This very real illness involves the emotional, physical and mental faculties of the depressed person.  This is not just a passing feeling of sadness that you can will away whenever you wish.  There are signs and symptoms and there is proper treatment.  When not immediately and properly handled, the condition may become worse.  Just as any disease, depression will vary from person to person.

Depressive disorders come in three types, dysthymic disorder, depressive disorder and bipolar disorder.

When all the signs and symptoms of depression begin to interfere with you ability to act normally, the episode is called major depression.  Major depression can happen only once or may reoccur.

Dysthymia is less severe than major depression.  Dysthymia shows the same signs and symptoms that major depression does, but the patient is still able to carry out most activities.  When a person has a dysthymic disorder, he may suffer one or more episodes of major depression at sometime.

A third disorder that is also depression that includes dramatic mood changes is called Bipolar disorder.  A person with bipolar disorder may be severely depressed one minute and very high the next.  When on a manic cycle, the person may be overenthusiastic and hyper, but when the depression portion of the cycle hits will hit a low.  A person in the manic cycle may stay up all night and clean the house from top to bottom and still be ready to find friends to meet for breakfast, lunch and have a dinner party.  In the depression portion, the house may be untouched for days while friends’ calls are unreturned.  In the manic cycle, patients often feel they are cured and stop taking medication.

As all illnesses, depression has symptoms.  The following is a list of those symptoms

• Emptiness
• hopelessness
• guilt and worthlessness at all times
• lack of interest in things that once brought joy, including sex
• continual tiredness
• difficulty making decisions
• new sleep problems
• appetite loss or change of weight
• thoughts of or attempts at suicide
• irritable
• pain which has no basis physiologically

At the end of the dark tunnel we call depression; there is good news and hope.  Available treatments include antidepressant medicine and psychotherapy or a combination of both.  At other times, light therapy or electroconvulsive therapy is appropriate.

If you feel that you are suffering from depression, begin by talking with your doctor.  He is trained to help to diagnose depression.  He is not going to think that you are weak or weird.  He is interested in getting the help that you need in order to be healthy once again.

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