What is it?
There are a few pointers. First, doctors don't consider depression to be 'clinical' - meaning an illness in need of treatment - unless symptoms have lasted for more than two weeks.
This kind of depression is caused by changed brain and body chemistry, which doesn't happen overnight. In fact, depression often comes on so slowly that many men have difficulty noticing the change.
What happens?
Although depression is technically a mental illness, many of the symptoms of depression are actually physical. Depressed people find it difficult to get to sleep, or to feel rested when they wake. Waking through the night, or waking far too early in the morning, is quite a strong sign of depression.
Depressed people have little energy, and they often find it difficult to motivate themselves to do anything. Appetite and interest in food diminishes, and many people lose weight. Aches and pains and a general physical malaise are also very common.
Thinking is affected too. For example, it can be difficult to concentrate, so that it's impossible to follow a TV programme all the way through. Everything seems an effort.
Even short newspaper articles are a struggle, and few depressed people can manage to read novels, even if this is something they used to enjoy. Memory also suffers, so that it's hard (for example) to remember phone numbers, and easy to forget important things at work.
Other, subtler, changes in thinking can be harder to spot. For example, people find that minor setbacks - things they would usually shrug off - seem devastating. Problems in one area generalise, so that they seem to affect every aspect of life.
Severe symptoms
In severe depression, people can feel that they're useless; that their lives are a waste of time; or that they must have been guilty of something terrible. A few people hear voices that aren't really there (hallucinations).
It's very common to feel you can't face the day, to wish you didn't have to wake up in the morning, or even to feel like ending it all. Suicidal thoughts like this are a frightening symptom. Fortunately, most people don't act on them.
Treatment
But there is some good news in all this despondency. Paradoxically, the worse depressive symptoms are, the more likely the sufferer is to get better with treatment. GPs are able to prescribe antidepressants, which aren't addictive, aren't usually sedating, and which begin to work in two to four weeks.
Psychological treatments such as counselling or cognitive behavioural therapy can be very effective, not only in healing depression, but also in preventing the illness from coming back. These 'talking treatments' work well alongside medicine.
Coping with suicidal thoughts
Thinking about suicide is one of the common symptoms of depression. These thoughts are 'the illness speaking': they aren't logical or sensible, and not how you'd usually think.
Thoughts of harming yourself can be hard to get rid of if you're on your own. Try to be with people (even if you're feeling rotten and not saying very much).
Confiding in someone about suicidal thoughts doesn't make it more likely that you'll act on them. If possible, try to let someone know how you feel. "I'm going through a rough patch" can be enough - you don't necessarily need to say more.
Try to distract yourself if the thoughts become too much: go for a walk, listen to music, or watch TV.
Make sure you avoid alcohol or drugs - although they can ease some of the tension, they also make it much more likely that you'll act impulsively, or will not be aware of what you're doing.
Depression News:
Background Music Can Impair Performance, Cites New Study - For decades research has shown that listening to music alleviates anxiety and depression, enhances mood, and can increase cognitive functioning, such as spatial awareness. However, until now, research has not addressed how we listen to music...
People With Severe Depression 'Find It Harder To Judge Facial Expressions' - New research shows people with severe depression find it harder to interpret facial expressions than healthy people - particularly expressions of disgust. The study, published in the August issue of the British Journal of Psychiatry, was carried out by researchers from the University of Otago in New Zealand...
Could A Diagnostic Blood Test Be Created For Depression? - Psychiatry, unlike many other areas of medicine, lacks diagnostic blood tests. Blood tests have been extremely useful in helping doctors make medical diagnoses and aiding them in treatment options for conditions and diseases in most medical fields...
Discovery Of Genetic Link To Children's Emotional Problems Precipitated By Bullying - Bullying victimization is common among children of school age, although its consequences are often anything but benign. The recent death of a Massachusetts teen by suicide prompted state lawmakers to pass one of the most far-reaching anti-bullying laws within the U.S...
A Blood Test For Depression? - Blood tests have been extremely important tools aiding doctors in making medical diagnoses and in guiding the treatment of many diseases. However, psychiatry is one area of medicine where there are few diagnostic blood tests. New scientific fields may someday generate blood tests that can be used for these purposes...
New Links Between Cholesterol And Depression In The Elderly - Most people know that high cholesterol levels place them at increased risk for heart disease and stroke. Prior research has shown that particular types of strokes contribute to one's risk for depression, and that abnormal blood lipid levels can increase the risk of depression in the elderly...
HCV Therapy Compromised When Depression Overlooked In Patients With Hepatitis C - Researchers from Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland (the NORDynamIC project group) have observed that depressive symptoms in patients with hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection are commonly overlooked in routine clinical interviews, and that treatment-induced depression compromises the outcome of HCV therapy. A second U.S...
When You Feel Blue, Why Does Everything Look Gray ? - Regardless of culture, language, era, or individual artist, the arts consistently depict depression using darkness. Scientific findings now lend empirical support to this representation of depression that everything looks gray when you feel blue...
News From The American Academy Of Family Physicians, July/August 2010 - American Academy of Family Physicians - Coca-Cola Alliance, Conflict of Interest or Ethical Relationship? In an essay addressing the recent controversy over the American Academy of Family Physicians accepting a large corporate donation from The Coca-Cola Company to fund patient education materials on obesity prevention, family physician and AAFP member Howard Brody, M.D., Ph.D...
The Neural Basis Of The Depressive Self - Depression, known to be a condition with impaired psychosocial functioning that severely impacts the quality of life of patients and families, is actually defined with specific clinical symptoms such as sadness, difficulty to experience pleasure, sleep problems etc., present for at least two weeks...
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