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What is it?

Depression is a medical term that covers quite a broad range of psychological distress. In its mildest form, depression can cause lowered mood, which does not stop you leading your normal life, but makes everything harder to do and seem less worthwhile. At its most severe, depression can be life threatening. You may feel like killing yourself, or simply give up the will to live.

There are several other main subtypes of depression:

Seasonal affective disorder (SAD)

This type of depression is thought to be due to the lack of daylight during the winter months, which makes some people more prone to depression.

Postnatal depression

Some mothers experience depression after their babies are born. It’s thought to be brought on by the huge changes in hormone levels.

Manic depression

This is also known as bipolar disorder. This causes people to have episodes of depression and mania. Mania is a state of highly excited and uncontrolled behaviour.

How common is it?

Depression is the most common mental illness. It is estimated that almost everyone will experience some form of depression at some point in their lives, and 1 in 4 people will have serious, or clinical, depression. On average each year 3% of people will be treated for clinical depression.

What age range does it affect?

Depressive disorders occur in all social classes and at all ages from childhood to old age. The severe forms are more common in middle and old age but those in their 20’s and 30’s are now known to have more depressive illness than had previously been thought. Around 1 in every 200 children under 12 and 2-3 in every hundred teenagers will have depression.

Other information

It is a common misconception that people with depression are just having a ‘bad day’ and will be alright tomorrow, or can just snap out of it. These are not true and are unhelpful to the sufferer. People with depression already doubt themselves and have low self confidence, to lower it further by telling them they are just pretending, or to not give them sympathy, will often be counterproductive.

More often than not there is more than one cause as to why someone is depressed, and while the individual may be able to cope with each of these factors on its own, when combined it is too much to handle. It is for this reason that sufferers will often talk to a counsellor or therapist to try to identify and sort out these problems. (See Help! for more details).

Symptoms

• Not enjoying activities that the person would normally
• Having a sense of desperation, to the extent of wanting to attempting suicide or having numb empty feelings
• Being unusually impatient or irritable
• Eating more and putting on weight, or not eating properly and losing weight
• Cutting themselves off from others rather than asking for help or support
• Difficulty in making decisions
• Difficulty getting up in the morning and facing the day
• Drug, alcohol or solvent misuse
• Self harming
• Suicide attempts

Regular Causes

• Traumatic experiences (eg. Family breakdown, death or loss of a loved one)
• Sexual or physical abuse
• Bullying
• Over working, doing too much
• Often depression runs in families
• There is a chemical change in the brain during an episode of depression that controls mood.
• Long term illness
   

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Although we have attempted to gather the information provided here from reputable sources, we cannot guarantee the accuracy of the content. In particular please note that the information is not intended to be a substitute for professional advice. If any of the content of this site causes you concerns please seek further advice.