Depression – an increasingly widespread pathology
More and more studies show that depression is diagnosed at younger ages.
Corina Cristea, 06.06.2025, 14:00
Depression is defined as a mood disorder that can affect cognition, that is, thinking, memory, attention and information processing. People diagnosed with depression may have difficulty concentrating, making decisions and solving problems, but also dysfunctional thoughts, memory problems, apathy and a lack of motivation, experiencing feelings of helplessness and guilt. Depression or cognitive disorders are not necessarily visible on the surface, but they can tear a person’s life apart. People struggling with depression find it difficult to explain that something hurts, something that only they can see. Globally, 1 in 8 people suffer from a mental illness, such as anxiety or depression, according to the World Health Organization, which also reports that one in seven young people between 10 and 19 years old struggle with such problems, which, moreover, remain largely unknown and especially untreated. “Depression is first and foremost the name of a pathology and I would like to emphasize this, because this name appeared in our colloquial language and any sadness, any apathy, any punctual emotional exhaustion, with real causes in our daily life, is described as such”, Yolanda Creţescu, a clinical psychologist, psychotherapist and the founder of the first depression hub in Romania, the Happy Minds Association, told us:
“Depression is an emotional, cognitive and behavioral disorder that must occur over a period of at least two or three weeks and in a continuous form in all areas of our lives. That is, we experience a state of exhaustion, a state of apathy and lack of energy in activities that we used to like and now we do not. We may have sleep disorders, either not sleeping or sleeping a lot, eating disorders, a state of deep sadness and, I repeat, the most important thing, we lack real life triggers. Because we diagnose depression as a state of discomfort in the absence of a real cause”.
In Romania, the National Institute of Public Health estimates that 3 out of 100 people suffer from mental and behavioral disorders. And the age at which these disorders manifest themselves is increasingly younger, even 10 years old. Yolanda Creţescu: “Unfortunately, we encounter such symptoms at an increasingly younger age. Whereas until recently, this condition was undiagnosed under 18, now there are indeed occurrences in younger people, but the question is: is it really depression or are there other causes that lead to these symptoms? Because the lack of emotional training in childhood triggers a weaker emotional intelligence, due to overly protective parenting, where children do not learn to cope with failure or frustrations and then they experience a period of sadness, of lack of emotional comfort, in almost any social challenge. Then, the emergence of digital communication has led to a reduction in real social interaction, which can also lead to emotional distress. Then, the increasingly greater academic and social pressure, because we demand more and more things from children, we have unrealistic ideals fostered by social media or actually from our immediate environment. I often talk to parents who like to compare their children to others”.
A national study shows that one in four Romanians says they have faced depression or anxiety in 2024, and almost half of those who admitted to having problems are young people under 30. 61% of those who said they had faced depression or anxiety did not seek specialized help. Why is this the case? The answer is simple, Yolanda Crețescu says: fear of stigma.
“Even though the pandemic has made people familiar with the therapeutic process and made a distinction between mental illness, psychiatrists, medication, psychiatric hospitals and psychologists, psychotherapy sessions, emotional training, be it online or physical, to help the person who is in emotional distress, the stigma is still there. Then there’s also the difficult access to specialists, from a financial perspective”.
Referring to children struggling with depression, psychologist Yolanda Creţescu says there are more and more prevention programs available.
“We realize that the best intervention is prevention, especially since children are sometimes protected, but sometimes their access to specialists is obstructed due to stigmatization by their own parents. Sometimes we get dragged into this role conflict in which, if we accepted the idea – my child has emotional problems, I would conclude that I was a bad parent or I did a very poor job at taking care of my own child. And then we enter denial and we disagree or we minimize the emotional impact that the environment has on the child”.
Fortunately, Yolanda Creţescu adds, there are also authorities children can resort to to receive support, even independently of the parent’s decision: the General Directorate of Social Assistance and Child Protection, which has protocols and specialists who can help. There is also the Child Ombudsman that can also take action, there is the school counselor, as well as special hotlines that children or teachers can always call. (VP)
