Introduction:
Depression is a common yet a serious mental health issue. People who suffer from depression often feel sad and empty for a prolonged period of time.
Signs and Symptoms:
The most common symptoms people with depression show are:
- Constantly feeling sad or empty
- Feeling that there is no hope in life
- They experience sudden bouts of crying
- Their physical and mental energy seems depleted almost all the time
- They have difficulty concentration, remembering or making decisions
- Feeling irritated or angry on the smallest thing
- Loss or gain of appetite
- Chronic pain in certain body parts with no clear cause
- In some cases, self destructing thoughts do occur
Causes:
Depression is categorized into many types, listing a few of them here:
- Bipolar Disorder - It involves alternating between feeling extremely low to highly elated
- Postpartum Depression - It occurs after giving birth. Generally in this form of depression, mothers might feel disconnected with the child or they fear hurting the child
- Situational Depression - It refers to a form of depression that is triggered by a major life changing event
- Psychotic Depression - In this form of depression the episodes are very severe that people start experiencing hallucinations (seeing hearing things others don't)
Certain general causes of depression are:
- History of depression in the family
- Physical structure of the brain - In some cases of depression, the brain scan indicated a smaller hippocampus
- Serotonin levels are imbalanced
- Major stressful life events
- There are other specific causes which depends on case to case basis.
Happetive, your mental wellbeing companion, understands the importance of mental health in daily life. We offer Self-Help Tools and self-care resources, with Therapy Support available whenever you need it.