Depression Symptoms

Do you find yourself often irritable or angry, trapped in confusion, misery, uncertainty, unconfident, and hopeless that you feel that your life has no direction or your life isn’t worth living?

These feelings are emotional symptoms of depression. It is not as simple as having a bad day that disappears quickly, but continues to stay and interfere in your daily life. Emotional symptoms co-exist with physical symptoms too.

Physical symptoms of depression are sometimes interpreted as symptoms of physical illness although they’re not, and it is necessary to be aware and know how to deal with it.

These changes in your body may include:

• Headaches, back pain and chest pain are common in people with depression.

• Digestive problems – sluggish movement of intestines that results to fullness of the stomach, dyspepsia and constipation may be experienced.

• Sleep disturbance – trouble going to sleep (insomia) or frequently waking up in the middle of the night, early-morning awakening and unable to sleep again or sometimes oversleeping.

• Exhaustion and fatigue- you easily get tired or cannot perform even the simplest task.

• Change in appetite or weight – loss of appetite resulting to weight loss or craves for sweet, rich foods and overeats therefore gains weight.

• Sexual dysfunction- women may have a problem such as irregular menstrual period and loss of interest in sex and erectile impotence for men.

If you experienced or have been experiencing these physical symptoms, discuss this with your doctor for proper treatment and teach you how to cope better.

Above all, help yourself. Think positively. Try to find out your special skills or talents and then develop them. Set up priorities and focus on your role in life. Depression affects not only you, but also those who love you.

Being depressed or feeling sad from time to time is a natural reaction of humans when they experience something traumatic, like the loss of a loved one, loss of job, domestic violence, divorce, stress, financial problems, social failures and others.

However, sometimes these feelings can get out of hand and the person suffering from manic depression can be a danger to others and to him or herself.

Manic depressive illness is also called bipolar mood disorder. The person suffering from one may switch moods from depression and mania frequently. You probably know about and refer to it as mood swings.

This illness can be classified as mild, moderate and severe. People with this kind of illness should be treated immediately by consulting a psychiatrist and family and friends should fully support the person suffering from the said illness.

In order to know if the person has a manic depressive illness or bipolar mood disorder, here are examples of signs and symptoms you should watch out for:

Feelings:

• Frequently feels sad
• Loss of interest in spending time with family or friends
• Pessimistic
• Loss of interest in sex
• Loss of interest in having fun or do activities that usually makes him or her happy
• Anxiety attacks
• Always worried about something

Thoughts:

• Loss of self-esteem
• Obsessed with a certain thought
• Hearing voices or hallucinating
• Having strange ideas or delusions
• Thoughts of suicide or homicide
• Slowed thinking

Physical:

• Loss of appetite
• Weight loss
• Loss of energy
• Cravings for sweets
• Frequent attacks of headaches and muscle aches
• Restlessness

Behaviors:

• Slowed speech and movement
• Loss of interest with social contact
• Excessive use of alcohol and drugs
• Cries easily

These are the symptoms of depression. In mania, however, it is very different. You may notice that they will suddenly be happy. They may have high self-esteem, increase in creativity, and decreased need for sleep.

However, there will be times that he or she will overreact with the slightest thing happening, having the urge of destroying properties, and will have a hostile attitude.

These feelings will cycle frequently. You will notice that on one day he or she will be depressed and on the other he or she will be extremely happy and goes back to depression after a day or two.

This illness can be life threatening for him or her and to other person.

Not treating this illness will result in increased severity over the years and manic depression simptoms ‘ll worst.

The term bipolar is adequate as it is in regards to the two opposite poles of emotions a person with bipolar depression feels. This is the depressed phase and the manic phase.

The depressed phase is where the usual symptoms of depression are seen. In the manic phase, a bipolar depressed person will feel the exact opposite. In this phase the person will feel over ecstatic, euphoric and hyperactive.

The frequency of mood swings varies from one bipolar depressed person to another. Some would have frequent mood swings while some would only experience a swing once or twice in their lifetime.

