Wutz it worth 2 ya? asked:


How is being bi polar different from clinical depression? Is being bi polar a disabilty, disease, both or neither?

Ian J Spencer asked:




Depression is an issue that affects millions of individuals around the world. This is a common occurrence that may result due to a number of reasons throughout an individual’s life. While depression may be mild, in many instances, it can be quite severe. It results when an individual not only feels “sad”, but also feels a sense of hopelessness and helplessness that can last for a short time, or continue for years.

In some cases, this mental condition can actually impair an individual’s overall ability to function in their day to day lives, and can result in that individual feeling as if taking their life is the only way to escape the emotions of despair that are experienced. There are several signs of depression to look out for. Here, I will share them with you.

Depression Signs to Watch For

It is essential that you learn to carefully monitor the signs of depression. Many serious situations are likely to occur if an individual suffers from severe depression and experiences symptoms that should have been recognized as potentially dangerous.

These situations may include an individual becoming homicidal and/or suicidal, indulging in drug abuse, resorting to alcohol abuse, and even the development of other types of mental illnesses developing. While it is true that the potentially dangerous signs of depression will vary by individual, the following represents some common signs to look for:

1. One of the first symptoms that something is seriously wrong is when a person suffers from depression and often feels as if they have nothing to live for. They may feel as if everything is hopeless. Individuals who fall into these emotions often may experience thoughts of *******. In other cases, many do not place priority on the fact that there are consequences to their actions. This is when many will turn to pills, drugs, alcohol, and other types of behaviors that are considered to be dangerous.

2. The next symptom that is potentially dangerous when it comes to signs of depression to watch for includes behavior that is aggressive. This aggression may be towards others, animals, or even themselves. However, if this sign does become evident, it is absolutely necessary to ensure that help is sought. In many cases, the individual that is depressed simply does not recognize this sign in themselves because of the wide range of emotions that are experienced.

3. If you start to notice that an individual seems apathetic and does not care about the health of their body and similar issues, it may be time to recognize the depression as serious. These individuals may abuse drugs and alcohol, and may even indulge in serious problems like self mutilation and similar behaviors. If these signs are evident, it is time for help.

Overcoming Depression

There are many effective means of managing and overcoming depression. One of the most important things that anyone can do when it comes to this mood disorder is to develop a support system. It is important to have one or more people to talk to when you need it. In addition to this, there are medications that can help moderate chemicals such as serotonin in the body that are responsible for depression. It is also possible to receive counseling and behavior modification assistance. If you have depression, be sure to discuss your treatment options with your doctor.

Mateo Martins asked:




Depression is a psychiatric turmoil which manifests itself in varied degrees and indications. It differs in intensity, to a certain extent can be treated with psychotherapy and social support. This psychological condition can lead to frequent mood swings and disinterest to life in general. Life style disorders among youngsters and adults have made it rampant in today’s society.

The disorder is classified as slight, mild and severe depression. The slight problem can be overcome by time and effective support of the family to get over the anxiety of job loss or break in relationships. Mild disturbance is a short term disorder which starts with fatigue, restlessness, insomnia, and temper loss. But in some cases, the condition develops into severe mayhem. The patient lives with low self esteem and suffer from headaches and backaches, lack of focus, and gets weepy.

Symptoms and Causes

The indications and causes vary from case to case. The basic symptoms are anger, anxiety, stress, lack of focus on life, emptiness, loneliness, changes in weight, acute pain in joints and muscles, suicidal tendencies, and low self esteem. The causes cannot be attributed to a single target. Factors that are responsible can be varied in nature; it can be a genetic trait, due to trauma, stress, or negative thoughts. In today’s world life style disorder is considered to be the major factor attributed to this disease. A week willed individual with a negative approach to life gets carried away by trivial setbacks in his life. From childhood, he has learn to nurture a strong mind to face all odds in the stage of life

Risk Factors

A family history of depression or ******* can trigger this problem. Bad childhood experiences, low esteem, a victim of frequent criticism, after effects of prolonged illness, low economic status, and alcohol, drug abuse, separation of parents, divorce, fear of loss and failure tend to aggravate the situation.

