Depression can be Debilitating, But Tt’s Treatable

One of the least understood but more common mental illnesses is depression.

The condition is misunderstood because people often just equate it with being sad. They might try to tell the depressed person to snap out of it, or they might try to explain how many positive things they have in their life.

But depression is more than just being down. It can be a physical feeling of fatigue and listlessness combined with feelings of hopelessness and a lack of motivation to do any things that used to bring pleasure.

How can you tell when just feeling down has turned into a clinical depression? One way is to look at how long the feelings have persisted, and how severe the effects are on your life. And clinical depression often can’t be explained by external events. Yes, we all get down when bad things happen to us. But the depressed person can be down when nothing bad is happening at all.

And depression can lead to isolation, as the sufferer loses motivation to do things. They stay home, not interacting with people. This leads them to feel even more depressed and alone.

Here are some symptoms of depression:

• Sleeping more or less than usual
• Loss of sex drive
• Guilty feelings
• Loss of appetite
• Feeling constantly tired
• Feeling worthless or hopeless
• Feelings of sadness
• Feelings of grief
• Difficulty concentrating
• apathy

But there are effective treatments for depression. One that has helped millions is medication. Anti-depressive drugs have become more and more effective, with fewer and fewer side effects.

There are also psychotherapies that have proven very successful with sufferers of depression – often used in combination with medication.

There is no clear rule about how long a depression is likely to last. This depends on the cause and how each individual responds to treatment. Medications may not always work the first time: sometimes doses must be changed or different drugs must be tried before the ideal one is found.

The most important thing is that the depressed person reach out for help.