Clinical Depression
Clinical depression is a disorder that affects your mood, thoughts, behavior, feelings and even your physical health. The term “depressed” often refers to someone who is having a bad day or a bad moment, however, true clinical depression is a very serious illness that not only involves the mind, but the body and the feelings of a person, and one cannot simply “snap out of it” or “get over it”. Depression is a medical disorder with a chemical and biological basis. Clinical depression will affect a person’s family life, school, work, relationships, sleep habits, eating habits, level of energy and motivation. It can be a very disabling disease, and is certainly not something you can treat on your own. Depression can occur only once in a person’s life or it may be triggered by a stressful situation, such as a divorce, the death of a spouse or child, financial difficulty, abuse, rape, unemployment or poverty. Often time depression can also be accompanied by severe anxiety and you might need to be treated for both conditions at the same time. Depression may come and go without rhyme or reason, and there may be periods of time in between where the person may not have any symptoms at all. It can also be a chronic condition requiring treatment over the course of the individual’s lifetime.
People of any age or race may suffer from depression. There is no single cause of depression, and often times it goes untreated. Some factors that may contribute to depression include:
- Stress
- Illness
- Personality
- Medications
- Drug or alcohol abuse
- Heredity
- Postpartum depression
Some signs that you or someone you love may be depressed are:
- Sleeping too much, or not enough
- Waking up in the middle of the night and not being able to go back to sleep
- Weight loss or weight gain
- Inability to concentrate
- Memory loss
- Irritability or restlessness
- Low self-esteem
- Lack of energy
- Feeling of hopelessness
- Loss of interest in normal activities
- Aches and pains (headache, backache)
- Thoughts of suicide
It is extremely important that if you feel you or your loved one may be experiencing symptoms of depression that you seek medical advice right away. There is help available.