Bipolar Depression Symptom

The depressed phase is the more dominant phase in these cyclic symptoms. A patient need have a recurring manic phase to be diagnosed with Bipolar Depression, if he or she exhibits a number of the manic symptoms twice or thrice in a lifetime; he or she is a bipolar depression afflicted person.

Depressive Phase Symptoms:

Social Withdrawal
Suicidal Tendencies
Unable to feel happiness
Over Fatigued
No control over emotions
Cries easily without reason
Head pains

Manic Phase Symptoms:

Overly ecstatic
Hyperactive
Insomniac
Racing ideas and Speedy thoughts
Over Spending
Drug and Alcohol Abuse

Having bipolar depression can get dangerous if left untreated. Not only to the person afflicted with the disorder but also to the people around him or her. Be sure to notice any of the mentioned above bipolar depression symptom so that immediate treatment can be given to halt bipolar depression in its tracks.

With about thirty to forty percent of all people diagnosed with depression, atypical depression is the most common subtype of depression in outpatients that inflicts the depressed population.

Unlike the more sever cases of depression, atypical depression allows an inflicted person to have mood reactivity. They can sometimes react to a positive event or situation.

Atypical depression also has a high chance in treatment. They can be easily treated especially if an atypical depression symptom is detected early and treatment is done immediately.

That is why it is imperative that an atypical depression symptom should be learned and known to be easily identified. If you notice at least two or four of the following Atypical depression symptoms coupled with depression, then it is best to have the person be checked-up by a specialist in mental disorders;

Atypical depression symptoms:

· Mood reactivity – A depressed person’s mood actually brightens up when a positive situation happens or is expected to happen.
· Hypersomnia – oversleeps, unlike in the melancholic subtype of depression where the person doesn’t sleep at all.
· Over-eating – there is significant weight increase.
· Leaden paralysis – feeling heavy, leaden in legs and arm.

It should be noted that an atypical depression symptom could be detected at a young age because it usually happens earlier, teenage period, than most forms of depression.

Also, atypical depression mostly happens to women, as they represent roughly sixty five to seventy percent of patients with this subtype of depression.

Many people live their lives trying to be happy, going with the eternal pursuit of happiness. Some even have their idea of what happiness should be.

It could be having a wonderful family, having kids, getting a high-paying job that doesn’t require you to be at the office all the time.

The all American dream.

But some people, even though they may have all this and more can still succumb to depression. This can be because of stress, an illness, a great loss or any other causes.

Living together with a person with depression can be very hard. It may even drive you to blame yourself.

People with anxiety depression can ruin lives not necessarily their own. People around them can experience a hard time being with them.

That is why immediate treatment is necessary.

But not everyone has anxiety depression. It can just be a temporary sadness or anxiety. That is why we have to know each and every Anxiety Depression Symptom so that we can diagnose the problem properly.

Here are some of the Anxiety Depression Symptoms:

Constant anxiety attacks
Disturbed thinking
Recurring ideas of death, suicide or attempted suicide
Different sleeping patterns
Severe head aches and pains
Insomnia
Dizziness
Constant guilt
Loss of interest in previous hobbies
Hopelessness
And lots more

Every Anxiety Depression Symptom can be treated. This is not a hopeless disorder. Consulting with a specialist will be the best thing to do for proper diagnosis and treatment.

What is depression postpartum?

Depression postpartum is known as perinatal depression. Depression can affect women during or after pregnancy – even a year later -. The exact number of women with depression during this time is unknown. But researchers believe that depression is one of the most common complications during and after pregnancy. Often, the depression is not recognized or treated, because some normal pregnancy changes cause similar symptoms and are happening at the same time. Tiredness, problems sleeping, stronger emotional reactions, and changes in body weight may occur during pregnancy and after pregnancy. But these symptoms may also be signs of depression.

What causes depression postpartum?

Generally, depression is a disease only dependent of each patient. Depression Postpartum is characterized for hormone changes or a stressful life event, for example: death in the family, can cause changes in the woman brain. Often depression is a disease present in a lot of families.

