The Truth about Depression Essay

The symptoms of depression usually vary from person to person; symptoms can either be severe or moderate. Some people can be indecisive, have uncontrollable sobbing, and feelings of despair, anger, and worthlessness. People with moderate symptoms might still be able to function, but their depression can cause them to lack a feeling of pleasure or ambition. As the above symptoms suggest, depression has to do with a lot more than just being sad. Depression symptoms can interfere with five areas of functioning: emotional, motivational, behavioral, cognitive, and physical. Depression can affect

Depression is a serious illness that can worsen or last for years if it is left untreated. Depression can occur in a number of ways for different reasons. It is common to feel depressed as a reaction to loss, life's struggles, or an injured self-esteem. When these feelings become too much to handle they can prevent you from living a normal, healthy life. If you or a family member think you are experiencing depression signs to look out for include difficulty concentrating, fatigue, guilt, worthlessness, Insomnia, Irritability, restlessness, and thoughts of suicide. These are only some of the signs associated with depression, and if symptoms worsen over time a trip to the doctor is necessary. Unfortunately, a lot of the people who experience symptoms never do get diagnosed or treated for their illness because they are too afraid to speak out.

In the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic & Statistical Manual (APA, 2000) the symptoms of depression are: loss of interest or enjoyment in activities; changing in weight and appetite; changes to sleep pattern; loss of energy; feeling worthless or guilty; suicidal thoughts; poor concentration and being either agitated or slowed up.

First of all it is important to understand what really constitutes depression. All of us feel down from time to time perhaps based on having a "bad day". However when feelings of sadness last for several weeks, months, or years, and are accompanied by other symptoms such as change of appetite, isolation from family and friends, sleeplessness, etc. these are symptoms of depression.

Some symptoms of depression are stress, anxiety, guilt or losing a close family member or friend. There are also some social symptoms that cause depression such as fighting issues in between family members or a best friend, sexual abuse or too extreme expectations.

Depression is a common and serious mood disorder. It’s more than just feeling down or sad in response to life’s struggles and setbacks, depression causes people to lose pleasure from daily life, can increase the risk of many health problems, and can even be serious enough to lead to suicide. The disease must be given more attention and treated as a global public health priority. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 7.6 percent of people over the age of 12 have depression in any 2-week period. Depression is also the second most common cause of disability worldwide after back pain,according to a review of research.

Because depression is portrayed so vastly differently across the globe and in different humans, there are different approaches to the causes for this mood disorder. Unlike a flu, for example, that has specific visible symptoms, such as a fever, vomiting, and feeling exhausted, depression essentially does not have any visible symptoms that

Depression is an affective disorder, demonstrating many symptoms such as “hopelessness, helplessness, personal devaluation, and extreme sadness” (depression, 1).Though sadness is something everyone experiences, people who have

To actually have considered having depression one has to have a complete understanding of depression. Having MDD, comes with having at least five of the symptoms every day during the period of 2-weeks. Most importantly it must show a change in the individual. Over that the symptoms have to cause distress in work, social, or other areas. If the person has another mental disorder, or medical condition the symptoms should not be due to them.

The motivational symptoms of depression can make people lose the motivation to engage in their regular activities. Depression sufferers usually state that they have a lack of drive, initiative, and spontaneity. They might have to drag themselves when it comes to doing necessary things such as going to work or eating, and even when it comes to pleasurable things such as talking to friends or having sex. Depression can cause people to be less active and productive; they spend a lot of time alone and might stay in bed for a long period of time. It’s possible for depressed people to also talk and move slowly. Cognitive symptoms consist of an absence of confidence, excessive blame, and pessimism. Due to the intense amount of negative thinking that a person with depression has, they are more likely to procrastinate and think about suicide. Depression can make people feel confused, prevent them from remembering things, make them easily distracted, and incapable of solving small problems. It isn’t uncommon for people with depression to have headaches, indigestion, constipation, dizziness, and general pain. Some might eat less and sleep less than they are supposed to, but some might eat more and sleep more.

For clinical depression, you must have five or more of the following symptoms over a two-week period, most of the day, nearly every day. At least one of the symptoms must be either a depressed mood or a loss of interest or pleasure. Signs and symptoms may include:

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)

Depression usually consists of symptoms that we need to learn how to recognize. There is after all several types of symptoms that must be looked for. These symptoms are broken down into two separate groups, the psychological symptoms and the physical symptoms. It is important to realize that an individual may not show all of these symptoms at the same time. In fact a person may be sadder than anything else may. Or it may just be a loss if energy that distress you the most. But most people that are suffering from a bad depression will most likely experience most of these symptoms during their depression.

Disorder. In order to have Major Depression, a person has to have at least five of the depression

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