If you feel depressed, you can suffer silently with the ache you feel deep inside, unaware of why you are feeling moody or having a bad day. You might believe there is something wrong with you, which gives you a built-in excuse for why things are not going well in your life. You manage to cope but often not very well. You might see your problems as either insignificant or so overwhelming that you feel defeated before you begin to resolve them.
People can experience depression in different ways. Unlike, a physical illness, which often has a more distinct pattern of symptoms, depression rarely runs on a predictable continuum. Dorothy Rowe, author of Breaking the Bonds, says ?You don't automatically climb the staircase from everyday blues to suicidal tendencies one step at a time. Depression can ebb and flow; you can be up one day and down the next?.
For some people, depression is an occasional visitor that arrives quietly and vanishes without warning, For others, it is an invisible, aggressive intruder that seizes control of their body and mind, Depression can encompass a range of emotions that stem from feeling helpless and out of control or from engaging in pessimistic thinking.
Because depression wears many disguise, it can be difficult to identify and even more challenging to treat. However you might experience depression, the most important thing to remember is that it isn't necessarily a ?bad? condition and it doesn't just befall ?weak? and ?problem-prone people.
According to Mark Gold MD, in The Good News About Depression, ?Depression is a condition of the mind. It is a physical affliction. It is environmentally induced. It is a genetic tendency. It is learned. It is a ?biological clock? disorder. It is many biological illnesses? no one point of view represents a complete understanding of this complex and curious condition?.