Treatment

Medical journals are flooded with a lot of treatments and cure. Some are of the view that holistic approach like meditation, fitness regime, yoga with social support will enable him to soothe his mind and body. Research has proved that constant exercise help to activate the hormones. Anti depressant drugs are administered with the close monitoring of medical experts.

Queen of Confusion asked:


My boyfriend has severe depression, as well as anxiety disorders. Lately it’s been pretty bad. He’s already on a variety of medications. They lessen the severity, but like I said, it’s still pretty bad. What are some other ways he can bring his depression and anxiety under control? I don’t mean taking herbal remedies or anything like that. I mean something like exercising, which his doctor recommended.

Any help is greatly appreciated, thanks.

baphometx asked:


Do you know of any books or websites that I can look at for help with severe clinical depression? Not mild or moderate depression; severe. There’s a big difference. What might help someone with moderate depression would make things worse for me.

Thanks for any help.

David B. Smith asked:




Everyone knows what depression feels like. Everyone feels the blues at times. Sadness, discontent, and fatigue are natural parts of life. There is a relation between the blues and clinical depression, but the difference is like the difference between the sniffles and pneumonia.

Depressive disorders are whole person illnesses; they touch the body, feelings, thoughts, and behavior. The depression itself can make us feel as if it’s of no use to search for help. The nice news is that 80 to 90 percent of people with depression can be treated successfully, but the bad news is that only one sufferer in three seeks treatment. More bad news is that not quite half the American public perceives depression as a character flaw, rather than an illness or emotional disorder. In addition, only half of all cases of depression are exactly diagnosed, and only half of those get adequate treatment.

We tend to muddle depression, sadness, and grief. But the opposite of depression is not happiness, but vitality – the power to experience a full range of emotion, including happiness, excitement, sadness, and grief. Depression is not an emotion itself. It’s not sadness or grief, it’s an illness. When we feel at our worst, sad, self-absorbed, and helpless, we are experiencing what people with depression experience, but they don’t recover from those moods without help.

The trademark of depression is a insistent sad or empty mood, sometimes experienced as tension or anxiety. Life is with out pleasure. People with slight depressions may go through the motions of eating, , work, or play, but the activities seem like pointless; people with more severe depression withdraw from these activities, feeling too worn-out, tense, or hostile to take part. There is often a nagging fatigue, a sense of being incapable of focusing, a feeling of being inefficient.

People with depression generally feel a lowered self-esteem. In a depression, you may feel that you are a defenseless victim of fate, but also feel that you don’t deserve any better. Feelings of guilt, shame, and hopelessness are common.

There are often a host of physical symptoms, of which sleep disturbances are key. People may have trouble falling asleep or may wake up early without feeling refreshed. Others may sleep excessively, again without feeling rested. Appetite may increase or decrease. There may be difficulty in sexual functioning. There may be harassing aches and pains that don’t act in response to medical treatment. But there are physical illnesses that cause symptoms like depression – Lyme depression, diabetes, thyroid conditions, anemia – and depressions can cause physical symptoms like other diseases.

If you are feeling depressed, it is important to be sure that an underlying health problem does not exist, and you should see your physician for a checkup. At the same time, if you know you have a health problem and are feeling depressed, don’t presume you will feel better once the health problem is under control.

There is a sequential process in the recognition of depression. First is a stage of confused pain in which the sufferer knows he suffers, but doesn’t know why. People often blame circumstances. Adolescents blame their home lives, married people blame their spouses, and employees blame their bosses. But there is recognition that the pain is not ordinary.

The second stage is recognition that something is definatley amiss. It may be that external circumstances have changed but the pain is on going, or it may be a slow recognition that the suffering is so dangerous that circumstances can’t be blamed. This is a painful recognition that often takes years. It is an acknowledgment of a damaged self. But because of the nature of depression, the self-blame and guilt that are manifestations of the disease, this acceptance does not always lead to seeking help.

People then may move to the third stage, a crisis that frequently leads to professional intervention and diagnosis. It is often a ******* attempt or psychiatric hospitalization. The diagnosis often provides hope, that treatment or a cure is possible, and explanation, a way to understand what has only been confusion before. The fact is that this is a diagnosis of a mental illness, with all the shame and stigma that that entails.

The fourth stage involves acceptance of an illness identity. Depression comes to be seen as an outside agent invading the self, rather than as a manifestation of the self.

