Depression: How not to Overlook It

Depression is not just some sadness or some loss of interest in this or that usually engaging activity or mood swings covering every now and then, but a serious medical condition that is often referred to as clinical and major. Many people go through various hardships that naturally result in emotions like those mentioned above but these, however, not necessarily imply depression. Genuine depression reveals itself when these, now let's call them, symptoms become persistent, affect every single aspect of a person's life and cause further emotional and even physical problems. Known as complications these start to bother, and that is the time when a person who has been suffering from depression for quite a bit of time eventually realizes that he/she may need medical aid.

Complications

Why start with complications? Because it is by far better not to permit one. So, like most diseases, depression is grave and dangerous in its, either seemingly minor or mostly major, complications. According to an opinion of a person affected these except for being serious themselves may eventually result in one possible way out suicide. That is why it is crucially important for all the people involved to permit none of the following:

• Panic disorder, anxiety and social phobia that may eventually lead to social isolation
• Relationship problems that may affect family circle, work and person's life on the whole
• Alcohol and/or substance abuse that may cause the problems mentioned above and below
• Deliberate self-harm that reveals through self-injury like cutting and self-poisoning
• Suicidal feelings or suicide attempts made and repeated despite all the preventive efforts made

Signs and Symptoms

People are social by nature, and when any aspect of their life is affected by any deviation from anything that is considered normal, habitual, acceptable, etc., they lose quality of life because of conflicts, quarrels, troubles, intended isolation and so on. Thus, in terms of complications prevention it is crucially important not to overlook the following persistent signs and symptoms that occur every day:

Loss of interest in activities that have always been an integral part of life. These usually include sex, without which a normal healthy life is impossible, various hobbies that always add significantly to the overall quality of life, sports as an activity that keeps us up and some other aspects.

○ Hopelessness, tearfulness, emptiness or persistent feelings of sadness or, on the contrary, overall irritability and angry outbursts over any even an insignificant matter. Any of these emotions often leads to overall frustration, that in its turn results in recurrent suicidal thoughts.

Any unhealthy changes in appetite, sleep or behavior, etc. These are always either insufficient or excessive. Thus, there is either a reduced appetite or increased cravings for food, either lack of energy or restlessness, either insomnia or a person is sleeping too much, or he/she ''is'' either in ''bad'' past or in ''bad'' future

Add troubles thinking, remembering, concentrating and making decisions to all the mentioned, and the depression picture is complete.

Risk Factors and Causes

Depression cannot appear without apparent causes. Those, however, are mostly assumed. Just as assumed as risk factors that can lead to depression. Nevertheless, the risk group includes people who have physical changes in the brain, changes in the function of such brain chemicals as neurotransmitters, hormone imbalance and inherited traits (e.g. bipolar disorder). If these are added with low self-esteem, stressful events (e.g. death of a beloved one), serious or chronic illness (e.g. cancer) or any kind of abuse, a person will 100% experience everything mentioned above.

Where to Start

If you feel that something has already got out of hand, you should turn to your health care provider as soon as possible. You will be hardly immediately diagnosed with clinical depression but go through all the required diagnosing stuff so that your doctor could determine what medical aid you may need exactly. Contemporary medicine has all the tools ranging from counseling to potent and effective medications that can help significantly. Which would be the most appropriate to you will be decided by your doctor. Your task here is to admit that the problem exists.