Depression - All Types of Depression and Depression Symptoms

Depression is one of the most common mental illnesses with 10-15% of people suffering from depression at some stage in their lifetime. The general symptoms of depression include irritability, difficulty to concentrate, feelings of guilt or helplessness, reduced appetite, anxiety, loss of interest in activities and personal appearance, difficulty sleeping, difficulty getting up in the morning, constant tiredness, lack of energy, changes in weight and headaches.

Depression is a form of what is known as a mood or affective, disorder, because it is primarily concerned with a change in mood.
Depression is a very complex illness. No-one really knows for certain what causes depression, and everyone's experience of depression is different.

Winter Depression (Seasonal Affective Disorder)

This is very common in countries which have cold, cloudy winters and little daylight or sunshine. I used to live in England and did suffer a from this. Now I live in Turkey and the difference is incredible. Sometimes the weather is fantastic - sunny and warm even in winter! It does affect your mood but everybody is different, if you are very sensitive to weather change you may suffer from this.

Pregnancy Depression

Although pregnancy is normally a period of great joy, about ten percent (10%) of pregnant women experience prolong periods of great sadness.
Although hormones are a factor in pregnancy depression it is not the lone cause.

Dysthymia

Dysthmyia is a condition that sufferers don't even know they have depression, it is just a daily part of their lives and always has been. People suffering from Dysthmyia are people that are simply sad, blue, always depressed but for them it is completely normal and are not aware of it. They go through life feeling unimportant, frightened, dissatisfied and simply don't enjoy life.

Bipolar depression (or manic depression) includes both high and low mood swings, and a variety of other significant symptoms not present in other types of depression.

Seasonal Affective Disorder has symptoms that are seen with any major depressive episode. It is the recurrence of the symptoms during certain seasons that is the hallmark of this type of depression.

Non-melancholic Depression

In this case the depression is not melancholic, or, put simply, not primarily biological. Instead, it has to do with psychological causes and is very often linked to stressful events in a person’s life, alone, or in conjunction with the individual’s personality style. Non-melancholic depression is the most common of the three types of depression. Non-melancholic depression has a high rate of spontaneous remission because it is often linked to stressful events in a person’s life. Non-melancholic depression responds well to different sorts of treatments (such as psychotherapies, antidepressants and counselling), but the treatment selected should respect the cause (eg stress, personality style).