Depressed: What the Condition Involves

When a teen or loved one starts making statements to the effect of “I’m so lonely,” “why am I depressed,” or “the world doesn’t give a damn about me,” it’s hard not to think that these sort of words are not just melodrama for attention. However, in serious cases of depression, they can often be major gasps for help in an otherwise smothering status of just wanting to shut everything out.

Depression is not a blue day or a bad spit of experiences that all people normally go through at one time or another. Life is far from perfect, and there will be downtimes or challenges, even outright hard days where it was probably better to stay in bed or stay home. But in the high majority of average situations, these incidents are short-lived. Not so with depression.

An event can trigger the condition, or it just comes on without any particular warning or notice. It can stay for weeks and months without improvement or any sign of anything registering as things getter better. As a result, depression for those nearby or witnesses can be extremely frustrating, even illogical; it doesn’t seem to follow the normal formula of a bad dip or a challenge that either gets overcome, overcome or goes away.

What is Depression?

Technically, any answer to what depression is gets into the world of psychology because it is a mood disorder. Depression causes ongoing feelings of being sad, listlessness, and an entire loss of interest in doing anything, even activities that normally would have been a patient’s favorite during normal times. Even daily activities can seem like mountains to someone with depression.

It’s also very common for a patient to feel deep thoughts of worthlessness and not be of value to anyone or anything, despite what those around may say or explain otherwise. The brain goes into a mental block that shuts the world and spins in a negative circle without any break or release from feeling miserable.

No surprise, those who suffer from depression often lock themselves up in their rooms to get away from everything. Even those trying to help or improve the situation can seem irritating to depressed.

Again, patients don’t “snap out” of depression. It’s often the case that depression can be recurring and can get worse over time, so long-term treatment is often necessary. In some cases, depression only happens during a singular phase of life. In other cases, depression comes and goes at every stage of life without patterns.

Those suffering from depression often share similar symptoms that distinguish the condition from other mental disorders. The symptoms can be daily or sporadic, and they are often recurring. These can include:

• Intense feelings of being sad, unhappy or having no meaning for being
• Unpredictable emotional anger, irritation, and easily getting frustrated over minor issues
• A significant or total loss in any fun or pleasurable activity
• An inability to get normal sleep or to sleep far too much
• An ongoing lack of energy and noticeable listlessness
• A significant difference in appetite goes both ways in terms of eating too much or too little
• Prone to anxiety attacks, unpredictable agitation and being restless
• Noticeably slow in cognitive function, moving and even speaking
• Regularly making statements of feeling worthless or feeling extremely bad or guilty about a current condition
• An inability to focus and stay concentrated on mental activities or remembering
• A recurring issue with body pains that Who can’t explain
• In the worst cases, a fixation on suicide or having suicidal thoughts and that death would make things better

Depression Types and Levels

Depression comes in different types and intensities, so it’s quite possible to have a patient with a mild case of depression and another case with a very intense condition that borders on self-harm.

As a result, the psychology world has categorized the different types of the disorder to better identify them for diagnosis and treatment. These are called specifiers because the depression observed in a patient is consistent with a depression type that has certain features. These include:

• Anxiety or very anxious distress – This type of depression is notable for being fixated on worry about potentially bad events in the future or a general loss of control.
• Mixed – A depression with a combination of symptoms that include very high and very low emotional states of depression and mania. This can often be confused with bipolar conditions. Such patients happen to have big bursts of energy with more thoughts and ideas than can be handled at one time, and then they sink into a deep pit or trough of depression.
• Melancholy – A deep, severe type of depression that makes the patient restless or has little response to much of anything. It’s hard to find anything that gives pleasure or happiness to such a patient. This type of patient often wakes up early and worsens as the day goes on. The patient often has big swings in appetite and goes through waves of agitation and then no energy and dips of guilt.
• Atypical – A patient type that does not follow typical assumptions for depression. This patient seems to be normal in the sense of being in a good nature with happy things and has a good appetite. However, the person hardly sleeps and crashes hard. The patient also reacts quickly to rejection severely and feels physically weighed down.
• Psychotic – A patient whose depression comes with other psychological conditions such as hallucination. These delusions make familiar themes and storylines built from the patient’s memories and often have to do with failure, inadequacy or negative experiences.
• Catatonia – This is a severe depressive state where the person is unresponsive physically or has an uncontrolled motor spirit.
• Peripartum Onset – A type of depression that new mothers may suffer days or weeks after a pregnancy birth has occurred (i.e., postpartum).
• Seasonal – A mood disorder of depression that comes and goes with specific seasons of the year. Winter is often the worst for many cases, but it can be other seasons. The condition is primarily related to a lack of sunlight exposure.
• Pediatric Depression – A depression condition that occurs in children or teens.

When Depression is Serious Enough for Attention

A depression mood disorder is always serious enough to seek medical attention because it can become far more serious. However, people often don’t recognize what depression is early on. Subsequently, an early form of depression can manifest and become stronger before attention and diagnosis identify it.

If untreated altogether, a serious depression disorder can cause mental and physical health problems and an inability to function socially. Suicide is a major risk as well.

In any situation where someone is even talking about suicide or playing with the concept, medical help needs to be brought in quickly and immediately. That can be through help from a loved one, a friend, a suicide hotline or more. In the U.S., for example, depression patients and family and friends can call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 800-273-TALK (800-273-8255) to get trained help. There are even specifically trained counselors for war veterans who are often repeatedly vulnerable to depression based on their conflict experience.

At-Risk Groups

Depression can affect anyone at any time. There are patients in their teens as well as their senior years. The condition does not discriminate based on color, background, religion, age or gender. However, while there may be arguments that women tend to represent more cases, that may very well be because women are culturally able to seek help more often.

Men are expected to keep their weaknesses hidden, and they often bury their depression in alcoholism, addictive behavior or drugs. Again, there is no distinct case pattern for prediction, but some common triggers appear frequently. These include:

• A depression disorder that first manifested in childhood or teen years.
• A chronic past of disorders including personality issues or post-traumatic reactions to severe trauma
• Alcoholism
• Drug abuse
• Having low esteem, being pessimistic about life, or being severely co-dependent on others
• A chronic disease that has a high risk for fatality or sickness like diabetes, heart conditions or cancer
• A reaction in patients sensitive to some types of medications, including those considered depressants, sedatives or sleep inducers.
• Genetic history of family members who have suffered depression in the past.

In Summary

When someone says, “I am depressed,” Who should not ignore it. The mental disorder is extremely serious and should not be ignored. Many depressing quotes in history have romanticized the condition, but there is nothing romantic about suffering from depression. Help, support, medical attention and ongoing treatment can help break the cycle and downward spiral that depression is famous for.