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Depression |
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What is
Depression |
Depression can be a
transient mood change, and understandable reaction to
stress or loss and it can also be an illness. Clinical
depression is an illness, a medical condition. It
significantly affects the way someone feels, causing a
persistent lowering of mood. Depression is often
accompanied by a range of other physical and
psychological symptoms that can interfere with the way a
person is able to function in their everyday life. The
symptoms of depression generally react positively to
treatment |
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What are the symptoms of
Depression |
Depression has a
variety of symptoms and will affect everyone in
different ways. Symptoms include: feeling extremely sad
or tearful; disturbances to normal sleep patterns; loss
of interest and motivation; feeling worthless or guilty;
loss of pleasure in activities; anxiety; changes in
appetite or weight; loss of sexual interest; physical
aches and pains; impaired thinking or concentration |
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What causes
Depression |
There are a
number of possible causes of depression.
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Depression can be a reaction to a
distressing situation like loss or
stress (reactive depression). Some women
experience depression following the
birth of a child (post-natal
depression).
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Depression can be part of an illness
like bipolar disorder in which the
person experiences extreme moods without
any reason –very high and very-excited
or very low and depressed.
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Depression can be unrelated to any
outside cause, but associated with a
chemical imbalance in the brain
(endogenous depression). Sometimes the
person may be affected so much that he
or she experiences the symptoms of
psychosis and is unable to distinguish
what is real.
Children and
teenagers can also become depressed. This
can show itself in different ways to
depression in adults, and they are best
helped by a doctor who is a specialist in
this area
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How many people develop
Depression |
About twenty in every
hundred people with experience depression at some time
in their lives |
