We all hit slumps at certain points in our lives. One moment we’re happy, the next day, we’re not. We attribute this to the “ups and downs” of the cycle of life. But some slumps are harder to get out of than others. Sometimes, no matter how hard we try, the “blues” don’t seem to go away. You can’t quite put your finger on it but you’re listless ad detached. You can’t sleep or you sleep too much, you can’t concentrate, you find yourself bingeing, then feeling guilty. You may be suffering from clinical depression.
If it does then you are in the classic case of depression, which isn’t just a mere case of the blues. Like diabetes, asthma, and heart disease, depression is a medical illness that affects your body, moods, and thoughts. And like these medical cases, you can’t just “shake” depression away like you can’t shake diabetes away. There are ways to treat it as one would treat a medical condition. The first step is actually opening your mind to the possibility that you might be suffering from depression.
At times, people don’t know that they are clinically depressed. There’s a certain amount of denial attached to depression. Clinical depression is incomprehensible to most of us. Pride dictates that we shun sympathy and pity.
If at least five of the following symptoms occur for most of the day, nearly every day for more than two weeks, depression may be present:
- Depressed mood, feeling sad or irritable.
- Decreased activity, listlessness or restlessness.
- Lack of energy for no apparent reason or constant fatigue.
- Affected sleeping patterns, either sleeping too much or too little.
- Can’t concentrate, forgetfulness, can’t make decisions, or constant flaking out from made decisions.
- Change in weight or appetite.
- Feelings of guilt, hopelessness or worthlessness
- Loss of interest in activities, such as hobbies or sports, lack of interest in spending time with friends or family.
- Thoughts of death or suicide
The reason why depression is difficult to diagnose is because the cause isn’t as obvious as with regular medical conditions like diabetes, for example. It’s triggered mostly by events, habits and a multitude of environmental factors. These are stimuli but not necessarily the causes. Clinical depression is caused by an imbalance of certain chemicals in the brain responsible for mood regulation.
