The term depression is meant to describe feelings such as sadness, disappointment,
hopelessness etc. Actually depression is a psychiatric disorder in which the patient's mood
becomes distressful. In recent times, depression is so universal that it is sometimes look like
'Psychological Flu'. According to WHO, approximately 1% of world population suffers from
severe mental disorders and 15% suffer minor mental disorders
.
It can be thought that depression has two components: the affective component (for example, the state of mind) and the physical or somatic component (loss of appetite). According to him, individuals are affected by three levels of depression -
mild, moderate and severe. Gelder observed that, in mild depression there are
frequently other symptoms that are less prominent in severe disorders. They include anxiety,
phobias, obsession symptoms and less often dissociative symptoms.
Teachers have very important roles and responsibilities in teaching - learning process. Now a
day, depression is considered a severe difficulty among teachers. Kyriacou explain
teachers' depression the same as "the experience by a teacher of unpleasant emotions, such as tension, frustration, anxiety, anger and depression, resulting from aspect of work as a teacher." Schonfeld (1990) noticed that educators into nearly all complicated schools explain depressive sign along with the connection stuck between work environment plus depressive
indication is well-built. Educators into the majority in unfavorable school atmospheres show
the maximum depressive symptoms.
Borg and Riding found even higher results in the stress levels of Maltese teachers,
with almost 34% of Maltese teachers judging their work to be very stressful or extremely
stressful. Mc Manaman stated that the cause of this spectacular augment in teacher
depression can be credited to changes in education that have accompanied changes in
government over the years, and what can be called "educational wars'' in the last decade.
These types of changes include the new curriculum, more documentation, cuts, stressed
students and worried parents. Teachers also face many problems due to work load, low
salary, non availability of resources etc. These types of things build pressure and finally
create depression among teachers.
