In a world shaken by wars and conflicts, plagued by ignorance and disease there are always upheavals in human mind.
Frustrations, tensions, anxieties, and mental stress open the gates for depression.
Causes of Depression cannot usually be tied to a single reason - in fact, it is the culmination of several different triggering factors that causes depression.
Depression is not just a state of mind - many times, an imbalance in the chemicals in the human brain (called neurotransmitters which carries signal in the brain and nerves) also causes depression.
Causes of depression: Some of the causes of depression are as follows:

• Genes: Sometimes, depression runs in the family and our genes have a role to play in depression.
  
• Trauma and stress: Financial crisis, dissatisfaction or loss of job, failure in personal relationship or bereavement can cause trauma and stress and trigger the onset of severe depression.
  
• Pessimistic personality: Having a low self esteem and negative attitude towards life often causes depression.
  
• Physical condition: Long time physical ailments like Parkinson's disease, arthritis, cancer, etc can also lead to chronic depression.
  

Although depression can strike a person at any time, and during any phase of life, yet, the signs symptoms depression are widely prevalent and more clearly visible in the elderly people and in women.
Some of the signs symptoms depression include:

• Losing interest in regular daily activities
• Feel down or sad
• Insomnia
• Difficult to focus
• Difficulty making decisions
• Unexpected or unplanned weight gain or loss
• Irritability
• Restlessness
• Feeling lethargic or weak
• Feeling worthless
• Losing interest in having sex
• Suicidal thoughts or behavior

If a person feels that he or she is suffering from depression, then he/she can take a depression quiz to judge the state of his/her mind.
Depression quiz is not a diagnosis for depression.
Rather it is just a tool to gauge the mood of the person and to ascertain whether any of the symptoms of depression are present in the person or not.
Depression quiz is a set of questionnaires, the answer to which, determines whether you are suffering from mild, acute or severe depression.
Questions asked may include queries about -

• Are you very slow at work and have loads of unfinished and incomplete tasks piled up?
• Are you feeling hopeless?
• Are you an escapist by nature and feel like running away and starting life afresh?
• Do you suffer from hypersomnia or excessive sleep disorder?
• Do you have a severe change in appetite?
• Are you allergic to the phone and hate answering it?
• Are you pretentious and claim to be away from home when people call or stop by?
• Do you get anxious with people around you?
• Do worldly possessions seem to be a burden to you?

If you have answered 'YES' to a minimum of three questions, you may be suffering from acute depression.
A Depression quiz is a facilitating tool which helps the doctor to have idea of the patient's state of mind and give suggestions accordingly.
If a person suffers from depression he should seek medical advice, take steps towards a more positive attitude towards life and fight against those factors which cause depression.
Although we may not every fully be able to control the causes of depression, some individual research into this area can help many people better cope with it in the future.
For this reason alone, it is important that all sufferers of depression evaluate what causes their depression.