Depression – Causes, Symptoms and Treatment
Depression is a serious medical illness that involves the brain. It’s more than just a feeling of being “down in the dumps” or “blue” for a few days. If you are one of the more than 20 million people in the United States who have depression, the feelings do not go away. Depression can occur for what seems like no reason at all or can be triggered by a traumatizing life event within a person’s life. The cause of depression still remains a mystery among the medicinal world, however many experts say genes may have an effect on the likelihood of depression within a family and a lack of the chemical serotonin in the brain may be linked to depression. Just like all other medical conditions depression has a series of symptoms that can be diagnosed and treated by a medical professional and can be defined as a never ending sad mood or affect as well as a loss of interest in life and life’s activities. Although a low mood or state of dejection that does not affect functioning is often colloquially referred to as depression , clinical depression is a clinical diagnosis and may be different from the everyday meaning of “being depressed.” Many people identify the feeling of being clinically depressed as “feeling sad for no reason”, or “having no motivation to do anything.” One suffering from depression may feel tired, sad, irritable, lazy, unmotivated, and apathetic. Clinical depression is generally acknowledged to be more serious than normal depressed feelings. It often leads to constant negative thinking and sometimes substance abuse . Extreme depression can culminate in its sufferers attempting or committing suicide . Without careful assessment, delirium can easily be confused with depression and a number of other psychiatric disorders because many of the signs and symptoms are conditions present in depression , as well as other mental illnesses including dementia and psychosis .
