Essay on Depressive Disorders

"Men pray to the gods for health and they ignore that it is in their power to have it."

Millions of Americans suffer from clinical depression each year. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) (2017), 322 million people are affected by depression around the world. Concerning industrialized Western world countries, it remains as the number one psychological disorder affecting its population (WHO, 2017). Most clinicians begin primarily with prescribing either pharmacologic or psychotherapy interventions. With billions of dollars spent in revue on treating depression (Chisholm, Sweeny, and Sheehan, 2016), exercise used as treatment in reaction to mental illness is often overlooked by mainstream health care professionals. However, it has been proved by recent research exercise acts as both a preventive and reactive

Generally, anyone can develop a type of depression (yahoo.com 1). Most cases of depression go unrecognized and are just considered bad moods (depression 475). There are many types of depression and many severity levels of the disorder. Typically, a person who is depressed will have a unipolar or a bipolar disorder. Unipolars suffer only from depression. This can be major or dysthymia. Bipolars can have severe ups and downs in mood, clarity of the mind, and energy levels. They also experience manic episodes-, which are extreme highs and can have a low at the same time (Quinn 1).

Major Depressive Disorder or MDD is a very common clinical condition that affects millions of people every year. According to the Agency for Health Care Policy & Research, “ depression is under diagnosed & untreated by most medical doctors, despite the fact that it can almost always be treated successfully.

Major life stressors, chronic illness, medications, and relationship or work problems may cause Dysthymia. Now that you know a little bit more about Dysthymia, you are probably wondering, what are some of the symptoms? Some of the symptoms of Dysthymia are: sadness or depressed mood most of the day or almost everyday, loss of enjoyment of things that were once pleasurable, major change in weight ( weight loss or gaining weight), insomnia or excessive sleep throughout the day, Fatigue, feelings of hopelessness or worthlessness or guilt almost everyday, thoughts about death or suicide. Now that you know some of the symptoms of Dysthymia, you might wonder, How are you diagnosed with it? A mental health specialist or a psychologist, generally makes the diagnosis based on the symptoms of the person. There is no blood, x-ray, or any other lab test that can find out if you have Dysthymia. Now that that’s clear, the final question is… Is it curable!? Although Dysthymia is a severe illness; it is also very treatable. As with any chronic illnesses, early diagnosis and medical treatment may reduce the intensity and duration of symptoms, and also reduce the likelihood of it developing into major depression. To treat Dysthymia doctors may use psychotherapy, more commonly known as, seeing a therapist, along with taking antidepressants. Dysthymia can be treated by a primary care physician. Now, last but not least is “Genetic Depression”. It has been known that depressive illness can run in families. Genes that we inherit from our parents can determine lots of things such as gender, hair and eye color. Our genes also determine which illnesses we may be vulnerable to at some point in our lives. Every cell in our body contains around 50,000 to 100,000 genes. They are all made up of DNA ( deoxyribonucleic acid). Genes are located on chromosomes within the nucleus of

People of all ages, backgrounds, and walks of life have felt depressed and unhappy at some time in their lives. These periods of sadness usually pass after a short time, but for some people, this feeling can remain for weeks, months, and even years. (1) This prolonged state of unhappiness is called major (or clinical) depression and is characterized by a persistent sad or "empty" mood, loss of interest in favorite activities, difficulty concentrating, and many other symptoms. It is not simply a mental state but an illness that interferes with the way people feel, function, and think.(2)

There are various types of depression. Major, Chronic and Manic are one of the types of depression which are categorized according to the intensity of the depression. A major depressed patient feels sad or depressed most of the day. Chronic depression is considered to be a mild depression. For instance dysthymia. There is no specific cause of dysthymia but it may be genetic. Bipolar disorder is a manic depression. It may be genetic and reveal the symptoms at the age of 15 to 24. Symptoms differ according to the patient.

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 a significantly prevalent disorder with considerable mortality and disability rate, characterised by symptoms of low mood, irritable behaviour and impaired concentration, besides lack of sleep and appetite. (No 8). For the first time the concept of depression was raised in nineteen century, and then followed by more detailed classifications, in terms of psychotic-neurotic aspects, in 1920s, and unipolar-bipolar-wise, in 1960s. (No 4). Analysing the definition of depression developed in different perspectives, for instance, on one hand, Kraepelin and some others defined depression in an organic frame; on the other hand psychoanalysts, such as Freud and Abraham, believed in psychogenic approach to depression. Later, Adolf Meyer

When people refer to depression, they are usually referring to clinical or major depression. This type of depression is when a person experiences the characteristics of depression within a certain degree of intensity, either in a single episode, or that keep reoccurring over time. Another common type of depression is bipolar disorder, or as others refer to it as manic depression. Manic depression involves cycled periods of severe depression with times of extremely elevated or irritable mood known as mania. Many people also under go dysthymia. People with dysthymia go through life almost always feeling mildly depressed, which can greatly impair their ability to enjoy the positives in life. There is also seasonal affective disorder, unipolar depression, cyclothymia, and atypical depression. Season affective disorder is a depressive illness that has to do with a person's reaction to the amount of natural light a person receives. This illness mainly affects the body's sleep cycle and biological clock. Unipolar depression is described when a person can feel perfectly fine, but other times, they feel depressed, slowed down, or in a fog. A person may have only one or two episodes, or may continue to have these episodes throughout their lifetime. Then there is atypical depression. It's basically when a person can have fun and experience pleasure if an opportunity presents itself, but the feeling is short lived.

are happy when they achieve something or saddened when they fail a test or lose

Dysythymia Depression is and extended form of Minor Depression because it can last for years

Depression has numerous causes and effects which affect not only the person but the people around them. Depression doesn’t have a specific cause; in most cases it’s different for everyone. It is a common, treatable mental illness that can be experienced at any time in life. It is often described with feeling sad, unhappy, miserable, or “down in the dumps”. Most people have these feelings on occasion. There are several types of depression. These different types of depression describe slight, but often important, diagnostic differences. True clinical depression interferes with mood disorder in everyday life for weeks, months, or even years. Most people think depression affects only one

Sadness is how the human being reacts to the loss of a loved one, the struggles of life, the disappointments, and the frustrations. Although it is a normal feeling in all these situations, there is a broad difference between being sad and being depressed. Unlike normal feelings of sadness, depression overwhelms a person, last a long time, and interferes with his or her day-to-day life. According to the World Health Organization in 2010, depression was reported as the most common mental disorder; it affects 120 million people globally and is among the leading causes of disability. The person that suffers from depression has to deal with being misunderstood and under-diagnosed on a daily basis, which leaves the patient with physical,

The term depression is widely misused in today’s society. All human beings experience periods in life where they are sad for a relatively short period of time, which is considered normal. Those who experience sadness for extended periods may be suffering from depression. Two terms used to reference the classifications of depression, are Major Depressive Disorder, and Dysthymia. Individual diagnosis of these classifications is dependent on the length of time, and severity of symptoms experienced by the individual. The causes for these depressive states can be due to genetics or the insufficient production of neurotransmitters, which provide the brain with the data necessary to regulate one's psychological well being. Two examples