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Everyone gets the blues now and then. In fact, it's perfectly normal to feel sad and discouraged at times. It's also quite appropriate to feel grief after a loss. However, when a low mood doesn't go away, the person may be suffering from clinical depression. In other words, depression that is serious enough to require treatment. It is one of the most painful, but also most common and treatable, of all mental illnesses.
According to the American Psychiatric Association, one in four women and one in ten men can expect to develop this illness at some point in their lives. The good news is that at least 80 percent of people with clinical depression can now be treated successfully with medications, psycho therapy, or both. In order to benefit from treatment, however, you must recognize the illness. Unfortunately, too many people still regard depression as something you just have to live with. Others fail to seek help because of the stigma attached to mental illness or the lack of access to mental health care. As a result, two-thirds of the Americans who experience a depressive illness fail to get treatment.
Stress is the body's response to change. Since change is unavoidable, stress is a normal part of life. However, when stress is severe or sustained, it can sometimes trigger depression. This is particularly true of stress due to a loss, such as the death of a loved one, the end of a relationship, or the loss of a job. But even positive changes, such as getting married, can lead to stress. Some things that a stressful life change would include one death of a spouse or close family member, marital separation or divorce, jail term, personal injury or illness (mostly in males), being fired from work or retirement.
In the past, the term "reactive depression" was used for depression that had no obvious outside cause and thus seemed to arise from some biological factor inside the person. Today it is thought that both types of depression can be treated with antidepressant drugs. However, psychotherapy may also be useful when stress plays a role in causing or worsening depression. A skilled therapist can help the depressed person pinpoint sources of stress and identify ways of coping. During an episode of major depression, an person may find it almost impossible to carry on with daily life.
Such basic activities include working, sleeping, and eating. Sometimes this happens just once in a person's lifetime, but more often the episodes recur. A person with major depression is depressed for most of the day, nearly every day. This lasts for at least two weeks and is a marked change from the way the person was before. In some people, it may show up as a loss of interest or pleasure in almost all activities.
In children and adolescents, it may show up as irritability. Major or depression can begin at any age, but it most often strikes for the first time during the late 20 's. The symptoms usually appear over the course of days or weeks. An untreated episode typically lasts six to eight months or longer, but treatment can shorten it. Among people who have recurring episodes, the illness follows varied paths. Some people have episodes separated by many years, with long periods of returning to their usual selves in between.
Major depression can take a terrible toll in human suffering. In the worst case, it can even lead to suicide. It's estimated that 15 percent of people with major depression take their own lives. That's why proper treatment is vital. In the most extreme situations, it can spell the difference between life and frequent episodes as they grow older. Depression is less common in older adults than in younger ones, but it still affects as many as 30 percent of people over age 64.
Unfortunately, its symptoms often go unrecognized in older people. Yet being depressed isn't normal part of aging. It's an illness, one that can be treated at any age. Some common signs of depression in older are persistent sad or empty mood, preoccupation with health concerns, decreased appetite, trouble sleeping, lack of energy, feelings of uselessness, guilt over things that happened years ago.
One symptom that is more common is older adults than younger ones is delusions. These are false beliefs to which a person clings, despite evidence of their falsehood. Many such delusions are related to physical or memory loss. For example, a person who has trouble with memory loss may believe that money is being stolen, rather then face that he or she has lost track of the money. In older adults, the sad mood that is typical of depression in younger people may be less noticeable than other symptoms. Depression is also more likely to be overlooked in the older age group because of other medical problems that claim top priority.
In addition, some symptoms of depression are easily confused with dementia, a loss of mental capacity and memory, usually associated with changes in personality and behavior, cause by conditions such as Alzheimer's Disease. Adults aren't only the ones who become depressed; children and adolescents can also develop clinical depression. They can have the same symptoms as older people, including a pervasive sense of sadness and loss of interest in their usual activities. A child who once liked to play with friends may want to be alone all the time, while a teenager who once enjoyed to band or sports practice may drop those activities. A young person who gets into trouble at home or school may also be depressed, although adults may not realize this if the child doesn't seem sad. An adolescent who abuses alcohol or drugs may be searching for a way to feel better, while one who talks about wishing to be dead may be looking for a way to end the pain.
According to the American Academy of Child Psychiatry, about 5 percent of children and adolescents may be seriously depressed. Some young people have a higher then average risk of developing this illness. They include children who have a experienced a loss, are living in stressful circumstances, or have attention, learning, or conduct disorders. Also, young people who have had one episode of major depression are at high risk of having another within 5 years. One out of every four women can expect to develop depression at some point in her life. That's more then twice the rate for men.
Many of those factors that lead to depression are common to both sexes. However, women as a group also have certain risk factors that may increase their odds of getting this illness. Some of the risk factors are: Childbirth: Up to 80 % of women have a mild case of "baby blues" lasting for a few days after giving birth. This is perfectly normal. However, a smaller number of women develop a full-blown case of major depression.
This is known as postpartum depression when it occurs within four weeks of delivery. Sexual and physical abuse: More than a third of women have experienced sexual or physical abuse by the age of 21. Women who were molested as children are more likely than there women to become clinically depressed. Women who are raped as adults or physically abused may have an increased risk of depression, too.
Personality style: People who have low self esteem and little sense of control over their own lives are more prone to becoming depressed. That also may have more trouble overcoming depression when it occurs. When a girl's upbringing fosters these traits, she may be more likely to later develop depression. Poverty: Three-quarters of people living in poverty in the United States are women and children. Being poor can lead to a host of stressful situations, including the lack of needed resources, isolation, uncertainty, and poor access to health care. According to the American Psychological Association, only about a fifth of women who need treatment for depression actually get it.
Anyone, of any age or either sex, can become depressed. People between the ages of 25 and 44 are particularly venerable. But depression can also hit late in life, when its symptoms may be mistaken for senility. And it can strike children and adolescents, in whom it may be linked to bad grades, family problems, and trouble with drugs, alcohol, or sex.
Women are more likely than men to develop depression, but the illness still affects one in 10 men at some point in their lives. Bibliography:
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