Are you feeling worthless? Helpless or hopeless? Do you sleep less than usual? Are you eating more than usual? How about feeling overwhelmed. Having thoughts of death or suicide? Are you avoiding family or close friends? Do you feel unreasonably guilty? If you agreed to five of these statements and have been experiencing them for more than two weeks then the possibility of being depressed is high. Depression is defined as a serious medical condition in which a person feels very sad, hopeless, and unimportant and often is unable to live in a normal way (meriam-webster.com) Depression can be triggered by many things such as life event, loss of a job, loss of a loved one, and end of a relationship. Some studies have also shown that it could …show more content…
For instance, in a scientific point of view, researchers are now beginning to uncover evidence of low chemicals in our brain. Low levels of serotonin ,norepinephrine, and dopamine are part what make us depressed. This is what most refer to as a chemical imbalance. Medical illnesses and conditions could be a factor of having depression. According to the National Institute Of Mental Health 1 in 3 heart attack survivors experience depression. 10-27% of post stroke patients experience depression. 25 percent of caner patients experience depression and 50 -75 % of eating disorder patients may experience depression. Depression isn’t only affecting post illness patients but its affecting many people who go through many life stresses. For instance a person who has been employed for a company for many years suddenly gets laid off resulting him or her to lose their home and force to stay with friends or in extreme cases become homeless. Today it’s common for someone to be unemployed for six months or longer to show signs of depression. Being unemployed can be a very difficult experience. Being unemployed doubles a person’s chance of a major depression. Depression is highly associated with domestic violence and alcohol abuse and eventually increases the risk of …show more content…
Two of the main types are clinical depression and dysthymia. Clinical depression (also known as major depression) is known to be the most common and most severe form of depression. It is defined by having constant feelings of sadness, hopeless, and worthlessness that do not go away on their own. Clinical depression is a serious clinical mood disorder that interferes with a person’s everyday life for weeks to months at a time. As mentioned before this form of depression is linked to chemical changes in the brain and everyday life stressors. Dysthymia is the second most known form of depression. Dysthymia is a much milder yet much more enduring type of depression that affect women three times more than men. People with dysthymia experience little happiness in their lives. Many cant even remember a time when they felt happy, exited, or inspired. People with dysthymia are constantly complaining and always critical about themselves it may seem to many that they’ve been depressed all their life. Dysthymia can affect your life more than clinical depression because it last for a longer period of time. Dysthymia is a condition that tends to develop at an early stage in a persons life. Many people delay to get treated for this condition because they see their constant negative mood as being part of life. The earlier people get treated for this condition the better he or she will get relief and possibly avoid and further damage. Other forms
Depression has many degrees of severity from a passing feeling to a serious illness, which destroys lives and relationships. Major depressive disorder is the most severe form of depression. It is extreme and persistent, rendering the patient inconsolable and helpless (1). Depressed patients often cannot continue working and have difficulty dealing with family and friends. Other symptoms of major depression are deep despair, misery, irritability, low self-esteem, suicidal thoughts, change in eating and sleeping habits, fatigue and inability to concentrate. Other mental illnesses, such as anxiety and alcoholism are also associated with major depression (2). While serious depressive episodes are important to our understanding of mental health, chronic depression is terribly widespread and often undiagnosed or misdiagnosed. Dysthymia is a disorder which has similar, but milder and much longer lasting, symptoms to depression (3). By understanding the characteristics of dysthymia, health professionals can identify a chronic mental illness before it manifests into more serious psychological problems, such as severe depression. Dysthymia is also an interesting disorder from the neurobiological perspective because it is often difficult to discern from other personality disorders, such as a depressed or gloomy personality. This paper explores depression and dysthymia, their symptoms and therapies. In addition, personalities which are depressed will be analyzed and compared to depression and dysthymia. Do all three afflictions stem from the same genetic or environmental causes, and mechanistic origins? Are they all responsive to the same treatment? This comparison will address the difficulty in dis...
Depressive disorders take on different forms. There are three common types of depressive disorders. They are major depression, dysthymia, and bipolar disorder. Major depression is characterized by a combination of symptoms that interfere with an individual's ability to work, study, sleep, and eat. Symptoms include but are not limited to the following: persistent sad, anxious, or empty mood, feelings of hopelessness, feelings of guilt, helplessness, worthlessness, decreased energy, fatigue, appetite and/or weight loss, or overeating and weight gain, ...
“Depression is a mood that goes well beyond temporarily feeling sad or blue” (Duckworth 1). Depression is when one feels out of character, by different kinds of sadness, loneliness, hopelessness, self doubt, and guilt. Usually a person feels more depressed at a time of grievance, like the loss of a loved one, or having a bad day. In most cases simple depression only last for a day in situations of small embarrassment, however if a person is feeling more depressed they will have a huge lack of energy and loss of interest in activities.
 Dysthymic disorder, also called dysthymia, is a type of depression involving long-term chronic symptoms that do not disable an individual, but keep them from functional at full steam or from feeling good.
Depression is a mental illness in which a person experiences deep, stable sadness and discontinued interest in nearly all activities. People also use the term depression to describe the temporary sadness, loneliness, or blues that everyone feels from time to time. In contrast to normal sadness, severe depression, also called major depression, can dramatically lessen a person’s ability to function in social situations and at work. People with major depression often have feelings of despair, hopelessness, and worthlessness, as well as thoughts of committing suicide.
