What is Depression?
Everyone feels unhappy from time to time, but depression is when these feelings become extreme and last for long periods of time often interfering negatively with your life. You may feel sad on a daily basis, feel worthless, useless and view the future as bleak. Everyday tasks may be more difficult to complete in this frame of mind. You may see things more negatively than before which may affect the way you live your life. Friends or family might comment that you are quiet, withdrawn or don’t seem yourself. Depression may be mild, moderate or severe and is one of the most common mental health problems in the UK but one for which there are a wide range of treatments.
Types of Depression
Major Depressive Disorder
Is a combination of symptoms that interfere with your ability to work, sleep, study, eat, and enjoy activities. It is disabling and prevents you from functioning normally. An episode of major depression may occur only once in your lifetime, but more often, it recurs intermittently over years.
Dysthymia (Mild, but long-term depression)
You may be finding it more difficult to get pleasure from things and have some of the symptoms of major depression but at a less severe level over a long time period. For a diagnosis of Dysthymia you will have had these symptoms for 2 years or more.
Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
Weather and exposure to sunlight can affect our mood and specifically in the winter months some people may feel depressed as the amount of light reduces. A natural hormone in your brain - melatonin - is produced when darkness occurs and causes us to feel drowsy so when there is less light we feel sleepier and have less energy which may lead to some people becoming depressed. Symptoms will usually have reduced by spring and may not return until the following year.
Bipolar disorder
About 1 in 10 people that experience depression may actually have Bipolar Disorder (Royal College of Psychiatrists) and sometimes this is not noticed at first. If you have Bipolar Disorder you may go from feeling really low to really hyper over a given space of time. If this is the case for you - make sure you point it out to health professionals as Bipolar Disorder is treated differently to depression.
Psychotic depression
This occurs when a severe depressive illness is accompanied by some form of psychosis, e.g. a break with reality, hallucinations, paranoia or delusions. Depression can be present before psychosis but may also be present after the onset of psychotic symptoms.
Post-natal Depression
About 1 in 10 mothers (and a few fathers) experience symptoms of clinical depression after having a child (Royal College of Psychiatrists). This can range from weeks to several months and is different from just the ‘Baby Blues’ (feeling tearful, sleepy and unable to concentrate for a few days after having a child.)
Who gets Depression?
Depression is a common mental health problem which currently affects about 1 in 10 people in the UK at some point in their lives. It can affect anyone but is:
· More common in women – they are twice as likely to seek help for depression
· But men are more likely to commit suicide (possibly because they don’t seek help)
· 2% of all teenagers in the UK are depressed (www.nhs.uk, 2010)