Depression is a state of intense sadness, anhedonia (the absence of pleasure or the ability to experience it) or despair that has advanced to the point of being disruptive to an individual's social functioning and/or activities of daily living.

Many people identify the feeling of being depressed as "feeling sad for no reason", or "having no motivation to do anything". One suffering from depression may feel tired, sad, irritable, lazy, unmotivated, and apathetic. Clinical depression is generally acknowledged to be more serious than normal depressed feelings. It often leads to constant negative thinking and escapism through substance abuse.

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Extremely common, in fact a recent study sponsored by the World Health Organization and the World Bank found unipolar major depression to be the leading cause of disability in the United States.

Consider the facts:

Approximately 18.8 million American adults, or about 9.5 percent of the U.S. population age 18 and older in a given year, have a depressive disorder.

Depression affects all people regardless of age, geographic location, demographic or social position.

Depressive disorders are appearing earlier in life with the average age of onset 50 years ago being 29 whereas recent statistics indicate it at just 14.5yrs in today's society.

Nearly twice as many women (12.0 percent) as men (6.6 percent) are affected by a depressive disorder each year. These figures translate to 12.4 million women and 6.4 million men in the U.S.

Women between the ages of 25-44 are most often affected by depression with a major cause of depression in women being the inability to express or handle Anger.

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Clinical depression is diagnosed when an individual experiences a severely depressed mood that includes five or more primary symptoms that cause an impairment in usual functioning nearly every day, during the same two-week period.

Primary Symptoms

Feelings of overwhelming sadness and/or fear, or the seeming inability to feel emotion.
A decrease in the amount of interest or pleasure in all, or almost all, daily activities.
Changing appetite and marked weight gain or loss.
Disturbed sleep patterns, such as insomnia, loss of REM sleep, or excessive sleep.
Psychomotor agitation or retardation nearly every day.
Fatigue, mental or physical, also loss of energy.
Feeling and/or fear of being abandoned by those close to one.
Intense feelings of guilt, helplessness, hopelessness, worthlessness, isolation/loneliness
and/or anxiety.
Trouble concentrating, keeping focus or making decisions or a generalized slowing
and obtunding of cognition, including memory.
Recurrent thoughts of death (not just fear of dying), desire to just "lay down and die" or
"stop breathing", recurrent suicidal ideation without a specific plan, or a suicide attempt
or a specific plan for committing suicide.

 

Secondary Symptoms

Other symptoms often reported but not usually taken into account in diagnosis include:

Self-loathing.
A decrease in self-esteem.
Inattention to personal hygiene.
Sensitivity to noise.
Physical aches and pains, and the belief these may be signs of serious illness.
Fear of 'going mad'.
Change in perception of time.
Periods of sobbing.
Possible behavioral changes, such as aggression and/or irritability.

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Not everyone who is depressed or manic experiences every symptom. Some people experience a few symptoms; some people suffer many. The severity of symptoms varies among individuals and also over time.

Symptoms of Mania include:

Abnormal or excessive elation
Unusual irritability
Decreased need for sleep
Grandiose notions
Increased talking
Racing thoughts
Increased sexual desire
Markedly increased energy
Poor judgment
Inappropriate social behavior

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Although depression is often thought of a being an extreme state of sadness, there is a vast difference between clinical depression and sadness. Sadness is a part of being human, a natural reaction to painful circumstances. All of us will experience sadness at some point in our lives. Depression, however, is a treatable mental illness with many more symptoms than an unhappy mood. A person with clinical depression finds that there is not always a logical reason for their dark feelings.

Sadness is usually a transient feeling that passes as a person comes to terms with their troubles whereas Depression can linger for weeks, months or even years. The sad person feels bad, but continues to cope with living. A person with clinical depression may feel overwhelmed and hopeless.

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The two primary forms of depression are Unipolar Major Depression and Dysthymia, however a variety of other subtypes exist.

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Unipolar Major Depression is more commonly known as Major Depressive Disorder or Clinical Depression. A diagnosis is made if a person has five or more depression symptoms and impairment in usual functioning nearly every day during the same two-week period.

Major depression often begins between the ages of 15-30 or even earlier, typically with recurring episodes.

An estimated 5.0 percent or 9.9 million American adults aged 18 and over suffer from unipolar major depression in a given year.

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Dysthymia (or dysthymic disorder) is a chronic but less severe form of depression, which is diagnosed when depressed mood persists for at least two years and is accompanied by at least two other symptoms of depression.

Dysthymic disorder affects approximately 5.4 percent or 10.9 million American adults aged 18 and older during their lifetime. Many people with dysthymia also have major depressive episodes.

About 40 percent of adults with dysthymic disorder also meet criteria for major depressive disorder or bipolar disorder in a given year.

Dysthymic disorder often begins in childhood, adolescence, or early adulthood.

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Bipolar Disorder, now less commonly known as manic-depression, is a diagnosis in psychiatry referring to episodes of mania (or hypomania or mixed states) alternating with clinical depression that typically recur and become more frequent over a significant period of time.

A person with bipolar disorder tends to experience more extreme states of mood than others, which can change quickly or last for months. Mood patterns of this nature are associated with distress and disruption, and a relatively high risk of suicide.

Bipolar disorder typically emerges in late adolescence or early adulthood.

More than 2.3 million American adults, or about 1 percent of the population in a given year, have bipolar disorder.

In most patients each manic, depressive or mixed state episode (especially early in the course of illness) are separated by well periods during which there are few to no symptoms.

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Depression can be devastating to all areas of a person’s everyday life, including family relationships, friendships, and the ability to go to work or school. Many people still believe that the emotional symptoms caused by depression are “not real,” and that a person should be able to shake off the symptoms if only he or she were trying hard enough.

Because of these inaccurate beliefs, people with depression either many not recognize that they have a treatable disorder or may be discouraged from seeking or staying on treatment because of feelings of shame and stigma. Too often, untreated depression leads to suicide.

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