Depression and Television Use

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According to critical voices, it was television that provided your first sense that there was something wrong with you. For example, the commercials are designed by highly skilled professionals, to create discontent and worry, to make you feel bad about yourself. Why? So that you would buy the product touted in the commercial. The entire world of media advertising, which drives our market-economy, is based on making "consumers" feel totally inadequate… unless they buy the "stuff" in the ad or TV commercial. The ads show perfect people being incredibly happy, which sets a standard that no one can meet in real life.

Other opinion, about the Television Use, point out that, sometimes, active watching in moderation is helpful: a way to disconnect from the effects of depression for a while.

Either way, those with depression should monitor television use, maintaining a healthy balance between brief entertainment and addiction. Television tends to trigger or deepen depression if it is watched for long hours at one sitting. It can become a passive exercise of occasionally tuning into disconnected images and sounds. If you are depressed, it may be because a lifetime of television watching has rewired your nervous system, making discontinuity the norm of your perception, and shortening your attention span down toward the vanishing point. Then the lulling sensation from the television acts like a depressant.

Television and Adolescent Depression                               

Parents who do not want their children to turn into morose screen addicts may be wise to take a look at how their children use media, not just how much.

There is good evidence that kids get fatter as they watch more TV and those lots of gaming can increase a teen's aggression and anxiety. Something is clear: get rid of the TV in the bedroom, for one thing: kids with TVs in the bedroom gain more weight than kids who watch with the family.

But it is been harder to tell if watching TV and gaming play a role in depression, which usually first surfaces in adolescence or young adulthood and is the leading cause of disability worldwide. The evidence already out there suggests that people who watch lots of TV tend to be more depressed, but that could just be because unhappy people like to watch TV.

Brian Primack, a pediatrician at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine who studies how teenagers' use of media affects their health, analyzed survey data that followed 4,142 teenagers from 1995 to 2002. Teenagers who watched TV were more likely to report symptoms of depression, with the rate increasing 8 percent with every hour of TV watched. That is a pretty impressive increase, particularly considering that most teenagers watch three to four hours of TV daily. The researchers excluded teenagers who reported symptoms of depression at the start. Videos (this was the pre-DVD era) and video games did not show the same depressive effect.

With older children, watch what your child watches, grit your teeth, and explain calmly why you find certain scenes or images disturbing or inappropriate. Then turn off the tube, and go for a bike ride together. That is not scientist-recommended, but bike riding has never been linked to mental-health ills. And with exercise a proven antidepressant, why not balance that TV time with a bit of non-digital fun?


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The Have I Got A Problem website is a free online resource to help people better understand any issues or concerns they may have about mental health or addiction. The website includes resources specifically focused to; general Mental Health, Depression, Stress, Anxiety, Insecurities, Self-harm Schizophrenia, Bipolar, Anger Management, Eating Disorders, Coping, general Addiction, Alcohol, Smoking, Gambling, Drugs, Cocaine, Heroin, Marijuana (Cannabis) Ecstasy, PCP, Mephedrone, Ketamine & Crystal Meth.

The site was created to give the public information to help them understand mental health and addiction issues and to assist people in making better informed decisions about their life and personal choices.

www.haveigotaproblem.com was created and is run by 'Advising Communities’, which is a UK registered charity (Charity No. 1061055)

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"Accept that the depression or anxiety is there for now, stop thinking about it and learn to function as best you can even with the worst depression or anxiety that you have ever felt. And take hope in the knowledge that this will get better."

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