Depression and Suicide: A Concern in Aboriginal Health

Running head: DEPRESSION AND SUICIDE
DEPRESSION AND SUICIDE
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1DEPRESSION AND SUICIDE
Canada is considered to be a failure when the health of aboriginals are discussed and
taken under consideration. The health of indigenous people in Canada is certainly a big
embarrassment to the country. It is known that aboriginal people of Canada are faced with harsh
challenges on daily basis (Boyer, 2019). The unique set of challenges makes them go through
mental health issues and illnesses. Depression is one of the major disorders that comes under the
common and serious medical illness. Therefore, aboriginals are certainly more in numbers when
depression and suicide is considered in Canada. The paper will discuss depression and suicide is
a profound factor of concern in the area of aboriginal health. The paper will discuss the concept
of depression and suicide, its condition, relation to the aboriginal group, the history of the disease
along with traditional healing practices. The paper will provide description of depression and
suicide followed by epidemiology of the condition. The history of depression and suicide among
aboriginal people along with the historical events that have contributed to the development of it
followed by the traditional healing practices used in order to address the issue of depression and
suicide.
Depression and suicide
Depression is one of the major disorders that come under the common and serious
medical illness. Depression has serious negative impacts on the way a person feel, the way a
person think and the way a person act. However, depression is treatable and a person with
depression can overcome it through appropriate medical approaches (Miller & Hen, 2015).
Depression can lead to several problems including emotional and physical problems that may
decrease a person’s ability function at home as well as work. The signs of depression are:
 Lack of energy or feelings of fatigue

2DEPRESSION AND SUICIDE
 Loss of pleasure in virtually every activities
 Frequent tearfulness
 Change in sleep pattern
 Difficulty with appetite
 memory or concentration
 Unrealistic ideas and worries
 Changes in appetite along with corresponding change in weight
 Feeling of worthlessness and self-blame and no hope about future
 Thoughts of suicide (Schwartz et al., 2014)
One of the major leading causes of death in young people is suicide. The cause of suicide is
mental illness among which depression is the most common one. People feeling suicidal are
overwhelmed by painful emotions and during this time death seems to be the escape for them.
People who overcome depression leave the tendency of committing suicide (Dazzi et al., 2014).
They are also found being regretful of attempting suicide after overcoming depression. The signs
and symptoms of suicide are:
 Talking about suicide
 Withdrawing from social contact
 Mood swings such as emotionally high and deeply one day and discouraged the other day
 Increased use of alcohol or drugs
 Feeling trapped and hopeless
 Performing self-destructive things
 Developing personality changes
 Feeling anxious and agitated (Schilling et al., 2014.)