Depression is a serious, yet a treatable mental disorder which occurs with some emotional, mental and physical symptoms. The most remarkable feature of it is a sad and down mood with an obvious decrease in feeling pleasure. People with depression are in an unhappy, pessimistic and desperate condition. They do not take pleasure, they feel sad and lonely, and they lose their interest in themselves and their environment. Not only depression is an important disorder itself; but also its relationships with and contributions to comorbid disorders are crucial. For instance, women having depression during or after pregnancy may have serious and important problems. Moreover, scientific studies show that it has a strong relationship with development of diabetes and coronary heart diseases.
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Depression is a serious disorder. It is not feeling sad or unhappy for a short period of time. It is one of the most common disorders across the world, and it may cause several and severe obstacles. It is a mental disorder. It may have genetic, biological and psychological bases. It may affect people of all ages; however, it is more common in women and young people.
Women may also have postpartum depression. According to WHO, depression is one of the most effective disorders which impacts individuals in a negative way and causes several obstacles. It is usually seen with anxiety disorders; and in these cases, suicide risk can increase significantly.
Despite its seriousness, depression is usually not recognized or is treated inefficiently. Therefore, individuals with depression and their close ones may have several important problems. It is known that depression plays an important role in occurrence of heart attack, stroke, diabetes and such important diseases; and it makes courses of many chronic illnesses worse.
These factors may cause depression. However, they are not meant to cause depression 100%. These are only risk factors.
These are only basic symptoms and their importance for diagnosis may change from one person to another. Therefore, not every people with these symptoms are meant to be suffering from depression.
Not all types are the same. Major depressive disorder, known as clinical depression, and chronic depression are the most common types. Clusters of symptoms which are seen in the same type of depression are not the same in each individual with it. Each person lives depression in a different manner, and each type has different weights of different symptoms.
Major depressive disorder, or clinical one, can affect individuals’ daily routines. Depressive symptoms cause troubles and dysfunctions. Individuals with major depression are in a deep and continuous feeling of hopelessness and desperateness.
Approximately 20-25% of the population have major depressive disorder in their lives. It affect children, adolescents, adults and older people. Women have two times more depression than men. Adolescence, menstruation, pregnancy, abortus and menopause cause hormonal changes; and these changes are thought to be increasing the risk of major depressive disorder.
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Other factors increasing the risk of it may be increasing amount of responsibilities at both home and work. Parenting, career issues, commitments, and taking care of old parents may increase the risk. Especially, single parenting is an important risk factor for it.
There is not a trigger for every person, but these are some triggers of major-depression:
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Mental health specialists evaluate individuals in many different aspects and make a diagnosis according to them. They ask questions about psychiatric history of individuals and their families. They may conduct a depression mapping test.
Specialist may require some blood tests in order to eliminate the possibility that another medical condition may show symptoms. For instance, hypothyroidism have similar symptoms as depression. Alcohol abuse or dependence, some medications, stroke or use of illegal drugs may also arise symptoms.
It is a mood which gets better or worse as a reaction to life events, with the symptoms of overeating, oversleeping, exhaustion and excessive sensitiveness. In typical depression, common sadness is more obvious.
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Bipolar disorder, sometimes it is called as manic depression, is a complex disorder which has shifts between major depressive periods and extreme enthusiasm-mania periods. It has two subtypes which are bipolar I and bipolar II. In bipolar I, individuals have at least one manic period, sometimes major depressive periods accompany them. In bipolar II, individuals have at least one major depressive period and at least one hypomanic period.
75% of women who deliver babies have melancholia. However, in 10% of them, a serious condition, postpartum depression arises. When a mother has major depression in a month after the birth, she gets postpartum diagnosis. No matter which symptoms you show, it is very important to talk to your doctor. A correct diagnosis and an effective treatment are crucial for coping with depression.
Some behavior patterns in children may hinder the differentiation of depression. It is important due to two reasons: First, it affects negatively the development of children. Second, it may cause emotional, social and psychological regressions; in fact, it may affect also the future development.
Distinctively from adults, depression symptoms in children are seen as physical symptoms like headache, tummy ache, nausea and exhaustion.
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Untreated depression may harm to the individual in direct or indirect ways. It increases the tendency to use/abuse alcohol or drugs. It contributes to occurrence of many medical illnesses or makes them worse. False beliefs about medications make difficult to apply to doctors, and this cause depression to become chronic. Treatment of individuals with depression needs a comprehensive approach.
Depression treatment: Psychotherapy, medication or natural methods
The most common treatment method is using medication and psychotherapy together.
Depression and anxiety disorders are mostly comorbid conditions. Anxiety disorder is a general term which is used for various anxieties and fears that affect functionality of individuals negatively. Palpitations, difficulty in breathing, shaking hands and feet, extreme sweating, excitement, and the sense of that a bad thing is just about to happen are some of the symptoms.
Anxiety should not be thought as a disorder in every condition. In fact, it is a common and a natural emotion which everyone experiences. However, it is accepted as a disorder when it starts to intervene the functionality of a person in daily life.
Especially, when it decreases individuals’ productivity, disrupts social relationships and symptoms such as shaking, dryness of mouth, and muscle tension start to be seen; it is accepted as a disorder.
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