Lesson video

Hello, I'm Mr. Nicholson and welcome to lesson on depression.

Now this is a very sensitive topic, so if before we start the lesson you want to talk to somebody, please pause the video and have that chat with them now.

And if at any point during the video you feel as though you need to talk to someone, please stop the video, have that chat and come back and finish the lesson.

Also at the end of the lesson, if you feel you need to talk to somebody, please contact somebody at home, in school, or one of the many agencies online or on the telephone that can help such as the NSPCC or Childline.

When you're ready, we'll carry on with this lesson.

During this lesson, I'm going to ask you to write a few things down.

So you'll need an exercise book or a piece of paper.

You also need a pen with which to write.

If you haven't got them, pause the video and go and get them and press play when you come back.

If you have got them, we'll carry on with the lesson.

Before you began this lesson, you should have completed the introductory quiz.

It'll help consolidate your learning from the last lesson but prior to basis for what we're going to do today.

We're then going to look again, what is anxiety and refresh our memory on that one.

We'll then going to move into the area of the signs and symptoms of depression and then look at the idea of how to handle them ourselves but also using external support agencies to help us.

Finally, there's the exit quiz, which will help you review and consolidate what you've learned during this lesson.

What I'd like to do is recall from our earlier lesson what anxiety was.

If you complete the introductory quiz that I asked you to, that will also help you.

Maybe jot down your ideas from what you can remember and then carry on with the lesson.

So here we go, anxiety is your body's natural response to stress.

Remember we talked about fight or flight mechanisms. We talked about how the body and the brain react to stress.

It's all part of anxiety.

If you need to recall or write this down again, please do so because we're going to be linking it throughout the rest of the lesson.

We've now looked again what anxiety is, now we're going to move to the theme of this lesson, depression.

What do you think depression is? Pause the video and if there's anybody around, talk to them about it and then write down your answers on your piece of paper or in your exercise book.

When you're ready, press play and we'll look at what you've written and also at the definition of depression itself.

And here we are.

Depression is a mental health issue which affects a person's thoughts, moods, feelings, behaviour and physical health.

Can you make sure you've got the idea of thought, mood, feeling, behaviour and physical health in your definition.

So you may need to pause the video here and art your own work.

When you've done that, press play.

And here is a true of false statement I want you to think about.

Anxiety can be linked to depression.

Do you believe that's true or do you believe it's false? I'd also like to think about the similarities between anxiety and depression.

We looked at those earlier and we talked about what depression was a moment to go.

So pause the video for thinking time and when you're ready press play.

And the answer here is true.

Did you get that one right? Sometimes depression can be linked to a stressful event in your life, which you are anxious about.

If you didn't get the right answer, maybe jot down what it would be and if you did, you may need to add to your answer here.

Remember the idea though here is, sometimes depression can be linked not all the time.

It is only sometimes.

In this lesson, we're now going to turn to the signs of depression having defined what depression is.

Depression may occur only once in somebody's life or maybe sporadic throughout it.

Lack of interest is often a clear sign of depression.

However, it may not be depression so you'd need to look at some of the other signs and symptoms we'll study today.

It can lead to a lack of interest in normal life even in enjoyable activities and often feeling miserable or down in the dumps.

There's often sadness and helps us associate you with depression.

They may cry for no reason or when their feelings of anxiety overwhelm them, they can see no way out and that can cause that depression.

Now, as I said, these are signs of depression but sometimes you may also feel these or people may also feel these without being depressed.

So it's important to see everything in its totality rather than one-off events.

As well as the lack of interest and feeling sad or helpless, you may also have physical impacts and psychological impacts.

Physical ones are listed here.

You may be sleepless, have lack of concentration, losing weight for no apparent reason, to be changed your eating patterns, your regular eating, missing meals et cetera, or long lasting headaches.

The psychological ones can be irritability without any reason and low self-esteem.

You may pretend to be sick and say you're okay when you're not.

And that's issue around avoidance and you don't want to discuss what is wrong.

We mentioned earlier the idea of sadness.

So all of these may occur once or be sporadic throughout life, they are signs of depression.

It's important we know what they are.

If you need to review your learning from the previous slide and this slide and jot some ideas down around the physical and psychological impacts of depression.

If you need to do that, pause the video and when you've made those notes, press play.

I'd now like to use those impacts of depression and look at this scenario involving Carl.

Read through it carefully and see if you can write down things that show the impacts on his life because of his depression.

You'll need to pause the video here, read it, re-read it carefully and see if you can identify those signs of depression and write those down in your notes.

I suggest you do them as a bullet point list.

When you've done that, press play and we'll check what you've written.

I've highlighted for you here the signs of depression.

These will be linked to the idea of the physical and psychological impacts we mentioned a moment ago.

He comes into school late every day, finds it difficult to make eye contact, a normal everyday event that he's finding really difficult.

He's spending time on his own and always looks like he's about to burst into tears.

He shouts at people to leave him alone when they ask him how he is, that's avoidance technique we mentioned earlier.

