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What is psychosis and how it affects teens?
Depression could be a serious medical condition. In comparison to the normal emotional experiences like sadness, loss, clinical depression is persistent and can interfere with a person's ability to function. There are three types of depressive disorders. This includes major depressive disorder, dysthymic disorder and bipolar disorder. Depression is a serious psychosis problem.
Symptoms and Types of Depression
Some of the symptoms of depression could be sad mood. It could also be loss of interest or pleasure in activities which you used to enjoy. It could also add on to symptoms like change in appetite or weight, difficulty sleeping or oversleeping, physical slowing or agitation, energy loss, feelings of worthlessness or inappropriate guilt. It can also be difficulty thinking or concentrating, and recurrent thoughts of death or suicide. The diagnosis of depressive disorder is done if a person has 5 or more of the above symptoms. Some major depression starts between ages 15 to 30, however it can also appear in children.
There are some people who have a chronic but less severe depression. This is called dysthymic disorder. When this is diagnosed, depressed mood persists for at least 2 years. This is then accompanied by at least 2 other symptoms of depression. Many people having dysthymia develop huge depressive episodes.
There are many episodes of depression which happens in people having bipolar disorder. In this disorder, depression alternates with mania. This is characterized by abnormally and persistently elevated mood. Or it could be irritability and symptoms like overly-inflated self-esteem, decreased need for sleep, increased talkativeness, racing thoughts. This can go on to include distractibility, physical agitation, and excessive risk taking. Since bipolar disorder needs different treatment than major depressive disorder or dysthymia, getting an accurate diagnosis is very important.
Depression: Some facts
Depression is the leading cause of disability in the U.S. Depressive disorders affect about 9.5 percent of adult Americans who are 18 and above. About twice as many women (12 percent) as men (7 percent) are affected due to depressive disorder every year.
Depression could also turn out be a disaster to family relationships, friendships. This could also bring disability to work or go to school. However, many people still tend to believe that the emotional symptoms which are caused by depression are unreal. A person should be able to shake off the symptoms is what they feel. Due to such inaccurate beliefs, there are people having depression who can not recognize that they have a treatable disorder. Else they are discouraged from seeking or staying on treatment due to feelings of shame and stigma. Very often, untreated or inadequately treated depression leads to committing suicide.