
Depression ranges in its seriousness from mild, temporary episodes of sadness to severe and persistent episodes that portray the presence of depression. Talking about clinical depression, it is the more major and severe form of depression also known as major depressive disorder. When a person’s symptoms reach the chronic end of the spectrum and require help from a mental health professional, it’s typically called clinical depression.
There are certain causes of depression too and the most intriguing cause is whether depression is inherited or what if so. A major theory is that certain genetic changes make neurotransmitters, the mood-regulating chemicals in the brain, ineffective and very scarce. The other major factor is the predisposition to the environmental factors where a person who is already predisposed to depression, would step onto a vulnerability to develop it. Talking about other certain common factors that increase a person’s likelihood of depression are family history of depression, experiencing a traumatic event or major life (can be any), financial troubles or having a serious illness and lastly taking certain medications that can cause symptoms associated with depression.
Symptoms of clinical depression can be mistaken for day to day moods and feelings we go through, but in order to label the symptoms as signs of clinical depression we need to monitor them for 21 days or more and if the symptoms are prevailing longer than the required time, it can be termed as clinical depression. People experience symptoms in different ways and severity but the symptoms are usually sadness, feelings of emptiness, trouble sleeping as they either sleep too much or take no sleep at all. Apart from this feeling kind of slowed down and agitated, irritated, at the loss of energy are also few symptoms. Also, feelings of worthlessness, problems with concentration or focus and extreme conditions like thinking about death or dying and planning or attempting suicide.
There are different ways to treat depression in which you need to try different approaches or maybe combine one or two. As one method which may sit in perfectly for someone’s treatment may not sit adequately for someone else’s treatment.
One of the first onboard treatments for clinical depression is medication. There are several types of antidepressants, however, those belong to the milder class to treat the symptoms without having that many side effects are prescribed. The more chronic the cases, the more extreme are the pills. Another treatment for this can be taking antidepressants, but one has to be very cautious while taking them and has to closely work with their doctor because antidepressants can have major side effects. Apart from this psychotherapy is another popular choice was treating depression, combined with antidepressants. Psychotherapy involves working with a therapist either through a group session or an individual session, to talk about how you feel your experiences throughout, your views about your own self and the people around you. Through this therapy, you may be able to identify certain underlying causes or triggers that lead to an increment in the depressive symptoms and then you may start looking out for the coping mechanisms too. Apart from this we have cognitive behavioural therapy/counselling which is also a very effective method to treat depression.
So if you feel like something is wrong, after monitoring yourself for the specific time limit, visit a doctor because the triggers, changes and irritability in your moods can also affect your personal and professional relationships