Clinical Depression

Every test in our life makes us bitter or better, every problem comes to break us or make us.

The choice is ours whether we become a victim or victor.

Everyone in life can feel sad or happy at times. But, depression is a chronic feeling of sadness, emptiness or inability to feel pleasure that may appear to happen with no clear reasons.

Depression is the leading cause of disability worldwide.

Depression is a mood disorder that causes persistent feelings of sadness, emptiness and loss of joy in life. It is different from the mood fluctuations that people regularly experience as a part of life.

Depression can take on many forms and may be categorized in several different ways. Some people only have a few symptoms, while others have many.

If depression exists for the long term then, it has a major impact on a person’s quality of life.

Most people go through periods of feeling sadness but when they are depressed may feel a persistently low mood for weeks or months rather than just a few days.

Depression affects people in different ways and can cause a lot of various symptoms.

They range from lasting feelings of unhappiness to losing interest in the things they used to enjoy and feeling very sad. Many people with depression also have symptoms of anxiety.

There can be physical symptoms too, such as the feeling of tiredness, loneliness, sleeping badly, loss of appetite and feeling of pain in some parts of the body.

Most people experience feelings of stress, anxiety or low mood during difficult times.

Signs and symptoms of clinical depression

1) feeling of loneliness, sadness or hopelessness

2) loss of interest or pleasure in all normal activities such as hobbies or sports

3) Angry outbursts, irritability or frustration

4) sleeping too much or sleeping disturbance

5) reduced appetite or increased craving for food and weight gain

6) tiredness and lack of energy, so small work takes extra effort

7) anxiety, agitation or restlessness

8) feeling of hopelessness or guilty

9) lack of concentration, trouble thinking confused, and difficult to make decisions

10) slowed thinking or negative thoughts

11) frequent or recurrent thoughts of death, suicidal thoughts or suicide attempts

12) unexplained physical problems such as back pain, stomach pain or headache

Clinical depression can affect people of any age including children.

However, clinical depression symptoms even if severe, usually improve with psychological counselling, antidepressant medications or a combination of both.

Treatment for clinical depression can involve a combination of lifestyle changes, medicine and counselling.

For moderate to severe depression, a combination of counselling such as cognitive behaviour therapy and antidepressants is often prescribed for improvement.

Many people with depression benefit by making lifestyle changes such as doing exercise, not taking alcohol, not smoking and eating healthy foods.

So, I think if we are doing this, we don’t get depressed in life.

Life is all about ups and downs, good times and bad times, we have to find the strength to move on and believe that the next chapter of our life will be amazing.