More than just experiencing a "Blue Monday," clinical depression is a state of prolonged or recurrent negative feelings about yourself and the world around you. Those feelings may manifest as actual physical symptoms of illness with muscle pain, emotional outbursts that may result in crying for no apparent reason or angry outbursts and cognitive difficulties in focusing on a task or decision making. About twice as common in women as men, the illness requires long-term treatment. Sufferers can't just "snap out of it." Medication combined with psychotherapy help combat depression, with electroconvulsive therapy being another option that has shown marked success. Symptoms of clinical depression range widely and must be interpreted in combination with each other.
Sadness
The depressed person feels sad, hopeless and helpless for no apparent reason. The patient may be otherwise healthy, have a good job and have seemingly good relationships with family and friends, but still feels unaccountably down. A catalyst may be a traumatic loss of a loved one, but the persistence and continuation of the sad feelings help to define the person as clinically depressed.
Behavioral Markers
The behavior of a clinically depressed person may range from a lack of interest in her surroundings to irritability, crying spells and annoyance with those around her. The patient may seem chronically tired and listless or restless, and moving from one activity to another without any apparent accomplishment or progress with any action.
Physical Signs
The clinically depressed person may have actual muscle pains, back pain and headaches. She may seem unaccountably weak and fatigued, without having exhibited any apparent effort. She may also show a significant weight loss or gain.
Poor Thought Process
If a person seems to be having continued difficulty making decisions, completing normal activities or concentrating on any task, she may be clinically depressed. The overwhelming sadness and loss of a positive objectives in life clouds thought processes for her, and may make any effort seem pointless.
Suicidal Thoughts
Along with loss of sleep and and a lack of interest in sex, when everything in the clinically depressed person's life seems pointless, he may have suicidal thoughts of ending the pain. When the despair combines with poor thought processes for making decisions, the patient may decide to simply end it all.
References
- Mayo Clinic
- Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders-Fourth Edition, 1994
- National Institute of Mental health