Clinical depression is a serious medical condition. It is not a case of "the blues", or being sad sometimes. Clinical depression is sadness that never goes away for those who have it. Sometimes it can be treated, and sometimes it is just something that will never be solved. Other symptoms of Clinical Depression may include, having self hate, feeling sad, anxious, or having “empty”feelings. Feelings of hopelessness,guilt, worthlessness, or helplessness. Loss of interest in activities or hobbies once pleasurable, angry, fatigue and decreased energy (Clinical Depression). Also difficulty concentrating, remembering details, and making decisions, Insomnia, early-morning wakefulness, or excessive sleeping, overeating, or appetite loss, and lastly thoughts of suicide (Clinical Depression).
Depression is not uniform, signs and symptoms may have been experienced by some sufferers and not by others. How severe the symptoms are, and how long they last depends on the individual person and their illness. There are more common symptoms such as: a constant feeling of sadness, anxiety, the feeling of emptiness, a general feeling of pessimism, hopelessness, restlessness, irritability, loss of interest in activities or hobbies that were once enjoyed, lower levels of energy, fatigue, difficulty concentrating, memory of details, difficulty making decisions, disturbed sleep patterns, a change in eating habits, and at most extreme suicidal t...
Most people have felt sad or depressed because of disparate causes. Feeling sad in short period of time can be a normal, but feeling of intense sadness including feeling helpless, hopeless, and worthless for along time affect to health negatively. In some cause, it reaches a depression. There are three main causes of depression: biological, environmental and medical.
Many people think that depression just means that someone is sad, but that is not the case. There are many symptoms that depressed people may show such as hopelessness, guilt, worthlessness, or pessimism. If someone is depressed they may also be restlessness and have difficulty concentrating. More signs of depression include loss interest in activities they once found enjoyable or difficulty making decisions. They may also experience a lot of fatigue (NIH, n.d.) Remember just because someone exhibits these signs or symptoms once in a while does it mean that they are depressed. If someone is depressed they will show these symptoms for a while. One major indicator of depression is thoughts or attempted suicide (helpguide,
Depression is a mental health condition that causes feelings of sadness, loss, anger and/or frustration that interferes with daily life from days, to weeks, or months. It’s also known that depression can change the way you see yourself, other people, and life. There isn’t an exact cause for depression yet but it’s believed that chemical changes in the brain are the source. It can also be in your genes, but it’s thought that it could be both chemical changes and in your genes. Any person of any age can develop depression. Certain causes include: alcohol or drug abuse, medical conditions such as underactive thyroid, cancer, or chronic pain, medications (ex: steroids,) sleeping problems, and stressful live events including—but not limited to—death,
Depression is a serious mental health illness which affects an individuals’ mind, body and mood. It is a chronic and lifelong health condition (NICE, 2006) thought to be caused by a number of biological factors including neurotransmitter disturbances in the brain and an element of genetic vulnerability; these are often in addition to psychosocial factors such as the occurrence of undesirable life events, limited social network options, poor self esteem and the occurrence of any adverse life events during a persons’ lifetime (Bernstein, 2006). Depression can have an impact on a persons’ ability to do many things including working, engaging with others, participating fully in family life or maintaining relationships, and it can also impact on a person...
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 a Dysthymic Disorder, and how does it affect an individual? Dysthymic disorder is a chronic mood disorder that falls within the depression spectrum. This is a long-term, chronic disorder, but with less severity than Major Depressive Disorder. Just like major depression, dysthymia has roots in genetic, neurochemical imbalances, childhood and adulthood trauma, and social circumstances, especially in isolation and the unavailability to access mental health professional services. The stress that provokes at least early onset form is usually chronic. The criteria for Dysthymic Disorder states that an individual must have two or more of the following symptoms lasting for more than two years: feelings of hopelessness, insomnia or fatigue, poor concentration or having difficulty making decisions, low energy or fatigue, low self-esteem, poor appetite or overeating, and last irritability. Some of the symptoms will exclude mania, hypomanic or mixed episode commonly associated with bipolar dis...
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 defined as an illness; the feelings of depression persist and interfere with a child or adolescent’s ability to function. Depression can be a very difficult and painful experience that affects not only the individual suffering from it, but also the people around them. There comes a point in some peoples’ lives where social isolation, low energy, sadness, low self-esteem, and the feeling of hopelessness, cannot be taken anymore. The feelings are so strong and persistent, that the victim becomes severely unhappy, which can then result in depression. Clinical depression has many related symptoms trouble sleeping, eating disorders, withdrawal and inactivity, self-punishment, and loss of pleasure. People that are depressed do not like to do things they may usually like to. However, there are many differences between feeling depressed and actually suffering from depression, the disease. Any person feels depressed at some time or another in their life. They feel worthless, tired and tend to want to be alone without human interaction, this is normal. Depression brings on poor concentration or inability to think and make decisions (Kist 26). Surveys that have been taken that show approximately 20 in 100 people suffer from depression at any one time. About one if four Americans will suffer from a depression over the course of their lifetime. Depression strikes men and women of all ages, in all races, but most studies indicate that women are more often afflicted. Depression comes in many different types: major, manic and dysthymia are a few. A chronic, physical illness, drug habit, death of a loved one; or a problem in a marriage cause major depression. Even though most people with major depression will recover, half will suffer another episode (Hales 38). People with severe cases of major depression can’t work, study, or interact and eventually can’t feed, clothe or clean themselves (Hales 38).Manic depression is a type of depression that goes from a person being extremely happy and then becoming severely depressed (Kist 107). Being in a depressed state can be life threatening. People suffering from manic depression show many symptoms. A few major ones are hyperactivity; talking fast, inability, fear of dying, and jumping from one topic to another during a conversation (Kist 39). Another type is Psychoanalysis. Psychoanaly...