Depression as a cause and consequence of victimization

Abstract

In this paper, I tried to show cause-and-consequence relationship between depression, as one of very frequent and specific mental disorders, and different forms of victimization. I wanted to make a modest contribution to the statement that depression, taken in a historic and temporal sequence despite our will and quite unexpectedly was transformed into some kind of "collective madness". At the beginning, it was a synonym for melancholy, a specific state into which those who were weaker were falling. But step by step and parallel with the global network of changes in all fields of human life, it got a character of world "infection" which spreading was being followed by the expansion of cardiovascular or malignant diseases, but without so obvious physical manifestations. Depression, as a long-term and "painful state of human soul" is often looking for shelter and rescue in abusing psychoactive substances, drugs and alcohols, and is often finding a way out in suicide behavior, and therefore it becomes one of its dominant causes. Before that, it is, of course, usually manifested as a consequence of different forms of victimization; generally, it implies social conditions, either at macro or micro levels, and inadequate response of a person to them, but also criminal or any other negative acts, doings or omissions that could endanger or destruct any human good and put the man in a position of victim. In this way, depression "is closing its magic circle of causes and consequences", in which the man has three allies: himself community or other people, and time. Strength, quality and duration of allied assistance are reversely proportional to victimization dimension of depression.

U radu sam pokušala pokazati uzročno-posledičnu vezu depresije, kao jednog od čestih i specifičnih mentalnih poremećaja, i različitih oblika viktimizacije. Želela sam da to bude skroman doprinos tvrdnji da se depresija, u jednoj istorijskoj i vremenskoj sekvenci, sasvim neočekivano i protiv naše volje, pretvorila u blaži oblik jedne vrste "kolektivnog ludila". U početku, bila je to reč kao sinonim za melanholiju, za specifično stanje u koje su "padali" oni "slabiji, genetski predodređeni i teže prilagodljivi", da bi postepeno, i paralelno sa globalnom mrežom promena u svim sferama ljudskog bitisanja, ona poprimila dimenziju svetske "zaraze" čije širenje proporcionalno i procentualno prati ekspanziju bolesti kardiovaskularnog sistema ili malignih bolesti, ali bez tako vidljivih fizičkih manifestacija. Depresija, kao dugotrajno i "bolno stanje ljudske duše" često traži pribežište i trenutni spas u zloupotrebi psihoaktivnih supstanci, drogama i alkoholu, a još češće izlaz nalazi u suicidnim postupcima i postaje jedan od njihovih dominantnih uzroka. Pre toga, ona se naravno, uglavnom javlja kao posledica različitih oblika viktimizacije; u najširoj dimenziji to su opšte društvene okolnosti, bilo na makro ili mikro nivou, i neadekvatan odgovor ličnosti na njih, a potom, konkretne kriminalne ili druge društveno negativne radnje, činjenja ili nečinjenja, kojima se ugrožava ili uništava neko ljudsko dobro i čovek stavlja u poziciju žrtve. Na taj način, depresija "zatvara svoj začarani krug uzroka i posledica", u kojem čovek ima tri saveznika: sebe, sredinu ili druge ljude i vreme. Snaga kvalitet i trajanje "savezničke pomoći" obrnuto su proporcionalni jačini viktimološke dimenzije depresije.