During Pregnancy, some factors may help woman’s chances of develop depression, such as:

Family history of mental illness.

Anxiety about the fetus.

Young mother’s age.

Marital or financial problems.

There are external factors that might help women to develop a depression:

Feeling tired, because not enough rest during night.

Feeling overwhelmed with a new member in the family, or another baby.

Feeling stress in work and with home routines, no matter what.

Sometimes women feel fat, for this reason they can loss control of theirselves.

After Pregnancy:

Usually women have important change in their hormones. While pregnancy, woman’s hormone increase greatly, for example estrogen and progesterone. On the other hand, after childbirth, exactly 24 hours later, all hormones rapidly drops back down to normal levels. Last researches; discovered that changes in hormone levels may lead to depression, just as smaller changes in hormones can affect a woman’s moods before she gets her menstrual period.

What is Mifepristone?:

Mifepristone is too known as RU-486, this drug is ussualy used for abortion; on the other hand, Mifepristone is use too as anticancer drug. Last researches have discovered that Mifepristone is used by people with pshychotic depression as well- there are people that suffer a deep mental disorder, often the main symptoms are; pain, paranoia and hallucations, thus psychotic depression involves body, mood, and thoughts – because, antidepressant medications usually are ineffective for those patients, and combining antidepressants with antipsychotic drugs improve symptoms but for only about 60 percent of them.

How Mifepristone works?:

High levels of the steroidal hormone cortisol cause the extreme symptoms of psychotic depression. The excess hormone results from an overactive group of glands called the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis, thus psychiatrists believe electroconvulsive therapy works by resetting this axis, returning it to a normal state. Mifepristone blocks one of the cortisol receptors and also may reset the axis, since improvements persisted for patients.

The bottom line, according to last researches, mifepristone appeared to lower levels of cortisol – a stress hormone that has been linked to psychotic depression – . Psychiatrists had checked in their patients – in weeks with mifepristone treatment – , it helps them to overcome the danger – of psychotic depression – therefore, they can return to normal medication, and it might save many people lifes, because people with psychotic depression have higher level risks for suicide than people with other depressive diseases.

Do not forget that usually psychiatrists recommend tmifepristone must not to be used as a treatment for chronic manic depression, because mifepristone might bring them side effects; in these cases it is advisable on the role of cortisol in depressive behaviour.

Recovery or sobriety causes a lot of stress, particularly in the beginning. Post acute withdrawal (PAW) results from the damage the alcoholic has taken to his or her nervous system combined with the stress of having to cope with life without alcohol.

Post acute withdrawal will set in three to six months after the user has taken his or her last drink. The actual recovery from nervous system damage from alcohol takes 6 to 24 months after the drinking has ceased.

The most obvious symptom that PAW has set in is the inability to solve what would usually be considered a simple problem. The other symptoms of PAW that contributed to the inability to solve this simple problem would include:

- Problems with managing stress

- Inability to sleep or sleep disorders

- Lack of physical coordination

- Memory problems

- Emotional over reactions

- Inability to think clearly

Emotional over reaction is a big one. Any alcoholic in recovery will notice the “economy sized emotions” right away. Everything seems larger than life. The inability to sleep is very common too, and the length of time of this sleep disturbance varies by the individual.

The combination of these symptoms lead to lowered self-esteem. The recovering alcoholic will feel embarrassed, he or she will feel like they are not themselves and very out of sorts and this can lead to the loss of self esteem and even a fear of failure to be able to handle the upcoming challenges of life.

Post acute withdrawal is a physical symptom of what is hopefully temporary damage to the nervous system of the drinker, so it stands to reason that when the nervous system is healed, the symptoms will disappear.

In some rehabs they will warn the recovering alcoholic that when you get sober, for the first six months when you suffer from depression, don’t look for external reasons for the depression. The depression is also a physical problem that will subside over a period of time as the body heals.

