DEPRESSION – SYMPTOMS and CLASSIFICATION

Depression is a mental disorder that causes someone to feel sad for long periods of time. Depression affects your feelings, behavior, thought the process and even you’re eating and sleeping habits. A person with depression often feels hopeless, pessimistic and lethargic all the time. Severe depression can lead to self-harm and can even drive a person to commit suicide. Depression is a silent killer.

 

More than 300million people in the world suffer from depression. On average 800000 people suffering from depression commit suicide every year. Knowing the symptoms of depression is a must since it allows people to identify whether they fall in that category or not, and thus can seek help from psychiatrists. In this article, I am going to identify and list the symptoms of depression.

 

PSYCHOLOGICAL SYMPTOMS OF DEPRESSION

 

Psychological symptoms of depression include:

Feeling hopeless and sad. The patient feels sad all the time with or without reason. Hopelessness about life is also a major symptom. The person feels as if there is no purpose to this life and may feel as if there is no reason to live anymore.

 

Feeling alone and unconfident. A person may feel as if he or she is completely alone. Even in a room full of people person feels as if they have no one to confide in, due to trust issues. A person feels like they are a failure and cannot do anything right and everyone is disappointed at them. As a result, they are also guilt-ridden and always finding faults in themselves. They always feel as if they are not enough.

 

Feeling irritable and angry. The person with depression may feel irritable towards others all the time. They may lash out occasionally due to the mental stress that they are going through, and become angry at petty issues and finding faults in themselves.

 

Feeling lethargic. The person with depression has a hard time getting out of bed. They feel low and tired all the time. Loss of energy leads to them feeling unmotivated. Eating habits are also altered. Sometimes they may feel hungry all the time, and sometimes they cannot find the energy to get up to eat.

 

Sleeping difficulties. The person with depression may have sleeping difficulties. Insomnia, which is a condition where people have difficulty sleeping is a common consequence of depression. Insomnia in itself is harmful but paired with depression it may cause the person to not being able to function properly due to lack of sleep.

 

Feeling anxious or worried all the time. The person with depression may develop anxiety problems which can lead to trouble making decisions, concentrating, feeling of restlessness etc.

 

Suicidal or self-harming thoughts. Person with depression often has a tendency of self-harm. They often cut, burn or maim themselves in order to feel something or to even punish themselves. They often have suicidal tendencies. In severe cases, people with depression try to commit suicide.

 

Physical pain. People with depression often have neck, back pains or headaches. Often there is no physical cause, just a mental pressure that leads to unexplained bouts of pain. Other physical problems also include irregular menstrual cycle and lowered sex drive.

 

CLASSIFICATION OF DEPRESSION

Depression can be classified by its severity: mild depression, moderate depression and severe depression. People with mild depression may get on with their lives with little difficulty. Moderate depression causes a substantial amount of difficulty in life.

 

Severe depression almost makes the life of a person unbearable, and may also result in the person committing suicide.

 

Depression is a disease that should not be ignored. Many people may have depression, but due to lack of knowledge, they cannot identify the symptoms. Knowing the symptoms help, as they can be used to help themselves or someone near to them who has depression. If someone thinks they have depression they should not hesitate to ask for help from a professional. And if you suspect someone near to you having depression, you could lend a helping hand and persuade them to seek help and to confide in you.