When Sadness Becomes Shadow
In the complex tapestry of human emotions, sadness is an inevitable thread, a natural response to life's losses, disappointments, and difficulties.
When sadness becomes shadow.
However, there are times when this sadness transcends its fleeting nature, deepening and spreading to tinge every aspect of existence.
It is then that we might be in the midst of a sadness that is not only a sadness, but also a sadness that is not a sadness, but also a sadness.
This is when we may be dealing with depression, a mood disorder that goes far beyond feeling """"low"""" occasionally.
Understanding depression is the first step in de-stigmatizing it, offering effective support and, crucially, seeking the right help.
This post seeks to illuminate what depression really is, what its characteristic symptoms are, and how it differs from the sadness we all experience.
They are not just about depression, but about the sadness we all experience.
They are about depression.
What Defines Depression from Psychology?
From a clinical perspective, depression (specifically Major Depressive Disorder, according to manuals such as the DSM-5 or ICD-11) is not simply a choice or an unwillingness. It is a serious medical and psychological condition that affects how a person feels, thinks, and acts.
It is a serious medical and psychological condition that affects how a person feels, thinks, and acts.
It is characterized by the persistent presence of a depressed mood and/or a marked loss of interest or pleasure in nearly all activities (anhedonia), for a period of at least two weeks, accompanied by other significant symptoms that represent a change from the individual's previous functioning.
The Core Symptoms: Recognizing the Signs
Depression manifests itself in a variety of ways, and its intensity can vary greatly among individuals. However, there are a number of common symptoms that mental health professionals assess for:
Symptoms include.
Emotional:
- Persistent depressed mood: Feeling of deep sadness, emptiness, hopelessness, or frequent crying most of the day, almost every day. In children and adolescents, it may manifest as irritability.
- Anhedonia: Noticeable decrease in interest or pleasure in all or nearly all activities that were previously rewarding.
- Feelings of worthlessness or excessive/inappropriate guilt: Constant self-criticism, ruminating on past failures, feeling like a burden to others.
- Irritability or irritability.
- Irritability or frustration: Even over minor matters.
Cognitive:
- Difficulty thinking, concentrating, or making decisions: Feeling of """"mental fog"""", frequent forgetfulness, trouble following a conversation or reading.
- Frequent forgetfulness, trouble following a conversation or reading.
- Recurrent thoughts of death or suicidal ideation: From thinking that life is not worth living to specific plans. This is a symptom of maximum alert.
- Pessimistic view of the future, of self and the world.
Physical and behavioral:
- Significant changes in appetite or weight: weight loss or weight gain without dieting, or decreased or increased appetite almost every day.
- Sleep disturbances: Insomnia (difficulty falling asleep, nighttime awakenings or waking too early) or hypersomnia (oversleeping)
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- Psychomotor agitation or slowing: Being restless and unable to sit still, or, conversely, slower movements and speech, observed by others.
- Slowed movements and speech, observed by others.
- Slowed movements and speech, observed by others.
- Slowed movements and speech, observed by others.
- Fatigue or loss of energy almost every day: Feeling of constant exhaustion, even without physical exertion.
- Social isolation: Avoidance of contact with friends, family members and withdrawal from social activities.
- Physical complaints with no apparent medical cause: Headaches, digestive problems, chronic muscle aches that do not improve with treatment.
Not All Depressions Are the Same: Common Types
It is important to recognize that """"depression"""" is an umbrella term that encompasses different disorders with particular characteristics:
- Major Depressive Disorder: This is the best known form, with episodes of intense symptoms lasting at least two weeks.
- Major Depressive Disorder.
- Persistent Depressive Disorder (Dysthymia): A chronically depressed mood lasting at least two years (one year in children and adolescents), with symptoms less severe but longer-lasting than MDD.
- Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder (PMDD): Depressive, anxiety and irritability symptoms that occur the week before menstruation and improve with the onset of menstruation.
- Substance/Medication-Induced Depressive Disorder: Depressive symptoms that develop during or shortly after intoxication or withdrawal from a substance or after exposure to a medication.
- Depressive Disorder Due to Other Medical Condition: Evidence that depressive symptoms are the direct pathophysiologic consequence of another medical condition (e.g., hypothyroidism, Parkinson's).
- Depressive Disorder Due to Another Medical Condition.
- Bipolar Disorders: Although distinct, they include depressive episodes that can be very similar to those of MDD, alternating with periods of mania or hypomania.
