Phillips 1 I was inspired to write this essay about depression because of the sadness that I felt while reading

Beyond Katrina by Natasha Tretheway. I thought that if I felt this sad while reading that the people in the experiencing this must have felt even worse. So I looked into the psychology of the characters in the book.

Zuri Phillips Dr. Crowther English 1101H Section 270 13 April 2014 Depression: The Still Unknown Illness Depression is a life threating illness. It can take and ruin lives. Depression can make you avoid living life as well as interfere with the quality of your life. In Beyond Katrina by Natasha Tretheway several of the people of Gulf Port are effected by the traumatic aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. The author describes the book as a meditation on the Mississippi on the gulf coast. This is a very adept description of the book because its more of a jumble of stories from people and how the author interprets them. The people interviewed are living in very depressing situations. Reading the test closely, we can discern that the people featured in narrative are suffering from depression. Because of this I pondered what depression is and how is it treated. Depression is an illness that isnt yet fully understood but what we know can help heal people from this illness. In order to understand how the characters in the book are feeling we have to look into what depression is and how its treated. In order to understand how the people in Beyond Katrina felt we need to look at what depressions is. Depression is a feeling of hopelessness. There are several ways to become depressed and most center on a persons life situations. For the characters in the book a lot of their depression came from the aftermath of the storm. Studies show that depression can be caused by learned hopelessness. Learned hopelessness is a psychological condition where a

Phillips 2

person who is use to bad things happening in their life doesnt change or redirect their way of doing things; instead they allow those bad things to happen without a fight. For example, a kid that always fails his or her math test may give up completely instead of studying harder to get a better grade. Gulf Port, the city that the author of Beyond Katrina get most of her interviewees from, is not the riches city is Mississippi. It was a town known for being poor. The people of Gulf Port werent the richest and relied on the casino business to have jobs. For these people bad things happening in life isnt all that uncommon. Learned helplessness can make a person feel hopeless. This hopelessness can cause and keep a person in a depressed state. Depression can adversely affect a lot of things one of those is a persons social life. Symptoms of depression are random aches, loss of sleep and or appetite and suicide. (WebMD) The last symptom is one that is most associated with depression its always a warning at the end of commercials for depression medication like Prozac. Depression can adversely affect a lot of things one of those is a persons social life. A depressed person doesnt want to go out and meet new people or see friends. This makes healing from depression even harder because it cuts them off from a possible support network. The people that they are avoiding are the ones that could help them heal and recover. Depression can affect your overall quality of life. When the symptoms manifest they interrupt your normal rhythms. For example loss of sleep can make you irritable. This irritability can disgruntle a person and make them fell even more helpless. The symptoms tend to feed off of one another. Depression can also adversely affect the brain. An article on healthline.com titled The Effects of Depression on the Brain states that: High levels of depression have been associated with an increased level of cortisol (a steroid hormone) in about half of all cases. Excess cortisol has been linked to damage to the hippocampal neurons, an area of the brain important to memories.

Phillips 3

However, recent studies show that this excess may also have an effect on brain size. The effects of depression are wide reaching and affect many areas of life as well as the body. There are several ways to treat this illness. One of the ways is to get psychiatric help. There are several ways to deal with depression. One of the most popular is to seek counseling. When we think of curing depression this is the picture that automatically pops into our heads. A patient on the couch talking to a psychiatrist. This treatment tends be very effective in healing people with depression but this isnt the only treatment out there. You can also treat depression with medication. One well know medication is Prozac. Prozac is what is know as a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI) (BioMed Central). People with depression generally lack normal levels of serotonin so they use SSRIs to artificially raise the brains leave of serotonin. This allows brain cells a greater chance of collecting serotonin. Doctor know that the level of serotonin is a factor in individuals level of happiness but arent exactly sure why, but because of its effect on the brain it comes with side effects. Prozacs side effects can range from non-severe head pain to memory loss. There are a lot of new studies showing that you can treat depression with a change in diet. The two key nutrients being magnesium and saturated fat. A scientific study done by the University of Navarra in Pamplona, Spain said that A higher intake of dietary magnesium seems to be associated with lower depression symptoms (Derom, Marie-Laure, et al). Another way to ease depression is to consume saturated fat. The brain need fat for cell health because a significant portion of the brain is made up of fat. For example the Myelin, the protective sheath that covers communicating neurons, is composed of 30% protein and 70% fat. (The Human Brain-Fats). Adding saturated fat to a persons diet could also help cure depressions. There is lots