When an alcoholic is starting on the road to recovery, it is very apparent that making the extra effort to take care of his or her health, and keeping stress to a minimum will aid in hopefully a shorter recovery period from the physical symptoms resulting from damage to the nervous system caused by alcohol.

When life presents many challenges the desire to control can seem natural. There is the illusion that if we control events, ourselves and others, we will be safe, successful and secure. Unfortunately, the opposite is true. The tighter we grip, hold on and manipulate, the more out of control we become.

Especially in relationships, where people feel vulnerable, where emotions are high and a great deal is at stake, the wish to control arises. At first this may appear as possessiveness, wanting to know all about what the partner is doing, dictating what he/she can or cannot do. Possessive often intensifies. Power struggles erupt. There is the sense that the person belongs to you and you have the right to direct their choices and the way their life goes.

Both the person dominating and the one being dominated lose freedom and well-being. Although the dominant one may say they are doing it out of love, for the good of the partner, the bottom line is that there is fear and anger here, manifesting as the desire to control. Love always honors and respects another, it gives a person space to be who they are, to make their own changes and discoveries. It does not seek to take over another’s life, but to enhance it.

However, some very much enjoy being controlled. They feel that if their partners are possessiveness and controlling, it means that they care. This is a dangerous confusion. When one individual controls another, it is always to make themselves feel safe and secure.

The Dynamics Of Control

The more out of control one really is, the more the desire to control arises. Being able to control another person or situation can provide a feeling of power, strength, authority, or the sense that one’s world will stay stable and secure. However, the more we control, the more of our own energy we have to use to keep this vigil up.

Control and domination can become an addiction. There is a rush that goes with control, the person feels powerful, as though they are strong and on top of the world and often the one being controlled may also feel a rush of safety and security, as though they matter a great deal to someone. Sooner or later all of this has to collapse.

Fear Of Domination

Another strong source of the desire to control others is fear of domination. We do not want to be controlled. Although many long for approval and acceptance, they also fear being dictated to. The way this conflict is handled is by dominating others. They feel that if they are doing the controlling, no one can lasso them in. In fact, they are lassoing themselves, tying themselves to the one they so need to control. Many will do almost anything to feel secure. Much anxiety can be traced to not having a true sense of stability within ourselves. This happens when we do not live from our core. The need to control arises from this. It is vitally necessary to contact our true the true source of security within that which provides stability, no matter what is going on.

Exercise:

Who Are You Controlling?

Make a list of everyone you are controlling – or want to control. Include yourself in this list. Write down the ways in which you control and dominate yourself.

Stop Controlling Them

Take one person on the list and just let them No matter how much you’ve tried to control them, have you succeeded? Write down what the result has been. How has it made you feel? Whatprice have you paid for this?

Imagine that you simply allow them to be exactly as they are. How does this make you feel now? What happens to your relationship? What happens to your own energy and sense of well-being?

Granting Freedom To Yourself As Well

Now do this exercise with yourself.Allow yourself to be exactly as you are. Stop fighting, pushing, and punishing yourself for ways in which you function. Take the noose off your own neck. How do you feel? What new ways of being may be open to you now? What has your endless desire to control yourself stopped from happening?

Realizing Who Is In Control

Different people will come to different conclusions about this part of the exercise. That’s fine. The purpose of the exercise is to grapple with this question. Spend time with it. Dwell upon the question ‘ who is really in control of your life and the life of others? Let the answer reveal itself. Who is really in control of this world? Think about that. After you’ve done all you can, who is in control of what happens to you? What good does it do you to fight life? Is there another way to respond?

Watch upset and tension melt away on The Anger Diet (30 Days To Stree Free Living). Get award winning program by top psychologist at http://www.theangerdiet.com Well known relationship expert, mediator and workshop leader has helped thousands discover strength, balance and peace of mind. Subscribe to free ezine at http://www.brendashoshanna.com Contact – topspeaker@yahoo.com

Always feeling under the weather? Always not in the mood to be around others and have a good time? If you’re suffering from prolonged sadness for quite some time now, you should face these bouts of depression and get yourself diagnosed by a psychiatrist, they’re doctors who can actually help you out with your problem. Here are 10 Things You Should Know About Depression.