But when teachers ask him because he can't shout at them, he says he's okay and he walks off to avoid the situation.

He'll often fall asleep in class because of his sleeplessness or closes his eyes as though going to sleep in lessons, the idea there of that physical impact of sleeplessness.

Ensure you've got all of these down.

If you haven't, add some to your list now.

When you have got all those down, we'll carry on.

So if you need to pause to write some down, please do so and then press play.

Here's a question I want you to think about.

Now we've looked at the impacts and seeing them in a scenario.

Here we are.

What can you do if you think someone is depressed? I want you to pause the video and spend a few minutes thinking about this.

If there's somebody around you who can help you discuss it, all the better.

You might want to jot down ideas down but really important here is to think, what can you do if you think someone is depressed? I want you to pause the video, think about it, make some notes if you wish, and then when you're ready, press play.

I'm sure you've written those things down already but here's four of mine.

Somebody shouts at you or tells them to leave her alone, don't take it personally.

They're not being rude to you, it's a sign and a symptom of that depression.

Tell somebody, if you think someone's depressed that will help them get some help for that person.

There's plenty of areas you can go for online support.

Look for those such as Childline or the NSPCC and they will be able to guide the person to get some help for that depression.

But please don't ignore them 'cause that will make the person feel worse.

If you need to add some of these ideas to your own, please do so.

Once again, I'd like you to pause the video and complete this activity relating to Carl.

First of all, make a list of the things that Carl's doing that show he may be depressed and I've given you two examples here.

He's shouting at people to leave him alone, he is close to tears.

And then think who could you turn to, to access support for Carl or what could you do to help him? Once again, I'll give you some ideas.

Shouting at someone to leave him alone, let a member of staff know that he's doing that well.

The fact that Carl is upset, let them also know this 'cause that will help them monitor the situation.

So make a list of things that show Carl is depressed and then add in what can we do to help him with these? When you're ready to do this, pause the video, write down your answers and then press play.

What I want you to do now is to pause the video and write down any strategy someone can use if they are feeling depressed.

How can they help themselves or what can you do with them to help them? We've mentioned earlier that in some cases you may need to contact professional or an online guy to help the person who is depressed.

Spend some time thinking about it and writing down any structures we can use to help someone if they feel depressed.

In explaining how we can help people depressed, these are some key words.

What I like you to do is to write all nine down in your notes.

They're going to become really important, in a moment I'll explain what we can do to help people or what people should not do.

So pause the video, write down these nine and then when you're ready, press play.

Think about the list we've just used.

In this way, we're going to look at how we can support people and also how we need not to support them.

Exercise is really important.

It raises the level of neurotransmitters and they make you feel better.

This in turn improves your confidence.

It helps you feel better because you're exercising, you're out and about and you feel more confident being out and about.

Making time to exercise daily is really important.

That ensures that those neurotransmitters are released and you feel better about yourself.

And also trying to have a positive attitude is really important.

This has been proven to relieve depression.

If you want to add anything to your list, please do so.

And on to that, you might want to pause the video while you write those down, we will be using them later on.

When we've mentioned exercise, the idea of vigorous exercise is important.

It develops the heart and the lungs.

In that way, it helps pump blood around the body and oxygen which we know makes us feel better.

Endorphins are also released and those natural chemicals have a pain reducing quality.

And it's important that we use those through exercise to help us feel better about ourselves.

But the most important thing here is not to remain inactive.

It's one thing not to do.

It means you'll be isolated and you're missing out on the health benefits that exercise can bring to depression.

Now, it may be that some of these things will not work and in that case, you would need to seek medical support for your depression.

It's not a thing to be ashamed of, it's not a thing to be embarrassed about, many people do it.

And if depression goes on for a long time, it can have severe effects on your mental and physical wellbeing.

If you feel you need to talk to somebody about being depressed or you know someone is depressed, then please let people know.

It's important we help everybody to have good mental and physical wellbeing.

Let's round all our learning up now.

In three bullet points, I want you to write down what you can do personally to help someone with depression.

Think about everything we've looked at.

Think about the signs, the symptoms, the idea of exercise and activity, and make sure you write these down into it.

But try and keep it into three points that you can share with anybody as a guide to help someone with depression.

But remember what I said, if you feel you can't help, please let somebody know.

Depression can stop people doing what they want to do, it's important that we treat it and we know how it's to be treated and who can help us.

Here are three things you can do.

Know and notice the signs of depression.

And we looked at those earlier on in the lesson.

Tell someone if you think someone is depressed, it's important that person gets help for their depression.

It's impacting probably on their mental and physical wellbeing.

And be aware of how they can help themselves and maybe guide them to being active in their lives.

We know this has a beneficial effect on their mental and physical wellbeing.

Many thanks for taking part in the lesson.

Remember these have been sensitive issues so if you need to talk to somebody, please do so.

Remember all we've learned and complete your exit quiz 'cause it'll help consolidate your learning.

Once again, thank you from me for taking part in the lesson and good bye.