave the disease unattended because we have depression in our daily lives even though we have stress from employment and academic problems, it will lead to other mental illnesses later on and we can easily collapse into depression. Let's work together to make our minds healthy from now on!