1. In the US alone, depression affects an approximate of 10 million citizens every year. An estimation of 1 out of 4 adults is said to have experienced depression throughout their existence. When it comes to treating depressed women, antidepressants and psychotherapy are commonly used – selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors or SSRIs to be particular. Both of these methods can effectively deal with mild to moderate depression.

2. Genuine depression is more than a mood. It’s a mental illness brought on by a physical cause, a psychological cause, or both. Major depression is an extreme condition where there is no interest in activities of daily life, like eating, personal hygiene…even getting out of bed, and may be accompanied by attempts at suicide. When it’s that extreme, psychiatric care and medication are almost always required. Chances are, someone suffering from major depression would not be interested in reading this article or taking any actions to recover. So this article is written for and to those less extreme cases, where you know something is wrong and want to find some things you can do to aid in recovery.

3. Anxiety depression is actually characterized by all sorts of irregularities and erratic behavior from the person who is suffering from it, this is usually due to certain stress triggers that may tend to easily cause a person undue jitters and stress. Also, a lot of people who tend to get easily nervous over stressful activities are actually prone to having anxiety depression; it’s just a matter of being strong-willed when it comes to facing difficult and stress-prone activities. It may be pretty hard to overcome at first, but trying to be calm and cool in times of extreme pressure is what’ll actually save your mental health from going totally downward spiral.

4. Clinical depression or as some might call as ‘major’ depression, is actually the medical term for depression. Actually clinical depression is more of a disorder rather than an illness since it basically covers only those who are suffering from symptoms related to depression. Clinical depression is how doctors usually refer to “depression” when giving a diagnose of their patient. It’s basically just a medical term.

5. There’s a wide variety of anti-depressant depression medications available to help treat those who are suffering from depressive disorders. The more popular ones are those that are of the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors or SSRIs variant then there are the tricyclics while the other popular variant is the monoamine oxidase inhibitors or MAOIs. These depression medications (the SSRIs variant as well as the other newer depression medication available in the market) actually to be a much safer alternative than the tricyclics, since they have fewer side-effects as opposed to the tricyclics depression medication variant.

6. Manic depression or Bi polar manic depression is a serious medical condition that causes alterations in a person’s mood, energy, and ability to function. Unlike the typical mood swings a normal person experiences, the symptoms of bi polar manic depression are much more severe. It often attacks when a person experiences an unusually great deal of stress, whether from work, school or family. Research also suggest that Bi polar manic depression could be hereditary, or that there may be a physical problem with the brain systems that control our mood. For women, it can also be triggered by childbirth or during menopause.

7. The majority people with depression never look for help, although the majority will react to treatment. Treating depression is above all important because it affects you, your family, and your work. Some people with depression try to harm themselves in the false belief that their feeling will never changes.

8. By eating the right, you can boost your brain chemicals and fight off the effects of depression. Extreme sugar levels can also cause brain cells to die and the chemicals to decrease production, once again allowing depression to set in. When people get depressed, their appetite is also affected and they eat too much or not enough. Proper diet can help you maintain not only your weight, but also keep depression away.

9. Antidepressants prescribed for depression work by slowing down the absorption of neurotransmitters in the brain. These chemicals are what help the brain function normally and they are directly involved in influencing a person’s mood, appetite, concentration, sleeping, and pain receptors. The medication restores the chemical balance in the brain and eases the symptoms the patient is suffering from.

10. Depression and its normal symptoms should not be ignored. It is an abnormal emotional state that can be introduced by severe sadness, despair and discouragement. It might even lead to a lamentable outcome. However, treating it can be done in many ways.

My name is David and I am a freak of lists. That’s why I build the 10 about site. If you want to learn more “10 things you should know” about different topics just come to 10about.info.