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Chronic Illness Research Paper

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Introduction
Chronic illness is a disease that persists for a long time. A chronic disease is one lasting three months or more, by the definition of the U.S. National Center for Health Statistics. Although Chronic Illness is dangerous, people often overlook depression, and a lot of time they run close together. Depression (major depressive disorder or clinical depression) is a common however a severe mood disorder. It causes extreme indications that influence how you feel, think, and handle daily exercises like; sleeping, eating, or working. To be diagnosed by a psychiatrist with depression disorder, one must show symptoms for more than two weeks. College students face a lot, especially freshman year college students, transitioning to a different …show more content…

In the past 35 years, the suicide rate for college campuses has tripled (Oswalt 1995), which is an indicator that there is a clear need for something to be addressed within the college community. Research has shown that about 10-15% of college students are depressed throughout their college years (Lindsey 2009). Depression can be a debilitating illness, especially to college students and can cause students to fall behind, and feel overwhelmed or incompetent. Lack of effort and academic disappointment could result in students with more suicidal thoughts and attempts at suicide. In fact, the number of students with suicidal thoughts has tripled over the past 13 years as the number of students seeking help for depression doubled in the same span (Lindsey 2009). Academic failure as the result of depression among college students has played a role in the increase of suicidal thoughts. The daily stressors of college life are one contributing factor to depression in college student’s students. College students are afraid to fail or be a disappointment to themselves or their parents, if not both, which leads to impaired decision making. Stress reactions and depression are linked because the anterior cingulate cortex, the region of the brain implicated in executive decision making is also related to how well people respond to antidepressants (Voelker …show more content…

Depression can affect college students in all aspects of life; physically, mentally, and emotionally. The students who reported that they were depressed also stated that they considered their health fair or poor (Lindsey 2009). In their cases, depression not only affects them psychologically but also physically. Students with chronic illness who experience depression become more at risk for suicidal thoughts, or their condition to worsen because they are extremely stressed. Depression plays a huge role in college students with chronic illness such as bipolar mood diseases, or any chronic illness that requires medication. Depression sometimes alters your decision making and can cause one to be not as concerned with their overall health. Disrupted decisions can produce episodes, or their current chronic illness to worsen. Chronic illness and depression affect one another, despite which one is presented first. Chronic disease can cause depression when depression-like symptoms aren't already

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