The ability to understand what a person goes through when they are suffering from depression can be helped by first trying to understand what the causes of depression can be.

First it is important to know that physicians and researchers have not yet been successful in identifying a specific cause of depression. They continue to research and study but the answers are coming slowly.

What is known about depression is that those who suffer from it will have some common circumstances that they have to deal with. It may be in what they eat, how they were brought up, how they relate to certain things that go on around them.

First, heredity plays a big role in who will have to deal with depression. If one or both of a person's parents suffer from depression they are at a high risk to suffer from the same problem.

It is believed that between forty and seventy percent of those who suffer from depression have it because to runs in the family. It is thereof not unlikely that they have siblings who also fight the problem.

Others are affected because of an imbalance of the chemicals in the brain. This is why antidepressants can work to help those who are depressed as it evens out the chemicals that should be there. These include serotonin and norepinephrine.

The truth is that physicians and researchers are not clear on why this is a problem but they do agree that correcting the imbalance of chemicals can go a long way to dealing with eliminating the symptoms.

Studies recently have pointed to a coincidental pattern in the hippocampus. This part of the brain deals specifically with memory and mood. Research has linked this area as a possible source of depression since when the chemical serotonin is low it certainly affects mood, but when it is increased with medications both mood and memory improve greatly. Therefore proving the researchers claim.

Some people are affected by what has been called seasonal affective disorder, also known as SAD, which is a recently recognized ailment. It is caused by the reduced hours of sunlight once winter approaches and the days grow shorter.

The thinking is that with less sun the body manufactures more melatonin and that this is the cause of the problem.

There is actually a therapy that has been developed to help counter this problem called bright light therapy or phototherapy. Many people respond to this therapy with generally good results.

In the ongoing look for answers to the question of what causes depression diet has come up as a possible factor.

Researchers have claimed omega-3 fatty acids, found in fish and heavily processed foods can be a trigger for depression. Studies were conducted to prove this point at schools and prisons.

A study with laboratory rats showed excessive omega acids appeared to cause depression in the rats.

Whatever the cause of a person's depression, learning to deal with it, by therapy or medication, is the bigger issue.