It is essential that anyone suffering from depression gets good help from a competent, qualified professional. If the warning signs are clear, always seek a professional diagnosis. Going to a health professional with your problems could prove, at worse, embarrassing, if the problem is really just a seasonal case of the blues that can be treated with without medical intervention, but the potential cost of failing to diagnose a serious case of depression should far outweigh any concern about conceivable embarrassment.

Eliza Maledevic asked:




There are ways to cure depression. So if you are currently suffering from depression, this article can help you to now those ways. There are natural ways to cure depression. One of which is realizing your own self-worth. Sounds simple, right!

Actually, it is one of the best ways that a person who is suffering from depression should do. You have to realize that you are a great person, because you really a great person. You have to realize that you are a nice, good and wonderful person. You have to think and realize that you can do good things and you truly deserve to be happy in life.

But if you are suffering from severe depression and you think this won’t work for you, you can visit a doctor or therapist. Your doctor can help you out in your condition. He/she will give you method or methods that you should take in order to fight depression. You have to think that the situation that you are suffering now is just temporary and it will change in time. And in time, you will be a strong and happy person.

There are some people who do not believe that this way can help you out in treating your depression, that’s okay because there are other methods that can help you out in treating depression. Just allocate time in order to seek the best cure for your condition. Indeed, there are other good ways to treat depression and if you are searching for natural way to cure it, there are lots of herbal remedies in the market and online that you can use to treat your depression.

As mentioned, there are plenty of herbal remedies out there, so you have to check out the right one that will work best for you. Do not simply buy one and make use of it without knowing what exactly in that remedy. Check out the necessary information about the herbal remedy first such as ingredients, how it works and the likes.

If you are seeking herbal remedy on the internet, you have to look at several websites, check out the reliability of the website. Of course, you want the best out of your money, so you have to give little of your time researching in order to get the right one. It is best to go with a website that can provide all the necessary information that you need about the product.

While taking an herbal remedy that you think would cure your depression, it would be better to realize as well that want your feeling and your current situation is temporary and when you deal and fight depression you will be happy and can do great things in life.

Eliza Maledevic Ayson

http://www.primeherbal.com/Relagen/

Ryuzaki asked:


My girlfriend has severe depression, but also cannot stand nausea at all (She has a phobia of it) What are some medications for depression that won’t cause nausea at all or at least have very slim chances of causing it?

Lynn asked:


Wanted to see if anyone could explain what the main differences are between being a little down and having severe depression? Also, when you see a Doctor is there a specific test that is done to diagnose depression?

Thank you I appreciate it!

Eva Bell asked:




If the 20th century was considered the most tensed-up period in history, the 21st century is set to exceed it by far. Depression is one of the most serious health hazards of today, and has reached epidemic proportions. We live in a disorderly world where people are highly competitive, commercialized and power hungry. This leads to a lot of stress and anxiety. It is estimated that about 40% of the population is on tranquillizers. WHO figures say that 5-12% of people are depressed. In India, there are 50 million sufferers of which 5-10% have major depression. Almost 50-75% of suicides are by people who are depressed. In Zimbabwe, depression is called “shona,” meaning “thinking too much.”

No one is immune to Depression. It affects all ages from young children to senior citizens, manual labourers to corporate heads, literate or illiterate. Winston Churchill who suffered from depression called it the “black dog.” Abraham Lincoln also suffered from bouts of depression. “It hits the most ambitious, creative and conscientious,” says Jeffrey Spellar, a psychiatrist.

Women are three times more likely to suffer from depression due to their varying hormonal cycles, and are vulnerable premenstrually, after delivery, and during the perimenopausal years. Though about 80% of women suffer from post partum “baby blues” which last for a few days and resolve spontaneously, about 20% suffer from severe depression leading to suicidal tendencies, harming or killing their babies, or refusing to ****** feed. Irritability, sleeplessness, weeping without reason, are some of the signs that warn of severe depression.

Men are depressed on specific issues like failure in business or loss of a job. The elderly, who live alone or who are totally dependant on others also suffer anxiety and depression.

During adolescence, both boys and girls are equally vulnerable. The transitory period before adulthood is a bewildering time of experimentation. They feel unsettled and out of control and scared because of the physical and emotional changes taking place. About 2-3% of adolescents are depressed.

