The Symptoms and the Treatment of Depression
Depression has been a part of our lives for as long as humans have been on the earth. Everyone has had days when nothing was going right. But it all depends with an individual how to handled this adversity and how depressed that person becomes.
Depression is considered to be the "common cold of psychological disorders." This is because depression is the most common mood disorder. In fact, depression is becoming more and more widespread and the incidences of depressive disorders are increasing rapidly.
Before we can go any further, we must know what depression is and what causes it. Depression is an emotion that is felt along with a strong physical side effect. There are ways to tell when a person is feeling down depressed. Usually caused from something that has already happened in that person's life. There are many sources of these factors that may lead to depression. They can include one or more of the following, unhappy relationships, divorce/separation, financial difficulties, problems at work, children leaving home, old age, illness, etc. These events in a person's life usually create stress in his or her lives.
Depression starts to become a problem when it starts to get out of proportion. Someone might feel a little depressed after a minor disappointment, this is normal. It is not normal though for someone to have depression that becomes severe in nature or it lasts for an extended period of time. The same is true for someone who has experienced a traumatic experience. For example, a person may become completely broken up with grief after a loved one's death, after all this fall within a range that is considered no...
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...Burns, David D. (1989). The Feeling Good Handbook. New York, NY.
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Holmes, David., S. (1994). Abnormal Psychology (2nd Ed.). New York, NY.
Holmes, David., S. (1997). Abnormal Psychology (3rd Ed.). New York, NY.
Priest, Robert. (1983). Anxiety and Depression. New York, NY.
La Haye, Tim. (1974). How to Win Over Depression. Grand Rapid, Michigan.
Papolos, Demitri F., and Papolos, Janice. (1987). Overcoming Depression. New York, NY.
Rosenthal, Norman E. (1989). Seasons of the Mind. New York, NY.
Myers, Irma, and Myers, Arthur. (1982). Why you feel down and what can you do about it. Charles Scriber's Sons/ New York.
Rush, John. (1983). Beating Depression. New York, NY.
Bugental, James F. T. (1987). The Art of the Psychotherapist. New York, NY.
Burns, David D. (1989). The Feeling Good Handbook. New York, NY.
Depression is a serious medical illness that negatively affects how a person conducts him/herself, and the way he/she think. Depression may include anxiety disorders, post-traumatic stress disorders, manic depressions. People with a depressive illness cannot merely ‘pull themselves together’ and get better. About 5% of the population will have some form of a mental illness at some point in their lives. Half of these people will also have a substance abuse
Depression brings people down to a joyless state in which they do not see the positive side of any concept. However, with proper medications and treatments, they can be brought back to normal emotion levels. Lets begin by giving the description given in the DSM-IV-TR on Major Depressive Disorder. The DSM states “five (or more) of the following symptoms have been present during the same 2-week period and represent a change from previous functioning; at least one of the symptoms is either (1) depressed mood or (2) loss of interest or pleasure.” (APA, 2000) The American Psychiatric Association also states that the symptoms do not include those symptoms, which are due to a general medical condition or hallucinations or mood-incongruent delusions. The symptoms that the DSM discusses are the following:
Depression is an illness within itself that affects the “whole body”. (Staywell,1998) The body, feelings, thoughts, and behavior are all immensely altered when someone is depressed. It is not a sign of personal weakness, or a condition that can be wished or willed away. For some people depression is just temporary, but for others it can last for weeks, months and even years.
Depression is an touchy and continually changing subject. Having depression can be a confusing and frustrating thing to deal with. Becoming depressed and having to seek help can be a stressful and complicated process, that can only further increase his or her’s depression, however depression is a terrible, but common mental illness, that can be treated and maintained with the help of others.
Depression is a serious issue that has no single cause. Depression is likely a combination of many factors such as genetic, biochemical, psychological and environmental. According to research, depressive illnesses are indications of disorders of the brain. Depression can affect all ages and all parts of society. Periods of sadness, irritability, fatigue, and loss of interest are some symptoms of depression.
