Depression Symptoms

Welcome to DepressionSymptoms101.com, and thanks for stopping by our site. Our goal is to provide our readers with the most information available about depression. Although we provide you with a vast amount of information we ask and encourage you to seek a medical professionals advice as soon as possible if you think you may be suffering from depression. Depression is absolutely serious, and can be dangerous to not only you but others if not treated properly.

What is Depression?

To truly understand the symptoms of depression, you should first know exactly what it is and how it can affect you. Most likely at some point in a persons life they will feel depressed for one reason or another. However, if you find that you go into an intense depression for an extended period of time you could be suffering from clinical or major depressive disorder, which are more commonly referred to as just depression. Depression is actually a form of mental disorder with a number of different symptoms. Feeling hopeless, helpless, and just plain sad for an extended period of days or even weeks that keep you from functioning normal are all signs that you could be suffering from depression, which is a diagnosable and treatable disease. The reason it is important that you know what depression is, and what the symptoms are is because most times you are the only one who knows you are suffering the symptoms. Even though they can keep you from functioning as you normally do, other people may not notice or know what you are feeling on the inside.

What Are Some Symptoms and Signs of Depression?

There are actually a defined set of symptoms that have been identified by the DSM-IV, which stands for The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. The DSM-IV is a document published by the American Psychiatric Association which serves as the manual for listing psychiatric and psychological disorders. According to this if you experience at least five of the following symptoms, and they are interfering with your daily life you could be suffering from major depressive disorder.

• Suffering from a depressed mood for most of the day, this feeling may be worse in the morning.

• Loosing interest or enjoyment at all in activities that you once enjoyed.

• Significant weight loss or gain. The weight loss would most likely happen without you actively trying.

• Inability to sleep at night, or at all. This could be happening every day

• Experiencing psychomotor agitation/retardation. Psychomotor agitation is basically an increase in activity that can be brought on by tension can be exhibited by restlessness, while retardation is just a sense of being slowed down.

• A sense of fatigue or no energy at all throughout most of the day.

• Experiencing feeling of low self esteem, along with feelings of worthlessness or guilt.

• Finding yourself unable to concentrate, or not being able to make decisions on a daily basis.

• Recurrent thoughts about death and suicide. Especially thinking about committing suicide and planning it. If you are experiencing any thoughts of suicide you should contact emergency services immediately. You can call either 911 or some another emergency phone number such as the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255

If you find you are suffering from a number of these signs it is extremely important that you seek professional medical evaluation. Depression can only properly be diagnosed by a qualified individual during a complete medical exam.

Why is it Important to Know If I am Suffering From Depression?

There are a number of reasons you will want to get properly diagnosed if you are in fact suffering from depression. One is that it could lead to more serious health problems in the future, including death in extremely serious cases. Another reason is that once you are  properly diagnosed you can receive the proper treatment and help. Treatments can include anything from medication to therapy. With the proper treatment you could go back to living your life as you did before you experienced and signs of depressions.

I Keep Hearing Different Terms for Depression, What do they all mean? Are they all the same?

If you keep your ears open to news about depression you may hear some different terms being used that could possibly confuse you. A lot of times you might possibly hear people interchange different terms when they are discussing depression. Some of these terms you could come across are clinical depression, major depressive disorder, and major depression. With all these different terms being used it could get a little difficult to understand what the person is talking about. Are they talking about what we would consider “regular depression”, or do these terms mean something totally different. Well, the good thing is that all of these terms are normally used to mean the same thing, which is what we would normally just call depression. So, if you are watching the news and they use clinical depression, or reading a magazine and they are using major depressive disorder, or even just depression, they are most likely talking about the same thing.

I Keep Hearing About All These Different Types of Depression, What Are Some of the Different Types?

There are actually a number of different types of depression that affect certain groups of people, and at certain times in a persons life. Some of the more common types of depression that you may hear about are;

• Childhood Depression

Can I Be Helped, or Can I Help Someone?

The answer to both of these questions is most definitely yes! If you are suffering from depression it is vital  that you understand the depression is something that can be treated and controlled, this is also extremely important if you know someone who is suffering. If you look around out site you will see that we have articles on both the different kinds of treatments of depression, and also on how to help someone who is suffering from depression. One of the keys to both of those is seeking a medical professionals help, and getting properly diagnosed. If you, or someone else hasn’t been properly diagnosed with depression, then it is almost impossible to get the help and guidance you/they will need to overcome depression.