According to statistics, one-third of people now or ever suffer from depression, which is higher than the incidence of cancer (1/4). Almost everyone will feel sad or desperate at some point in his life. However, when these feelings persist, recur or become serious, you may have begun to experience depression and should seek medical help. Depression is a common disease and can usually be successfully treated. Unfortunately, too many people don't seek medical help for various reasons: they don't realize that they have depression, misunderstand that depression is not a real disease, or think that depression occurs because a person is not strong enough; You can't simply get through it or get rid of it. If you can receive proper treatment, 80% of depression will be improved. But this process of change takes time.
For centuries, other philosophers and doctors have tried to define and understand depression. But just like the fuzziness and diversity of the word depression in daily use, depression itself is not a disease that is easy to define or confirm. Its symptoms are usually consistent with those of other diseases, or it may be attributed to injury reaction, stress, sleep problems, aging or overwork.
When they feel sad, lonely, depressed or depressed, many people will call them "melancholy". They will say: I am so depressed! I still have a lot of work to do, and I'm afraid I'll never finish it. However, medical depression is not only a temporary depression or a period of stress. True depression (that is, "depression, or clinical depression" as doctors say) is different from normal sadness or disappointment. The most common depression will have the following characteristics:
1, lasting at least two weeks, often longer.
2. Present some specific symptoms related to emotion, behavior, thinking and appearance.
3, damage your daily life function
4, need drugs, psychology or both * * * with interventional therapy.
How do you feel when you are depressed? ※?
Depression usually manifests itself in four main ways. People who know you will usually notice these changes before you.
■ Changes in mood
The most striking feature of depression is melancholy mood. You will feel sad, helpless, desperate and often cry. Your self-esteem and self-confidence tend to decline rapidly, and many people will feel guilty and feel worthless.
However, not all patients with depression will feel depressed, and sometimes other emotions will be more obvious. You may become emotional and easily angered, or try to find that life is boring and you will never feel fresh and excited about anything again. The activities you used to enjoy will never make you happy again, and you will not be interested in doing them.
Some patients are embarrassed to ask for help because they are worried that depression will leave a mark: will family and friends think I am weak because of this? Can they understand? Worried about keeping secrets from employers will also make some patients reluctant to seek treatment: I once heard my boss mention that she thought one of my colleagues with depression was pretending to be ill to avoid work. Will she feel the same way about me?
■ Cognitive changes
Depression can affect your memory and thinking process. You will become unable to concentrate, and making decisions will become more difficult: even small things, such as what clothes to wear or what dishes to prepare, will become difficult and time-consuming. Therefore, you will also find it more difficult to do things well.
■ Physiological changes
Depression can affect many aspects of physiological function. For example, it will cause great confusion to your sleep and eating habits. You may wake up at four or five in the morning and never sleep again. You may spend more time in bed, sleepy all day. You may overeat and become overweight, or you may lose your appetite and lose weight. Your sexual desire may decline.
, even disappear.
Depression will weaken your vitality. People with depression often feel tired, slow or exhausted. It takes a lot of effort to get up or get ready for dinner. Depression is also related to many vague physical discomforts, including headache, back pain, abdominal pain and various unexplained pains.
■ Behavior change
Depression can change people's behavior in many ways. If you used to be a neat person, you may start to ignore your appearance. If you are always careful when paying bills, you may start to lose money. You may start to stay away from the crowd and prefer to stay at home. You may argue with your partner or other family members more often. At work, you may often fail to finish the work on time.
Some people with depression describe their experiences like this:
Feeling listless and helpless. I often feel scared, sleepy and desperate. Sometimes I cry and feel great sadness, and sometimes I just feel numb. Boredom is common.
☆ When I am depressed, I will feel dim, numb and afraid, and naturally blame myself, as if I can't move (whether in fact or figuratively) and feel hopeless. Other feelings include cynicism, emptiness and uselessness.
Depression has greatly affected my friendship with friends: it deprived me of the energy needed to be a good friend of others and maintain friendship, and also kept me away from friends.
For intimate relationships, the impact is the same. I wouldn't say that depression caused people to break up, but it is sometimes a related factor.
A neglected disease. ※
Although depression is so common, one-third of patients still don't know that they have depression. However, two-thirds of those who knew they were sick did not get proper treatment.
Some patients don't know their symptoms of depression and they don't know that they need treatment. Many people regard these troubles as a normal part of life, especially when the obvious emotional symptoms are excitement, irritability, anxiety and loss of interest, not depression.
Sometimes not all symptoms or signs of depression exist, or they appear in different intensities. For example, if your most obvious symptom is insomnia, you may ignore other symptoms. Similarly, if your chief complaint is fatigue, your doctor may not see the whole picture of the disease. Unfortunately, research shows that doctors often fail to diagnose depression correctly.