Depression can take several other forms. In bipolar disorder, sometimes called manic-depressive illness, a person’s mood swings back and forth between depression and mania. People with seasonal affective disorder typically suffer from depression only during autumn and winter, when there are fewer hours of daylight. In dysthymia , people feel depressed, have low self-esteem, and concentrate poorly most of the time—often for a period of years—but their symptoms are milder than in major depression. Some people with dysthymia experience occasional episodes of major depression. Mental health professionals use the term clinical depression to refer to ...
Researchers believe that it is caused by chemical imbalances in the brain, which may be hereditary or caused by different events in a person’s life. Most types of depression seem to run in families with any problems. Many illnesses have specific medical causes and have straightforward treatment, but depression is more complicated then with any other illness because you can not cure it with surgery. One of the causes of depression can occur with “social factors such as loneliness which can be a break up with a boyfriend or girlfriend or a death of a relative or friend” (Curtis). It can be any type of family history conflicts such as anyone within the family or any child abuses. An early child abuse can lead to it or it can be heredity if a family member has been through it. Money can be another issue towards depression people lose their jobs. Once they lose their job they get stressed out and at times feel depressed because they don’t have sufficient amount of money for themselves or their family to support them such as food, clothing, rent, and payments. “Depression can be a temporary response to many situations and stresses” ( Major). Sex hormones may
Depression is defined as "a state of despondency marked by feelings of powerlessness and hopelessness" (Coon, 2001). Some people can mix up depression with just having the blues because of a couple of bad days or even weeks. It is already said that depression affects about one sixth of the population or more (Doris, Ebmeier, Shajahan, 1999). Depression can happen in any age range from birth to death. The cause of depression is still obscure and becoming clear that a number of diverse factors are likely to be implicated, both genetic and environmental. Some causes are leading stressful lives, genetic factors, a previous depressive episode, and the personality trait neuroticism (Doris, et al., 1999).
Depression is much more common than most people think. Because it is essentially an invisible illness and is largely in the mind, it is difficult to correctly diagnose it and most people suffer for months, years, or even decades with depression. The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines depression as “a mood disorder marked especially by sadness, inactivity, difficulty with thinking and concentration, a significant increase or decrease in appetite and time spent sleeping, feelings of dejection and hopelessness, and sometimes suicidal thoughts or an attempt to commit suicide.” Most medical definitions are able to explain what happens and why it does, but after carefully examining this one, we only notice that it explains what happens, but not why. Usually, the symptoms of an illness are...
What is depression? Depression is an illness that can take over a person’s life---it can take their happiness and their will to live. This illness can effect adults, teenagers, and even kids. “Depression is an equal opportunity disorder---- it can affect anyone of any group, any background, any race, any gender, and any age. It is the great leveler of all groups and can take the greatest and the smallest of us all and reduce us to the pain and nothingness that is depression (Nydegger 1)”. Depression is an emotion most people may feel they have experienced, but little do they know it’s just the basic emotions we feel. It is important to identify the symptoms of depression, the types of depression, who can get them and how they manifest, in other to be able to treatment them.
Depression affects everyone's life at sometime or another. Depression comes in a wide variety of forms, from mild unhappiness to a chemical imbalance in the mind. There are many different symptoms that reveal a person's problem with depression. If left untreated, depression may continue to develop into a serious illness or even death.
Depression is a condition that affects one in every 10 people sometime during their lifetime. Over 80% of those people do not receive treatment or medication. Many people with depression have factors like obesity, sleep disorders, and lack of education.
Depression is one of the most common psychological problems. Each year over 17 million Americans experience a period of clinical depression. Thus, depression affects nearly everyone through personal experiences or through depression in a family member or friend.
There are many people in the world who are struggling with the disease depression. Depression is the state in which a person feels very sad, hopeless and unimportant. The thing about depression is that it affects both genders and any ages. Depression is something that deserves full attention. For many reasons doctors believe that when a person has depression, they have to start taking medication for it as if medications help. People are becoming more dependent on antidepressants when there are other techniques for dealing with depression.
Depression isn’t just a state of being, or someone’s mood. There are different types of depression, and each of those types have their own lists of symptoms and treatments, all similar but they have some differences.