Abstract
     Depression strikes a large number of people around the world. It can be brought on by many things, such as childhood trauma, social issues, and drug use. The one thing that sets depression apart from many other mental afflictions is that everyone who has it may have it for different reasons and are taking different steps to remedy it. Some seek psychoanalysis while some rely on a pill to make them feel better. Others turn to self-medication, in the case of depression known as self-loathing, self-mutilation, and suicide. There are endless studies regarding depression being performed worldwide which become very specific in nature. An interesting aspect of depression that sets it apart from other psychological difficulties is that depression can be brought on a person by themselves. If people allow themselves to be victims of self-loathing, depression and its symptoms are sure to be close behind.

A Literature Review on Depression and Self-Loathing

     Research over years past indicates that depression is a more common affliction amongst the American people than most are led to believe. Depression is a multi-faceted adversity, as there are many things that are able to spawn it, and many things are able to come from it as well. Depression can be medically defined as a disease, and there are a number of treatments that medical professionals believe can remedy or abate the symptoms of it, although there have been numerous complaints about medical treatments designed to aid in a person’s struggles with depression. While self-loathing is a common precursor to depression, it rarely stops there. Next comes the full-fledged depression which in some cases is followed by self-mutilation or suicide attempts. Anti-depressant medication and psychoanalysis commonly follow. It has been found that there are some outside sources that may influence depression in a person that would not seem to have any link whatsoever to the condition. Regardless, depression is an affliction that has been around for ages, and unless revolutionary findings are made, it can be inferred that it will be an infirmity that will plague people for time to come as well.

Problem
     A major culprit behind the concept of self-loathing is today’s media influence on the American populace. Today’s information technology seems to choose not to use its powers for good and wishes to show only people who have chiseled bodies and airbrushed faces. These people lead billion-dollar lives and have anything they wish to own at their fingertips. The more common people of America see what the media is pushing on to their television sets and aspire to be just like the images on their screens. Seeing these unachievable standards set before them, people can acquire feelings of ugliness and become frustrated and disconcerted with their appearance. After prolonged distress due to these kinds of archetypes, certain hatred develops for that which can not be reached, but instead the hatred is cast to the person’s self because they are the ones that cannot be what they wish to be. Here is where self-loathing is apt to begin. Once a person begins to hate him or herself, they become very susceptible to depression. Hateful feelings towards oneself easily can take the downward spiral to possessing a bleak outlook and sadness. Relationships, may they be platonic or intimate, tend to suffer from the emotional disturbance within the person. From here, feelings of depression easily evoke other destructive behaviors. People who did not use tobacco products or abuse alcoholic beverages previous to said feelings may begin now. They may either start because self-loathing has enticed them to do such things to make up for their unfit image, or to give in to the common misconception that such products alleviate whatever problems one may be experiencing. In some cases, those afflicted take the anger and harshness from inside themselves and turn to self-mutilation or even to trying to end their own life, a process more commonly known as suicide. In fact, it has been proven that some current cultures are becoming increasingly suicidal (Solomon et al., 2001).
     These symptoms can affect people of most every age group, and people from any kind of background. Cases also vary in severity, and in the ways that they are approached. It is lucky for many that now many publications are offering lists of warning signs to the public so that if they know or are associated with anyone who exhibits any of these representations of depression, they can seek help for their acquaintance in need so that the odds of anything worse happening to said person can be significantly decreased (Cullinan et el., 2004).
     Anti-depressant medication is a popular method of assistance, but there is often a period of time where medical professionals and their dependents must work together to try and find an effective brand and dosage of the medicine. The downside is that sometimes this period of trial and experiment may last for some time and the patient may experience a degree of discomfort in this time of uncertainty. There is a certain irony associated with anti-depressant medication. The irony is that, hence the name, the treatment is supposed to alleviate the feelings of depression that have been laden on the person and return them to a normal state of functioning, but it is a fairly common complaint by those who have been prescribed this medication that the way that they feel after this treatment can be described as anything but normal. It has also been proven that suicide and self-mutilation rates are higher amongst those who have been successfully diagnosed with depression and are on anti-depressants than those who are not on medication to help them, whether they have been diagnosed or not (Garfield et al., 2003).

