subject: What Is Clinical Depression About? [print this page] Life, as everyone knows, can be tough sometimes. Tragic events do occur, such as death of a family member, a breakup with a long-time partner, failure of a business in which one has invested so much, loss of one's home, or being diagnosed with an incurable disease. These can all cause deep sadness and grief, and as a result, the person may be depressed. He can experience the classic symptoms of depression, which include being withdrawn, losing interest in daily activities, having sleep disturbances, losing or gaining a significant amount of weight, feeling tired most of the time, and having suicidal thoughts. When these signs persist for a long time, continuing to be a grave threat to the person's health and even to his life, the condition is termed clinical depression.
It is normal to feel sad and to grieve when a tragic event happens in one's life. It is also normal, after some time, for the sadness to gradually lessen and go away, and for the person to revert to his usual self. Every now and then, the sadness may return but he is able to deal with it and function normally. Such is the "normal" kind of depression. Clinical depression, on the other hand, is when the person just cannot seem to pull himself together, when his depression continues to be as unremitting and as severe as ever, even after a considerable time has passed since the event that presumably caused it. Given that it does not go away, medical treatment is required to make the person well again.
It is also referred to as "major depression" or "major depressive order" by psychologists. It is characterized by the following symptoms:
Loss of interest in activities, even in those that the person used to enjoy
Continuously feeling sad, hopeless or empty
Too little sleep, or oversleeping
Noticeable weight loss or gain
Loss of concentration
Fatigue (despite oversleeping and overeating)
Suicidal thoughts or actions
This type of depression is an illness. It is not something that the person can will to disappear, or will just go away in time. It also should not be seen as a weakness in the person or his character. No one is weak just because he gets the flu or bronchitis. In the same manner, no one should be judged weak because he is depressed.
Because it is an illness, depression requires professional treatment, usually involving both therapy and medication. Therapy or psychological counseling helps the person to deal with ongoing situations that may set off the depression or contribute to it, while drugs, particularly antidepressants, relieve the symptoms of depression.
There are rare cases when therapy and drugs do not work, or do not quite achieve the expected results. In such cases, electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) may be resorted to. In this method, electric currents are passed through the brain. It is safely conducted by a physician with adequate training in the procedure. Apart from ECT, there are other, newer and more progressive forms of treatment that are being studied and tried out. They show a good amount of success. With them, clinical depression is now a completely curable disease. It need not plague a person for months or even years. There is surely a treatment for his condition, whether through the traditional methods of therapy and drugs, or through the newer, more progressive approaches.
