Qiu Yinong, Class 1, Grade 8, Haide School Instructed by Yan Yifan Depression occurs in our daily lives every now and then. A light depression can be endured by most people, and sometimes can even turn into encouragement when negative feelings are gone. But there are some extremely bad ones that people can’t get themselves out of, which can highly affect their health, and for some, may even drive them to death. People often say: “Happiness is the most valuable thing.” If it is, then why do so many people fall into some deep hole inside their hearts, and can’t get out? Here are some reasons for this psychological disease — melancholia. One reason is pressure from the outside. For students, mostly high school students, they have a college entrance examination waiting ahead of them. This exam is apparently, for most people, the most important test that they will ever take in their lives. For those who value every exam very highly and have a fragile inside may feel nervous about taking exams, and those who have pressure from teachers or parents may be not confident about exams. It was widely reported that those who felt too much pressure would lay hands on themselves, which is regretful and painful, and would also create some bitterness for relatives and teachers. These tragedies happen all because of students’ misunderstanding of examinations and pressure from adults, which can lead some students to experience melancholia, which is an extreme psychological reaction. Another cause of this can be tragedies within one’s family, which means family members lost and gone forever. This can often happen in society but we can barely notice it, for those who are truly depressed can hide their feelings very deep and not let them explode. When family members pass away, it can be the most tragic thing because they are the ones that a person loves the most. That can leave the person in pain for a lifetime if he or she is unable to walk out of the darkness of loss, pain and agony, and the melancholia can stay with them for ages and increase when time goes by. This is a very typical cause. Finally, those who set excessive requirements for themselves can usually get depressed when failure occurs. Those people, both students and grown-ups, value success very highly and take nothing for granted, but failure is something that you can’t escape from, no matter how hard you try or how much effort you put into something. For such individuals, they may feel depressed, unacceptable of their failure, and that may conjure up some frustration, depression and irritation. Some of them may even exaggerate their mistake, even if it is a small one; they may think they are not good at the subject, because they think its importance is very high and take it very seriously, and the failure, for them, unacceptable. For the worst, it may develop into melancholia, and it’s really terrible because such individuals’ psychological process is quite negative and can’t turn into positive thinking until they have some corrected views or concepts toward failure. Melancholia is a pretty serious kind of psychological disease, there are various cures for it, but the most valid one is dragging yourself out of depression by trying to seek true happiness. Still, understanding the reason behind this disease can help us avoid it, but some can’t be avoided. Consequently, being positive, as far as I can tell, is the best approach. | 