Methods
     Self-Loathing is often what leads to depression. If the depression is not encouraged by a dramatic and saddening event in one’s life, it is common for such feelings to be brought on from within, where the person is unhappy with themselves and who they are. College years are very pivotal in a person’s life, not to mention stressful. It is easy for things to become overwhelming with school alone, but when the media gets involved they have a way of making things worse. Self-loathing is when a person hates themselves for the flaws they see within. It is more common for media images to evoke these feelings than another source. A number of college students and their perceptions of body image - both their own and that of the opposite sex – were evaluated. The purpose of this excursion was to find out if body image in the eyes of the opposite sex is as crucial as the media would lead them to believe. This was an important topic to embrace because many people become depressed and unhappy with themselves over their body image, and if any of these criteria could be proved as misconceptions, the rate of self-loathing may go down, and with it may go the rate of depression and the results that come from therein (Solomon et al., 2001).
     A significant number of studies exist concerning depression, many of them very specific in what they are looking for. Depression can strike people from almost any age demographic. One study examined over one thousand adolescents and found just over two thirds of these children had been previously diagnosed as being emotionally disturbed. Those who fit under the category of emotionally disturbed qualified for special education programs both within and outside of their respective schools. All of the children involved in this study were evaluated by what is referred to as the SAED (Scale for Assessing Emotional Disturbance). This scale evaluated the children’s relationship issues, inappropriate behavior, physical symptoms and fears, how socially maladjusted they may be, and unhappiness or depression. This scale was given to the children’s teachers and other staff and faculty at the school. These people were told to rate all of the children on the list on a scale from 0 to 3, with three indicating the most maladaptive activity. There was another set of variables in a scale within the SAED referred to as the competence items. These were measured on a scale from 0 to 4 with zero representing that the child was far below average in competency. All of these children were evaluated by the teachers whether they were diagnosed with emotional disturbance or not (Cullinan et al., 2004).
     Very young children have also been studied, such as this study which evaluated five hundred four children between the ages of five to forty two months. This study was designed to measure physical aggression in the children at such tender ages. Years later, the children were evaluated again to see if the aggression in early ages had any bearing to behavior in later ages, such as late teens and early twenties. The child’s temperament was measured by asking the mothers of the babies questions about their behavior. The mother was also asked questions about herself: her parenting style, her relationship with the child’s father, her role in the home, and so on. Certain answers indicated characteristics of aggression and had the potential to precipitate issues later in life (Tremblay et al., 2003).
     Another study conducted was in reference to depression and its health risks as they pertain to youth living in a rural setting. Patients were selected for this study on the grounds that they were between twelve and eighteen years of age and had been eligible to participate in a screening of adolescent risk as per criteria released by the West Virginia University Pediatric Hospital. Sixty four out of two hundred fifty-four considered eligible responded affirmatively that they would participate in said study. Tables were constructed to evaluate the participants using such categorizations as the person’s amount of exercise, their weight, if they have problems with nutrition or not, if they are sexually active, if there is a history of abuse in their family, and alcohol/drug abuse, among others. This screening was reported to take 5 (+/- 3) minutes to perform. The participant was scored on a scale from one to three depending on what the evaluator felt their risk was at with three being the highest risk. In addition to the complex traits in the scale, each patient was asked if they had ever received in-school counseling or psychological help or assessment from an outside source (Burns et al., 2004).
     A separate study was done regarding young adults enrolled in college, as this is known as a crucial time in a person’s life. The first years of college are full of stress for many due to the copious amounts of new people to meet, tougher subjects to study, and new choices to make. It had been previously proven that a large number of people enrolled in their freshman or sophomore year of college begin using tobacco products, or if they had already been using such projects, their rate of use increased during there first few years. For this observation, anyone who was enrolled in six credits or more was considered eligible. The survey that would collect the information was sent to three thousand students at this major Midwestern University that remained unnamed throughout the study. Patients would reply with their consent or protest and from here the students were sent a booklet that took approximately twenty minutes to complete. Upon return of the booklet, the student’s answers were scored according to forty six variables and from here the results were analyzed to tell how much tobacco impacted their performance and mood in relevance to the school setting (Lenz 2002).
     A common attempt to lessen the patient’s symptoms involves administering a prescription for anti-depressant medication. However, as stated earlier, this is merely an attempt. Sometimes certain anti-depressants are ineffective, or their side-effects are very unpleasant. A study was performed on this because the patients on the medicine that was supposed to make them feel normal again reportedly made them feel anything but. In this study, patients were recruited by psychological practices in North London. If the patient was between eighteen and sixty five years of age, diagnosed with depression according to specific criteria, and beginning a course of anti-depressant medicine, they were acceptable for participation. Fifty-one people qualified and continued with the experiment. Throughout this study, two interviews were conducted with each person. The first was one to three months into the course of taking anti-depressants, and the other was three months after the first. The second was taken to evaluate changes that may have occurred and to assess the perspective of that patient in regards to the medication at the time. The interviews were videotaped with the interviewee’s consent. Questions included inquiring about physical symptoms associated with depression, whether they felt that anti-depressants had a positive or negative overall effect, and what benefits they felt, if any (Garfield et al., 2003).
     Sometimes anti-depressants and psychological counseling are not enough in the eyes of the patients, or they have not sought help at all. In this case, some turn to self-mutilation and suicidal behavior. This is usually due to the mentality that there is no other way out than ending one’s life or to release the pain inside through self-inflicted blood flow. There are a number of establishments that try to prevent such things from happening. One study examined what precursors to suicide may be so that eventually it will be more preventable. This study involved administering a questionnaire to one hundred undergraduate psychology students, 42 of which were men and the remaining 58 women, all with a mean age of twenty-one years. This questionnaire consisted of twenty five items that those involved were supposed to rate on a five point scale with one being a very poor reason to attempt suicide and five representing a very good reason. Some of the items on the survey ready for rating were being diagnosed with AIDS, your partner having an affair, death of a parent, and having no money. This survey was completely voluntary, and the students taking it received no credit for completing it (Smyth et al., 2004).

