Clinical depression symptoms and treatment
When my depression was finally officially diagnosed, A lot of people would approach me with questions. After struggling for hours to explain to them what it really is without sounding a bit crazy. I came up with a solution. Now when people ask me what clinical depression is? I tell them it is like being dead on the inside while still alive on the outside.
People are ignorant about what clinical depression really is for so long. Everyone has tried to brush it under the carpet, rather than face up to it. Now medical science has finally accepted that clinical depression is a serious mental and physical disease. With the passage of time, various other forms of depression have been discovered. Which further helps in understanding what this issue is.
Clinical depression is of many kinds and what kind of depression. You may have can easily be determined by examining the situation and physical reactions that have caused it.
Here are a few major types of clinical depression and their treatments to help you understand what depression really is.
Major Depression
Major Depressive Disorder is one of the most common kinds of clinical depression and can last up to weeks without a break in between. Like in other depressions, this disorder robs its patients of all joy in life and surroundings. The patient experiences dramatic weight gain or loss due to a major shift in appetite and an erratic sleep pattern. Feeling like one is caught in a haze, with low energy levels and poor concentration are its trademarks. The patient feels hopeless and guilty and will eventually become suicidal as well.
Doctors diagnose this type of clinical depression by monitoring if you have been experiencing at least five or all of these symptoms for more than a week or longer.
In treatment, talk therapy seems to work best for this type of depression, but medication recommends.
However, when nothing else works, doctors recommend ECT electrical pulses and TMS to increase brain activity in certain areas of the brain.
Persistent Depressive Disorder
The symptoms of PDD (Persistent Depressive Disorder) are also similar to those of major depression. The exception is that the patient suffers these symptoms for much longer.
People suffering from this type of clinical depression usually heal with a combination of medication and therapy.
Bipolar Disorder
Bipolar disorder is another form of clinical depression that makes people wonder what’s going on with the patient. Which not call “depression” specifically. But understand that it is a mood depressive disorder of the worst kind. Someone suffering from this condition experiences extreme highs and lows in their moods on a daily basis. At its extreme low, this disorder displays all the signs of major depression.
The most common treatment used for this condition is medication. But when mood swings are extreme, different methods also use for treating each phase. However, there is much controversy amongst experts regarding the use of antidepressants for bipolar disorder.
Postpartum Depression
The fourth type of clinical depression you need to know about is highly distressing and dangerous postpartum depression. Most common among women, it is a serious condition in which women suffer from severe bouts of depression after childbirth. If not treated timely, it can result in suicide and in some cases even infanticide.
However, doctors have been treating this form of clinical depression successfully with the help of antidepressants and mild psychotherapy.