Depression Definition

Depression is a disorder that involves a lot of ambiguous symptoms and the disorder usually manifests in different people in different ways. However, in the most general sense, a normal depression definition would describe the disorder as a feeling of severe dejection and despondency accompanied by feelings of inadequacy, hopelessness and a lack of natural serotonin. However, there is a lot more that needs to be involved in a depression definition. The fact that different people suffer from depression in varying degrees with possible varying symptoms as well makes a depression definition a rather subjective concept.

Defining Depression

For defining depression in a comprehensive sense, one must understand the varying causes of depression like negative thinking for example. Most people face depression after a traumatic event that kicks off an uncontrollable chain reaction that leads to severe mood swings that tend to be low most of the time. The same event that triggers depression in one individual may not have the same effect on the other. Hence, while defining depression one has to keep factors like genetic predisposition, mental state, physical environment, family and friends, job environment etc.

Even the biological predisposition of an individual plays a vital role in defining depression. Factors such sleep deprivation, poor nutrition and lack of exercise can lead to depression. In most cases, depression symptoms are brought about by a culmination of all these triggers making them rather hard to pin down as reasons. In fact, many prospective patients of depression have the predisposition hidden in them for years together before trigger-event kicks of depression symptoms.

Symptoms of Depression

In order to completely understand depression, one must be completely aware of depression symptoms. The following are a few of them:

– Feeling perpetually unhappy, sad and hopeless

– Feeling frustrated and irritable over even the smallest of issues

– Loss of pleasure and interest in most activities; even the ones that used to give immense pleasure at some point in time

– A sudden drop in sex drive

– Excessive sleeping or insomnia

– A sudden decrease or increase in appetite

– Feeling restless and agitated for many parts of the day

– Slow thinking, reduced attention span and distractibility

– Loss of energy, fatigue and tiredness even though there may have been no intense physical activity

– Feelings of guilt and worthlessness coupled with fixation over failures in the past

– Frequent thoughts of death and even suicide

– Unexplained physical ailments such as headaches, back ache etc.

Treating Depression

Depression treatment may require the use of one or a combination of a few methods. The most common form of depression treatment is therapy and talk sessions. These sessions are used to help patients address their problems, find solutions to them on the mental plane and take an overall positive approach to life. Additionally, people also suffer to medication for depression treatment which may become unavoidable if therapy fails to help the patient make any progress. Depression is a highly threatening mental condition which must be addressed by a professional. While the symptoms of the disorder may seem normal, they barely indicate all the threats that lie in the precipices of the mind.