Depression Symptoms

Kathy Wilson helps people get their life unstuck. She uses a multi-faceted approach in which she and her clients utilize life coaching, spiritual consulting, vibrational healing, and teaching… whatever is in her client’s highest and best interest. She’s a Certified Professional Coach, spiritual teacher, Author of An Inner Journey: Living Your Life Purpose, Reiki Master, and vibrational healer. For information about her services, products, and classes, visit her websites: http://www.aninnerjourney.com - http://www.under-one-roof.net and http://www.warrior-priestess.com If you’re ready now to begin getting unstuck and begin living your life of purpose email her at kwilson@under-one-roof.net

Depression is a psychological disorder which affects how you live your life. It affects everything. It affects your health, it affects your social life and it affects how you live your everyday life.

Depression can cause your health to deteriorate and should be treated immediately after you notice something different about your friend or your family’s personality. This is because depression can lead to a more serious health and psychological problem.

It is naturally for people to feel sad or depressed from time to time. It may be caused by loss, frustration, or an injured self-esteem. However, sometimes these feelings may cause a person to affect their ability to think, eat, sleep, work, and getting along with other people.

If you see these examples of behavior from your friend or from a member of your family, sign or symptoms, it is likely that they are suffering from depression and should immediately be treated in order to avoid further deterioration in the person’s emotional, physical and mental health.

• If you see him or her being always sad
• If you see feelings of hopelessness
• Always feeling guilty about something they didn’t even do
• Lose of self worth
• Loss of interest in things they do that usually makes them happy
• Loss of appetite
• Irritable
• Always thinks about being alone
• Don’t go out with friends
• Thinks or talks about suicide or makes an attempt to commit suicide

As you can see, severe depression can be very dangerous and can be life threatening. If you don’t act immediately, they may commit suicide or suffer from a more severe mental and physical disorder.

Giving birth to a child is one of women’s peaks of achievement that no man will ever be able to experience. The feeling of giving birth to a child, albeit an extremely painful experience, is a joy like no other.

But sadly, there are women who instead of being jubilated has felt depressed after. Not that because they don’t want the child, but because of a hormonal imbalance that is called Postpartum depression.

Some women don’t even succumb to Postpartum depression during their first born. Postpartum depression may happen even with the second or third child. A mother who has just given birth may feel extreme feelings of depression, anxiety and irritability.

Sometimes this feelings can be quite intense and can be a hindrance to a woman’s ability to normally function. When that happens, that is a sure sign that she must seek medical attention.

Early detection is necessary for a faster and easier treatment, that is why if you notice any of the Postpartum depression symptom listed below, consult your doctor immediately.

· Intense depression and frequent crying
· Severely irritable and very restless
· Always tired and unable to sleep
· Extreme weight loss and no appetite
· Either has no concern or over concern to the new baby
· Feeling worthless, guilty and inadequate
· Great fear of doing harm to the baby or to herself
· No interest in socializing and precious habits

Being able to quickly diagnose Post partum depression is the key to a successful treatment. So it is best to consul a doctor immediately if any Postpartum depression symptom is noticed.

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.

In about 1 year, roughly 20 million Americans or about 10 percent of the American population will be afflicted by depression. This results to a severe hamper to their ability to function well and will further result to high economic damages, but the emotional damages are catastrophically higher.

And because most of the depressed population doesn’t seek help or has failed to diagnose the disorder, some of them will progress on to clinical or major depression.

This hinders a person’s ability to work, study, eat, sleep and enjoy activities that are usually pleasurable to them before being stricken with major depression.

Therefore it is essential that major depression symptoms be detected and noticed so that professional help and treatment be administered to stop the depressive disorder and allow a person to function normally and enjoy life.

Major depression symptoms:

• Continuous Sad, depressed and anxious emotion felt
• Always negative, hopeless, guilt, feeling worthless and helpless
• Loss of interest in sex and other favorite recreational activities
• Over fatigue, slow and has no energy
• Finds difficulty in concentrating, making decisions and remembering events
• Insomnia or wakes up early
• Has low appetite with significant weight loss or overeating with significant weigh gain
• Irritable and restless
• Recurring physical symptoms like headaches, chronic pain and digestive problems

Some of the symptoms listed above may not happen with some people with major depression. But having 2 or more is already enough for a person to be diagnosed with major depression.

Everyone has been down to the dumps. It’s okay to feel sad from time to time. It’s just a natural human emotion. While we’d rather be happy all the time, this is an unavoidable emotion as we do experience being let down, disappointments and loss. But we do get up and become stronger persons. We take challenges and turn them into opportunities.

If a person who doesn’t get out of his slump for about two weeks, then there is a problem. Beyond that, he or she may have clinical depression.

Among all mental illnesses, clinical depression is one of the most common and easiest to treat. This disorder also happens to anyone, irregardless of culture, sex and class.

Sadly, many people fail to get treatment, although treatments have an 85 to 90% success rate, because they fail to be diagnosed in time, partly because they don’t know the clinical depression symptoms.

For proper diagnosis of clinical depression you must know the clinical depression symptoms. If you notice someone you know that has at least 2 or 4 of these clinical depression symptoms they need to seek professional help immediately:

· Melancholia, constantly sad and depressed and moving very slow.
· Overly fatigue and loss of energy.
· No interest and pleasure found in previously enjoyed activities.
· Easily noticeably changes in sleeping habits and insomnia.
· Feeling guilty and worthless.
· Thinking of suicide, death and/or has attempted suicide.

For people with clinical depression, these symptoms are lingering and never ceases.

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.

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.