What is Depression?

While we all feel sad, moody or low from time to time, some people experience these feelings intensely, for long periods of time (weeks, months or even years) and sometimes without any apparent reason. Depression is more than just a low mood – it's a serious condition that affects your physical and mental health.

Depression is a common and serious medical illness that negatively affects how you feel, the way you think, and how you act.

Causes of Depression

We actually don’t know exactly what causes depression. A number of things are often linked to its development. Depression usually results from a combination of recent events and other longer-term or personal factors, rather than one immediate issue or event. Some of these factors include;

Life events

sad

Some of these include;

  • Loss of loved one
  • Prolonged stress at work
  • Long term issolation/lonliness
  • Abusive or uncaring relationship
  • Environmental factors

Personal factors

Some of these factors include;

  • Family history
  • Personality
  • Serious medical illness
  • Drug and alcohol use

Changes in the brain functions

brain

Reserch is still being done in this area. Nothing concreate has been found yet.

Types of depression

Different establishments classify types of depression diffrently. Some use comparative classification like;

  • Mild depression
  • Mild to moderate depression.
  • Moderate to severe depression

While others classify them with their clinical names. These include;

  • Unipolar and Bipolar depression
  • Major depresive disorder with psychotic features
  • Postpartum depression
  • Major depressive disorder with seasonal patterns

    • Stages of depression

    There is no a particularly developed model to depict the stages of depression. Specialists have adopted the stages of grief model.

    These are:

    Denial and Anger

    When you have a feeling of intense sadness and you ignore this as a problem.This should be fairly short lived. ...... One may feel intense anger that you are going through this difficult time, and see no way out of the depression. You may go into a phase of thinking about "why me" and wanting to fight an inner demon that in reality is just another version of yourself.

    Bargaining

    Once depression has advanced, the illness becomes almost like another entity. The depression tells you horrible things about yourself and ...... what is going on in the world around you. And, tired of feeling this way, you begin to bargain with it. You try to issue ultimatums and negotiations trying to stave off the thoughts brought on by the depression in favor of something more positive. Unfortunately, this is rarely successful, and the negative thoughts or the entity of depression invariably wins out, leading to the next stage.

    Depression

    When you are in the depths of the depression, you may feel a though you are lost in a wilderness from which you cannot escape. The depression ...... may completely overtake you and make you feel as though you will never be happy again. During this stage of your depression, you will have obsessive and racing thoughts that are debilitating in nature. These thoughts will further perpetuate the depression, making you quite desperate.

    Acceptance

    Finally, you have to come to accept the depression. You seek help, and you do the work in therapy and take the medications you are prescribed. ....... You begin to feel better. You may fear a relapse, but eventually, you come to recognize that although relapse is possible, you have to accept that as something the might happen, but not dwell on the possibility.