overview
Depression is a mood disorder that causes persistent feelings of sadness and loss of interest. Also known as major depression or clinical depression, it affects the way you feel, think, and behave, and can lead to a wide variety of emotional and physical problems. You may find it difficult to perform normal daily activities and at times you just feel like life is not worth living.
Depression is more than just a blues episode, it’s not a weakness and you can’t just “get out”. Depression may require long-term treatment. But don’t be discouraged. Most people with depression feel better with medication, psychotherapy, or both.
symptoms
Although depression can only happen once in your life, people usually have more than one episode. During these episodes, you experience symptoms almost every day, which can include:
- Feelings of sadness, tears, emptiness, or hopelessness
- Outbursts of anger, irritability, or frustration, even over small things
- Loss of interest in or enjoyment of most or all normal activities, such as sex, hobbies, or exercise
- Difficulty sleeping, including insomnia or sleeping too much
- Fatigue and lack of energy, so that even small tasks require additional effort
- Decreased appetite and weight loss or increased food cravings and weight gain
- Fear, restlessness, or restlessness
- Slowing down of thoughts, speech, or body movements
- Feelings of worthlessness or guilt, fixation on past failures or self-blame
- Difficulty thinking, concentrating, making decisions, and remembering things
- Frequent or recurring thoughts of death, thoughts of suicide, attempted suicide, or suicide
- Unexplained physical problems such as back pain or headache
The reasons
It is not known exactly what causes depression. As with many mental disorders, several factors can be involved, such as:
- Biological differences. People with depression seem to have physical changes in the brain. The meaning of these changes is still unclear, but it may help identify the causes.
- Brain chemistry. Neurotransmitters are natural chemicals in the brain that are likely to play a role in depression. Recent research shows that changes in the function and effects of these neurotransmitters, and how they interact with the neurocircuits that help maintain mood stability, can play an important role in depression and its treatment.
- Hormones. Changes in the body’s hormonal balance can cause or trigger depression. Hormonal changes can be caused by pregnancy and in the weeks or months after giving birth, as well as thyroid problems, menopause, or a number of other conditions.
- Hereditary traits. Depression is more common in people whose blood relatives also have the disease. Researchers are trying to find genes that could be involved in depression.
Risk factors
Depression often begins in your teenage, twenties, or thirties, but it can appear at any age. More women than men are diagnosed with depression. However, this may be due in part to the fact that women seek treatment more often.
Factors that appear to increase your risk of developing or causing depression include:
- Certain personality traits such as low self-esteem and excessive dependence, self-criticism or pessimism
- Traumatic or stressful events such as physical or sexual abuse, death or loss of a loved one, a difficult relationship, or financial problems
- Blood relatives with a history of depression, bipolar disorder, alcoholism, or suicide
- Being lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender, or having differences in genital development that are not clearly male or female (intersex) in an unfavorable situation
- A history of other mental disorders such as anxiety disorders, eating disorders, or post-traumatic stress disorder
- Alcohol or recreational drug abuse
- Serious or chronic illness, including cancer, stroke, chronic pain, or heart disease
- Certain medications, such as certain high blood pressure medications or sleeping pills (talk to your doctor before stopping any medication). Depression (major depressive disorder) Treatment in Hyderabad
prevention
There is no surefire way to prevent depression.