Mental health is the overall state of mind that drives actions, emotions, decisions, self-awareness, and interpersonal relationships. Mental health impacts mood, energy, motivation, and immune system responses. Poor mental health without a positive attitude leads to easier and longer sickness along with physical tiredness and sleep disorders. Physical activity reduces stress, improves sleep, and elevates mood. Sunlight provides vitamin D that elevates mood and mental fitness. Daily gratitude and thankfulness create a positive attitude that supports mental fitness.

Depression is a mood disorder characterized by a persistently sad or empty feeling, irritability, and a diminished or absent interest in everyday activities. Depressive moods can range from mild but enduring feelings of sadness to a really profound despair that typically interferes with routine daily functions. About 18 million Americans suffer from periods of clinical depression defined as a sense of sadness noticeable enough to require treatment. Episodes can occur at any age though often they first surface during adolescence. Persistent feelings of sadness or emptiness constitute one key symptom along with a sense of hopelessness worthlessness and guilt. The inability to enjoy ordinary pleasurable activities constitutes another key symptom.

Moods of discouragement and depression arise in response to specific losses or adverse events that lead to feelings of hopelessness. A depressive mood can cross the mind for no apparent reason yet stems from mental physical or spiritual causes. Endogenous depressions develop from less distinct sources such as subconscious fears or denied needs that unsettling events now threaten. Susceptibility to frequent discouraged moods often depends on the encouragement values self esteem love or support received in early years or the lack of them. Vulnerability relates to how responses to losses or problems were learned. Certain personalities seem more sensitive to discouraged moods than others. Negative moods and feelings are placed in vulnerable or unsuspecting human minds by evil spirits. These evil spirits implant impulses to want to give up on life in some weakened people. Negative moods ultimately originate with satan who capitalizes on difficult circumstances and broadcasts negative feelings and moods into minds even without an apparent reason. Subtle negative thoughts fill minds with what is lacking leading to depression without realizing why. Lack of positive emotions and attitudes becomes a way of life for masked depressives so that happiness and good feelings perpetually elude them. A mood of discouragement or depression comes on more easily when God is not the center of life.