Blog #depression

Burn out, or a burned-out feeling that makes work and daily activities no longer possible, is no longer unknown to anyone. But are there so many people in burnout now? Are we that burned out in 2024? Psychiatrist Dr. Anne Bakhit is quite critical of the burnout. “The Netherlands and Germany are one of the few countries where burnout is diagnosed. In countries like America or France, burnout as a condition does not exist.”

If your partner has depression, this is also very traumatic for you. Because you want to be close and help, but your partner's illness should not put your life on hold either. What to do? Here are some tips for dealing with a depressed partner.

Clearing the mind of anxious thoughts, rather than processing them, can sometimes be good for our mental health. This is evident from British research. In the late 1980s, scientists discovered something unexpected: People who were first asked not to think about white bears, and later asked to think about them, had more thoughts about white bears than people who were only asked to think about white bears. This led to the belief that blocking unwanted thoughts ironically makes them come back more often.

Antidepressants lead to emotional blunting in users: now it is finally clear why In many cases, antidepressants do what they are supposed to do. But that comes at a price in some patients. Scientists now know why they feel emotionally blunted. Depressed people feel down and no longer enjoy the things they normally enjoy. To solve their problem, they take antidepressants. In the Netherlands, approximately one million people are prescribed these drugs every year. This makes it one of the most commonly used drugs. Yet half of the users have a nasty side effect: they feel emotionally dulled. Scientists now think they know why: the resources have an effect on reinforcement learning, or our ability to learn through reward.

It’s important to identify the warning signs and seek help early on! Unfortunately, there is no easy way to determine whether certain behaviors are a sign of mental illness. However, people who feel they are going crazy often have one thing in common: something feels amiss. Mental health problems are common, with about 1 in 5 people at least one problem throughout their lives. With situation of (past) pandemic, economic recession and war threats in many parts of the world, many have also dealt with increasing stress.