Phillips 4

of real life evidence suggesting that the consumption of saturated fat has help people cure their depressions. This method could work if a person can consume saturated fat without any adverse medical issues popping up. All of the people interviewed in the book all described Katrina along the lines of being a storm that wiped away everything leaving not nothing in its wake. One of the people interviewed, a casino security guard, said It [Hurricane Katrina] was like a bomb had went off. And everywhere is slabs, just slabs. And the water is still full of debris-houses, cars. We need to dredge the Gulf to get it all back. (Trethewey 17) Several of the people in Beyond Katrina are dealing with depression from the storm. One of those characters is Aesha. Before the storm she had a secure life with a great apartment but after the storm she lost all of her and her sons belongings to her landlords children. After the storm the landlords children illegally kicked her out of her apartment so that they could use the space. Aesha lost everything. For a lot of the people interviewed their rent went up after the storm. This made it hard for people to make their rent each month. In addition it was incredible difficult to find work because most of the businesses were destroyed during the hurricane. Situations like these can lead to a feeling of hopelessness that can cause depression. The people in Natasha Tretheweys book Beyond Katrina were picking up the pieces of their lives and trying to adapt to the situation. This moving on that the interviewees were doing is a great sign that they wont suffer from depression, or that their depression wont be too severe. Hurricane Katrina was a horrible life ruining storm. It caused billions of dollars of damage not just to New Orleans but to all parts of the gulf coast. When traumatic events happen people tend to band together and help each other but there are always people who feel helpless to their situation. Its after traumatic events such as this that depression can hit many people. Even

Phillips 5

though we dont understand everything about depression my hope is that the people interviewed get the help that they need. Whether it come from friend and family or the government help is very important in dealing emotional with tragic events like these.

Phillips 6

Works Cited BioMed Central. "Depression Drugs -- SSRIs -- May Reorganize Brain Plasticity, New Research Suggests." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 18 March 2011 <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/03/110316084425.htm>. Web. 12 Apr. 2014 Collingwood, J. Depression Brain Changes Explored. Psych Central. (2013) Web. April 13, 2014, <http://psychcentral.com/lib/depression-brain-changes-explored/00016505> Derom, Marie-Laure, et al. "Magnesium And Depression: A Systematic Review." Nutritional Neuroscience 16.5 (2013): 191-206. MEDLINE with Full Text. Web. 13 Apr. 2014. Lihua, Zhou, et al. "Negative Cognitive Style As A Mediator Between Self-Compassion And Hopelessness Depression." Social Behavior & Personality: An International Journal 41.9 (2013): 1511-1518. Academic Search Complete. Web. 13 Apr. 2014. Nordqvist, Christian. "What is Serotonin? What Does Serotonin Do?." Medical News Today. MediLexicon, Intl., 3 Nov. 2013. Web.13 Apr. 2014. Signs of Clinical Depression: Symptoms to Watch For Web MD. Web MD, Web. 12. Apr. 2 The Effects of Depression on the Brain Depression: Effects on the Brain. Web.12. Apr. 2014< http://www.fi.edu/learn/brain/fats.html> The Franklin Institute. The Human Brain-Fats. 2004. Web. 13 04 2014. <http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/232248> Trethewey, Natasha. Beyond Katrina: A Meditation on the Mississippi Gulf Coast. Athens, Georgia: The University of Georgia Press, 2012 .Print.