What Is Clinical Depression?
Colin Jones | August 3, 2010Depression is a mental disorder that is quite often characterized by lengthy periods of sadness and melancholy, say the experts from the field of psychiatry.
But just because a person is moping around and generally hating the world around him or her, doesn’t mean that he/she is suffering from depression, but if this kind of behavior, the feeling of emptiness, loss of self-worth and absolutely no hope for happiness just goes on and on, then, that individual is probably, indeed, depressed. Still, there are various types of depression too.
Manic or Bipolar depression is characterized by sudden and extreme mood swings – one minute the person is euphoric while the next minute (day or week), the same person feels as if he or she is hell.
Postpartum depression is characterized by a protracted sadness and a lengthy feeling of emptiness by a new mother where physical stress during child birth, an uncertain sense of responsibility towards the new born child can be just some of the possible reasons why some new mothers go through this.
Dysthimia – characterized by a slight similarity with depression, although this time, it’s been proven to be a lot less severe, but of course with any case of illness, should be seen to immediately.
Cyclothemia is characterized by only a nominal similarity with Manic or Bipolar depression wherein the sufferer of this mental disease has a problem with rapid changes in mood.
Seasonal Affective Disorder – characterized by being depressed only during specific seasons (i.e. Winter, Spring, Summer or Autumn). However, studies prove that more people actually become ill during the Winter and Fall seasons. Or they could suffer from mood swings, wherein a person’s mood may shift from happy to sad to angry in quite a short time.
‘Clinical depression’ or ‘major depression’, as some call it, is the actual medical term for depression. Actually, clinical depression is more a disorder than an illness, because it refers to those who suffer from the symptoms that cause depression.
However, in spite of being an actual disorder, clinical depression can be treated. Doctors are usually highly optimistic that patients suffering from clinical depression will soon be well on their way to good mental health as long as they are treated as soon as they have been diagnosed. Patients who have sought treatment for clinical depression have proven to be quite successful in their quest, given that 80 percent of those treated have found relief from their disorder.
If you are seeking answers to questions related to clinical depression, the depression section of the health center is highly recommended, as well as books on psychiatry and the Internet, which offers a lot of helpful information, although self medication is very much disapproved of. Clinical depression may not pose as much of a threat as the other types of mental illness, but it is best to leave to the professionals who can safely attend to and cure this disorder.
The medical profession now recognizes the link between anger and depression, discover more on our siteat Treating Depression Also published at What Is Clinical Depression?.
