When someone thinks it’s easy to get over depression by being positive and moving on, obviously they do not know how serious the problem is.
Understanding SYMPTOMS, ETIOLOGY AND TREATMENT
So what is “Depression?” So how do you know if what you are going through is just normal sadness vs Clinical depression/ Major Depressive Disorder (MDD)? The DSM-V 1 defines MDD as somebody who has five or more of the following symptoms for the same 2-week period: 1. D epressed mood most of the day (nearly every day) 2. M arkedly diminished interest in activities of pleasure 3. Significant weight loss 4. Insomnia 5. Psychomotor agitation or retardation 6. Loss of energy 7. Worthlessness/excessive guilt 8. Diminished concentration and 9. Recurrent thoughts of death.
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Healthline | Jan - April 2016 | healthlinemag.com
These symptoms should cause distress or impairment in functioning in order to meet criteria for MDD. The severity and duration of the symptoms would also be important to know. Severe depression can lead the person to having thoughts of ending their life. Such can be the extent of their suffering that they feel that is the only option left. Clearly this is something different from feeling sad for a few hours and then getting on with life. There are various theories that could explain why somebody can become this depressed. The most common one is called the Bio-Psycho-Social model. Neuroscience and lots of research has shown that people who tend to have depressive episodes have structural changes in their brain. These changes may be inherited (genetic) or these changes may have occurred earlier/later in life in response to the environment. There might be psychological factors involved in their depression: For e.g. they may be