Springs here and along with it? The beauty and scenery of colors and wildlife! Gen here bringing you the best guidelines to health and wellness, the next few weeks I’ll be focusing on nature and how it affects us positively, and can bring benefits to us all, the resource I’ll be using quite frequently will be from the American Society of Landscape Architects. Nature is known to be a form of de stressing and a way to let loose from the city life, today I want to bring light on how nature can affect depression.

For those who don’t know, depression is a mental illness that consumes the life of its host, many people have this mental illness, it’s hard to get through and people now and days do not understand the severity of it and how bad it is, I want to remind you all to be mindful towards others and to be caring, if you don’t have depression but know someone who does then I urge you to help them, don’t judge them, you haven’t been in their shoes so please don’t go telling others how they feel and that “ it’s a phase, it’ll pass.” From personal experience, I’ve met and known people with depression, and fortunately was able to help,within my previous experience I’ve learned that  it takes is a helping hand and listening ears to help someone, and it takes nature to take a full blow at it. Based on the National Center for Health Statistics, there has been a massive spike or increase in the amount of teens and young adults who have been prescribed antidepressants being 400%. It is said that this illness alone “ affects 14.8 million Americans or 6.7 percent of the U.S. population and is the leading cause disability in the U.S. for ages 15 to 44. ” So then what can we do about this? Again, nature people nature is a great place to start!

Before cities before anything, as humans all we had was the great outdoors so it’s no surprise that this is beneficial to us all and to those suffering with depression. Many of you are probably asking “ how? “ well here’s the really brief summary of it. In a research conducted by the dutch they found that “ living close to parks, or at least near lots of trees, can have far reaching mental health benefits for people. In turn, living in places without parks or trees, especially if you are young or poor, can have major negative impacts.” This study can be found In the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health and more proof can be found in the provided link on the American Society of Landscape Architects, if you know someone who’s suffering from this illness, remind them that their not alone and there is help everywhere in anywhere, with the information provided we can all make a difference in the lives of others, knowledge is power, use it wisely and share it with the world, if you have any questions on this topic feel free to comment in the comment box below, thanks as always for tuning in!

P.S: Please keep in mind that this does not replace your doctor’s reccomendations or advice, if you feel that you are in need of help, please consult a licensed personnel such as a doctor or a psychologist