Browsing by Author "Kronqvist, Essi"

This study examines if the handicrafts and making them can be used as a self-treatment-method in depression. There hasn´t been many earlier studies of the subject if craft has some influence on depression. Although over the last twenty years there has been lot of studies about how the handicrafts improve well-being and many of these studies have compared how these well-being-factors affect different diseases or even how they affect to some mental disorders, but only few of these studies handle depression. This study explored what kind of positive impacts depressed can have from handicraft communities or making crafts and how these impacts can support self-treatment in depression. The research was carried out as a descriptive literature review, which focused handling find-ings from the earlier studies. These studies formed material for this research and their sub-ject were about the handicrafts and well-being from them, how handicrafts are used in ther-apies, what are depression symptoms and how depression can be treated. This research used the findings from the material to find new connections between achieved well-being from the handicraft communities and making crafts and how these well-being-factors can help coping with depression and how depressed can take advantage of these factors. Individuals have different symptoms in depression and therefore it is important that the treatment is individualized. Common symptoms of depression are lowered mood, feeling blue and poor concentration. The handicrafts and making them can be good way to over-come these symptoms. Material considered that in self-treatment it is important to take care of yourself, talk about things and have good social connections. The handicrafts can support these tasks by creating a meditative state in making crafts and giving person a time to think and handle things. Another useful factor was the handicraft communities where depressed can increase their functionality in different ways and be heard and seen. The handicrafts were also seen to improve self-esteem and sense of accomplishment, which are often low in depression. So, it can be interpreted that the handicrafts can be a useful self-treatment-method in depression.