What is Depression?

Life can be stressful. We all face different challenges and obstacles, and sometimes the pressure is hard to handle. Stress is a psychological and physiological response to events that upset our personal balance in some way. It affects ones mind, body, and behavior in many ways.

The specific signs and symptoms of stress vary from person to person, but all have the potential to harm your health, emotional well-being, and relationships with others. Stress sometimes lead to depressiondefine and makes person tired, sad, irritable, lazy, unmotivated.

Depression is a state of intense sadness, melancholia or despair that has advanced to the point of being disruptive to an individual's social functioning and/or activities of daily living.It often leads to constant negative thinking and sometimes substance abuse. Extreme depression can culminate in its sufferers attempting or committing suicide.

It's essential to understand that depression is much more than simply a disease. The more we understand about the cycle of depression, the more we will be able to come out of it.

A depressive disorder is an illness that involves the body, mood, and thoughts. It affects the way a person eats and sleeps, the way one feels about oneself, and the way one thinks about things.

Long term stress and hormonal imbalances cause depression. The hormonal imbalances related to depression are to do with our natural reactions, and stress and depression are certainly linked.

Depression disorders come in different forms, these are:

1)Major depression: It is manifested by a combination of symptoms that interfere with the ability to work, study, sleep, eat, and enjoy once pleasurable activities. Such a disabling episode of depression may occur only once but more commonly occurs several times in a lifetime.

2)Dysthymia depression: It is a less severe type of depression.It involves long-term, chronic symptoms that do not disable, but keep one from functioning well.

3)Bipolar disorder: This type of depression is called manic-depressive illness. Not nearly as prevalent as other forms of depressive disorders, bipolar disorder is characterized by cycling mood changes. Sometimes the mood switches are dramatic and rapid, but most often they are gradual.

Causes:

Depression often causes difficulty in decision-making, lack of energy, loss of interest in normal pleasurable activities, poor sleep and irritation.

Sometimes all human beings are not equipped to take difficult situations in life, naturally. And the result normally by those situations cause stress.

Since modern times stress has been identified as the single biggest contributor to depression. The mind-boggling changes in every sphere of life—culture, profession, modes of transportation and rapid lifestyle changes put pressure on men to adjust with equal speed.

Stress begins to wear them out and there is a loss of resiliency against adverse situations of life. Consequently, they begin to pull away from others and give in to depression.

Symptoms:

It varies with individuals and also varies over time.

These are some symptoms that people have when they're depressed:

* depressed mood or sadness most of the time
* lack of energy and feeling tired all the time
* inability to enjoy things that used to bring pleasure
* withdrawal from friends and family
* irritability, anger, or anxiety
* inability to concentrate
* significant weight loss or gain
* significant change in sleep patterns
* feelings of guilt or worthlessness
* aches and pains
* thoughts of death or suicide

Depression can affect anyone, regardless of age, race, class, or gender. So keep yourself
away from stress, to lead a happy and healthy life.