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About
Depression vs. Sadness
How
do you know when what you are experiencing is
just a bad day or something more serious?
We all have our ups and downs depending on how
our day or week is going. The transition from
bad day to rut to clinical depression can be
gradual and leave even the strongest person
thinking, "What is wrong with me?
I just have to try harder! Why am I so
lazy? Why can't I get out of bed?"
Talk
with a therapist online
Take a Depression
Test Online
Find
a Therapist to see in office
SIGNS OF CLINICAL DEPRESSION
-
Concentration
is often impaired
-
Feeling
fatigued after 12 hours of sleep
-
Inability
to experience pleasure
-
Decrease
in appetite or food loses its taste
-
Increased
isolation
-
Feelings
of guilt, helplessness and/or hopelessness
-
Sleep
disturbance or unable to fall back to sleep
-
Thoughts
of suicide
-
Change
in personality
-
Missing
deadlines or a drop in standards
-
Increased
alcohol/drug use Increased sexual
promiscuity
-
Increase
in self-critical thoughts with a voice in
the
back of one's mind providing a constant
barrage of harsh,
negative statements
If
someone experiences most of the above symptoms
for more than two weeks, there is a good chance
they are suffering from a clinical depression.
Questions About Clinical Depression
WHAT IS CLINICAL DEPRESSION?
Clinical depression is a medical illness similar
to pneumonia that even the strongest person
cannot overcome without treatment. Clinical
depression is similar to heart disease and
cancer in that all of us have a susceptibility
to each. If we have a family history of one of
these illnesses, our susceptibility increases.
This explains how some develop a clinical
depression only after extraordinary stressors
and others develop clinical depression seemingly
out of the blue. Clinical depression is a very
common illness that affects approximately 3-5%
of the population at any one time. There
is a 20% chance of having an episode of clinical
depression at some point in one's life. The
percentages are similar for the general
population and college students.
IS CLINICAL DEPRESSION TREATABLE?
Clinical depression is readily treatable with
counseling and/or medication. Medication can
correct the chemical imbalance (low levels of
brain serotonin and norepinephrine) that is
found in people with symptoms consistent with
clinical depression. Unfortunately, fifty
percent of people who have clinical depression
never get help and suffer silently. Untreated,
the average clinical depression can last 9-12
months. With treatment, people often report
significant relief within 4-6 weeks.
WHO'S SUSCEPTIBLE TO CLINICAL DEPRESSION?
Clinical depression often has its first onset in
people between the ages of 18 and 22. Many
stressors are inherent to these years, which may
contribute to the onset of a clinical
depression: separating physically and
psychologically from one's family, managing the
increase in freedom, dealing with the successes
and disappointments that occur in academic,
athletic, and extracurricular activities,
developing and losing love relationships, many
people experience death for the first time
during these years with the loss of a friend or
family member, choosing a major, finding a job,
leaving the familiarity and security of
college for the real world.
WHERE DO I GET HELP?
Talk with a
therapist online
Take a Depression
Test Online
Find a Therapist to see in office
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