Some Thoughts About Depression

Most of us have some ideas about what constitutes Depression.  These ideas may be based on our own experience, or influenced by the experiences of a family member.    Recent research and clinical findings may challenge your view of this disorder.   Here are some points to consider about depression:

• Depressed people are not always sad.  Sadness is an emotion which we all feel.  Sometimes depression manifests itself as a deep and lasting sadness, but it is just as common for depressed people to feel "numb."  Depression sometimes feels like the absence of emotions.  Life has no joy, or no deep sadness.  It is difficult to get angry about something or excited about something.

• Disturbances in appetite and sleep are sometimes signs of a "masked depression."    These problems can go in either direction.  Some people eat too much and begin to gain weight when depressed, others lose their appetite and lose weight.    Some depressed people sleep more than usual, while others experience insomnia.

• Disturbances in metabolism, such as hypothyroidism can also exacerbate depression, and can look like depression.   If your depressed mood is accompanied by loss of energy and weight gain your doctor may do labwork to evaluate the levels of certain hormones.

• Depression involves imbalances in brain chemistry.  This does not necessarily mean that depression is caused by  imbalances in brain chemistry, or that the cure for depression is necessarily to take medications which correct these imbalances in brain chemistry.  Antidepressant medications are becoming important tools in fighting depression, but psychotherapy is often equally effective and sometimes more effective.  Studies have shown that psychotherapy alone can correct the chemical imbalances in depression (as measured by the dexamethasone suppression test).    The combination of psychotherapy and antidepressant medications is often significantly more effective than either treatment alone.

• Depression is more than one illness.  Major Depression is what most of us think of as depression.  Dysthymia is a long term depression which is not as deep as Major Depression.   Bipolar Disorder (formerly known as Manic Depression) is a mixture of depression and mania - an exaggerated happiness.  

• What do you think?

• Depression Resources

• Psychopharmacology Resources

• Depression at the Mining Co.

• Bipolar Disorder at the Mining Co.

• Mental Health Search

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