Suffering from clinical depression means more then just being sad of feeling down after a bad day at work or after a minor failure. It is a complex state of mind that is felt all the time. It creates other disorders or dysfunctions in the organism such as eating and sleeping disorders, having trouble thinking, concentrating, reading, or even watching television; loosing interest for things one used to enjoy and the capacity to concentrate over it.



Who can provide help in case of suffering from depression?

The assessment of a depression condition can be made in the first stage by a physician or family doctor. The second step will be to give your referrals on specialized help and where and how to get it. A physician may already start prescribing antidepressants to help you improve your symptoms even before you initiated a proper investigation with a specialist. Another way of seeking help would be in community hospitals or mental health centers, or hotlines in your area for guidance to specialized assistance.

The statistics show an increasing number of diagnosis and treatments prescribed for depression lately but it is not known whether this rates increase is due to a continuously growing number of people that become depressed by the new lifestyles or the new environmental factors developed in the latest years or is it because the rate of awareness has increased. Yet, one thing is clear, in every event, there is a major depression form tat appears.

Is there a difference between grief and depression?

Grief is a only natural and it is caused by the loss of a loved person that an important role in one's life and thus, he or she is grieved. This process can affect in some ways the life of the one who encounters it and give him some of the symptoms encountered in depression. However, the grieving process usually takes around two months until it starts fading leading to recovery after around six months.

Both grief and depression may encounter the same symptoms and one can lead to the other one, from grieving, a person can fall into a major depression crisis but they also have differences. For instance, a grieving person is not supposed to feel a sense of worthlessness, guilt and/or low self-esteem.

What is the difference between normal depression moments and a major depression crisis?

The feeling of depression is normal in between some limits. They can be triggered by a bad day or by many upsetting reasons but the difference is made by its duration. Diagnosing a depression episode requires having those symptoms every day for at least two weeks and not just some days when things didn't work out as planed.

In some cases, the bad periods are prolonged, its cause determines that. Still, by a longer time of feeling blue, major depression is not achieved. For that, a number of symptoms must appear and impair the well being and the moods of a person.

The responses to the diagnosis vary, for some people they give a feeling of relief, the ?at least now I know? sensation, while for others it may be embarrassing to know that they are affected by a mental illness. Anyway, the reactions are normal.

After accepting the diagnosis, additional concerns may appear on how it is going to affect one's life providing frustrations about physical and emotional supposed limitations. The important thing to know is that this condition is treatable and whatever its symptoms are, they will improve.

Two of the most often met symptoms of depression are fatigue and weakness. Those two symptoms are accepted by many because they do not physical disabilities and may be taken for character defects and be interpreted. By not realizing what is actually happening, the family or those close to the suffering may require from them more then they can do, creating thus in the eyes of the depressed a feeling of self pity and doubt on themselves. Remain optimistic and remember that every day millions of people that are disabled from injuries or medical conditions go on with their life and enjoy it.