According to Indian Council of Medical Research in 2001, 12.8% young children are found to be depressed. As they are unable to express sadness, they show it through aggression, refusal to eat, insomnia and other ways. When parents set impossible standards, the constant fear of failure makes them depressed.

Care givers of the ill or disabled, who are under constant stress, also suffer from depression. Stephen Hinshaw a Californian psychiatrist says, “Many people, especially those caring for others, get to a point when there is an imbalance between their own feelings of being human and their confrontation with difficult, distressful issues on a day to day basis. Things go tilt.”

Depression has a genetic component and may run in families. Identical twins are at a greater risk. Environmental factors however, are the main reasons for depression. Loss of a job, divorce, marital friction, bereavement, financial difficulties, fear of failure, unreached goals, too many deadlines to keep, the struggle to keep up with the Joneses, are some of the exogenous causes that trigger depression. Recently there have been many suicides due to disappointment in love.

There are different grades of depression. Dysthmia is a less severe mood disorder, but lasts for about two years. Seasonal Affective Disorders (SAD) occur during winter months when energy levels drop. People become sluggish and tend to eat more sweets and carbohydrates.

Depression may manifest itself as lack of energy, withdrawal, unexplained sadness, feeling of worthlessness, suicidal tendencies, lack of libido, or irritability. In major depression, there may be a total disinterest in food, hobbies, *** and everything that is pleasurable.

All of us go through periods of depression, but we soon bounce back to normal. When symptoms persist for more than two weeks, it is a sign of clinical depression and must be treated. Depression is more harmful than chronic diseases. It aggravates the symptoms of arthritis, angina, diabetes, asthma or other medical problems. A research paper published in the Lancet says, “Depression impairs health state to a substantially greater degree than other diseases.”

Depression is caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain. Neurotransmitters that carry messages to the brain and nerves such as serotonin and noradrenaline are reduced in the synapses along the nerve paths. Thought processes become impaired, and depression sets in. Heavy drinking and drugs reinforce depression.

There are many ways to take charge of one’s depression.

o Tackling the cause of depression and remedying it. It may involve a change in life style, change in attitude to events or situations or people. Focus must be on living positively, and converting anxiety into positive energy.

o Expressing feelings of fear, anger or sadness. Talking to a sympathetic counsellor or a psychotherapist. Talk Therapy or Cognitive Behaviour Therapy is a valuable adjunct to medication. Putting feelings into words makes sadness or anger less intense. It reduces suicidal tendencies. Speaking about one’s negative feelings activates that part of the brain which is responsible for control of emotions. Within the context of a caring relationship, Psychotherapy helps a person to identify the cause of his depression, enables him to cope, by identifying his positive resources and using them to change his attitude to problems. It helps him let go of negative attitudes and teaches him to discipline his mind.

o Regular Exercise. Brisk walking, jogging, cycling, swimming or any kind of physical activity, releases beta endorphins which neutralize stress hormones.

o Listening to music, singing or playing an instrument helps to ease depression by releasing hydrocortisone, which is an anti-stress hormone.

o Putting a stop to multitasking, which makes a person feel out of control. Trying to do one thing at a time will yield better results.

o De-stressing muscles through relaxation techniques, yoga or breathing exercises. The Art of Living guru Sri Sri Ravi advocates a special breathing technique called Sudharshan Kriya, which involves hyperventilation. It is supposed to be a mood lifter.

o Consciously avoiding comfort eating. Stress related fat is very difficult to shed.

o Medication should be under a doctor’s supervision. Drugs alone don’t address the cause, and must go hand in hand with psychotherapy.

o Spending time with the family and doing what is enjoyable. Seeking the company of happy people. Those who stay happy are seldom depressed. “Our brains are designed to reflect and catch the state of the person we’re with,” says Daniel Goldman, psychologist. “An unhappy person floods our minds with negative emotions that trigger stress centres.”

o Hypnotherapy is useful for resistant cases. It relieves tension, helps deal with traumas, fears and phobias that cause stress.

o Meditation and Prayer will increase spiritual well being and help a person understand the meaning and purpose of life. It will change depressive attitudes into positive thinking.