Results

     When it comes to hating one’s self, the Solomon et al study shows that while in principle people are correct in their assumptions of what the opposite sex finds attractive, they exaggerate it to an unhealthy level. After surveying a vast number of college students, it was found that people think the opposite sex has certain expectations of their bodies, yet the opposite sex is not nearly as harsh on them as the people think they are. From what has been learned in this study, it turns out that the vast majority of people who hate themselves for their body image and what they perceive the opposite sex will expect of them have little or no reason to be as concerned as they are. An inference in reference to this would be that if the results of this study were widely distributed to the American people that self-loathers would have less to worry about and their feelings would be less apt to lead to depression (Solomon et al., 2001).
     In reference to the emotionally disturbed students, it was found that those who had been diagnosed as such suffered more from depression than children who did not have to live with emotional disturbance. Their ages were not relevant in this matter when the children were disturbed, as their depressive feelings were very prominent. The others who had not been categorized were also found to be depressed, and it is in them that grade level and age mattered. Those at a high school level proved to be more depressed than those who did not concern themselves with work at the elevated levels (Cullinan et al., 2004).
     The study examining very young children through interviewing their mothers and then evaluating the original subjects again but at a later age proved no surprising results. It was found that mothers who went through depression for significant periods of time prior to conceiving their children and mothers diagnosed with postpartum depression parented children who had more issues related to depression and unhappiness. Use of tobacco and alcohol, as well as social disorders also contributed to the abnormal behavior in the children. It was also found that these children had more of a chance to become violent or exhibit violent behavior than children who had mothers of a healthy age, mental background and social background (Tremblay et al., 2003).
     Depression was found to cause a number of things according to the examination of rural adolescence. One variable that was found to be a common link in those who are depressed is that they do not exercise as much as they should, meaning that if they took the time to exercise they might feel better about themselves. Problems with one’s self-esteem and problems within school also ranked near the top of the list for what can cause depression in a child living in a rural setting. Issues with peers ranked lower on the scale. This study concluded that people who possess baseline depressive symptoms are very likely to be diagnosed with depression later in life. It was also found that children with depressive symptoms are more likely to participate in sexual activity and abuse drugs and alcohol than children who do not have symptoms of depression (Burns et al., 2003).
     The tobacco related study showed that stress contributes to depression at a very high rater, and if a person can find means to cope with their stress, they are less likely to exhibit depressive symptoms. However, this study found that if a person is aware of and uses a method to reduce stress, they are more likely to use tobacco products. There is still a strong link between tobacco users and the depressed, though. It was also found that those who are unhappy with their bodies are more likely to smoke cigarettes (Lenz 2002).
     The antidepressant side-effect evaluation yielded results that were all based on the opinion of those who have been diagnosed with mental complications. Ninety-six percent of the respondents to this study related that there are both positive and negative aspects of taking anti-depressant medication. The remaining four percent said that all results of taking anti-depressants were negative. One of the main issues with those who found all things negative in the medication was that people treated them differently when they were made aware their acquaintance had been pronounced depressed and were taking medication in an effort to remedy the symptoms. Fourteen percent of respondents said that they believed the medication was ineffective. All involved reported that they did not feel “normal” even though they were led to believe that anti-depressants would bring them back to a “normal” state (Garfield et al., 2003).
     There were no significant differences between genders when it came to the experiment regarding precursors to youth suicide. It was found that some of the highest ranked indicators were events that are apt to happen to anyone. Difficulty in social situations, such as not being able to acquire a significant other, illness, and death within the closely-linked family were topping the arrangements of warning signs for suicide. All in all, the most prevalent theme in causing depression that could lead to suicide is loss. Loss of role status, such as termination of a long term relationship, and death are two occasions that can drive a person to suicidal aspirations (Smyth et al., 2004).


Discussion
     Depression can be defined as the center of a spider web. There are many things that can cause it which branch out to one side, and there are also a vast number of occurrences that could result from having depression. A more common cause is when a person hates themselves and finds it very difficult to change this on their own. From here, the person becomes depressed. It can be brought on more by childhood events or lessened by tobacco use. Stress can also increase the probability that a person succumbs to depression. If a person is optimistic and has high hopes for the future, they are not likely to sink into a depression deep enough to merit psychoanalysis or anti-depressant medication prescriptions. Past events are crucial in determining whether or not a person may be diagnosed with depression in the future, for it is very rare that a fortunate person who has not had to cope with loss will find themselves suffering from symptoms of depression. One can also not expect to feel like they did before the affliction once they start taking medication to help. It is extremely rare that a person is one hundred percent satisfied with how they feel during the courses of medication to alleviate depression. It is also more likely a person will attempt suicide or self-mutilation if they are diagnosed with depression and are prescribed anti-depressants. This is one warning sign compiled with many others in what may cause youth to want to end their life.
     Depression is a rather simple infirmity when it is broken down. It is not always brought about by inborn psychological problems like other mental diseases are. As simple as it may be, it is a problem that plagues a very large number of people worldwide.