More Than Sadness: A Deep Dive Into Depression
Feeling sadness is normal, especially when facing difficult circumstances or dealing with loss. Some of us even feel glum when it’s just a cloudy day.
But for many people, this dark feeling can be intense and overwhelming. It can cause you to feel hopeless and helpless and can carry on for weeks, months, or even longer. This intense, prolonged sadness is often how people describe depression.
If you or a loved one are struggling with depression, there is help available. Depression, sometimes called clinical depression or major depressive disorder, is manageable and treatable.
Depression Is More Than ‘Feeling Sad’
Depression is a condition characterized by feelings of sadness, hopelessness, and often worthlessness, accompanied by both physical and mental symptoms. Depression can best be described as sadness that can take over your life and impact your daily activities, causing you to not function as you normally would.
Feeling sad, on the other hand, can be a mood state where you’re reacting to the circumstances you find yourself in—but unlike depression, your mood recovers over time. Sadness over a life event or while grieving may last for a few days or weeks, but this sadness doesn’t generally lead to the overwhelming sense of darkness that accompanies major depression.
Experiencing sadness means that you can still enjoy activities that you previously liked. Depression, on the other hand, can be an all-consuming sadness that zaps joy from life and where days are spent immersed in negative thoughts.
Depression doesn’t pick and choose what parts of your life are impacted. Rather, if you are dealing with depression, that feeling will affect how you think, what you do, and what you choose not to do. Often, you may lose interest in events, relationships, and activities that were once enjoyable.
If left untreated, depression can creep into all parts of your life—work, school, and home—escalating in intensity and impacting relationships, health, and education.
What Causes Depression To Occur?
Depression is often caused by a combination of biological, psychological, and/or genetic factors. Depression can happen when there are particular changes in the brain or we get stuck in repetitive, negative patterns of thinking. Environmental factors, like job loss, a divorce, or problems at work can also have a major impact on whether someone is prone to depressive episodes.
A bout of depression could happen after a traumatic event or a change of circumstances in one’s life. It could also occur because of changes in the brain or from addiction to drugs or alcohol. Depression can happen around the birth of a child, due to menstrual cycle changes, or due to a seasonal change in the weather.
Who Develops Depression?
Anyone can develop depression at any time in their lives. This can occur because of life events or due to changes in the body.
There is no way to determine whether or not your feelings will be temporary or if you will become depressed for long durations of time. For this reason, it is extremely important to recognize the signs of depression so you can obtain help if needed.
While depression occurs more in adults, it can also happen to children. As a parent or caregiver, knowing the signs of depression helps to get a child the necessary support to deal with their feelings appropriately.
There Are Many Types of Depression
Depression takes many forms and can affect people of all ages, genders, races, and backgrounds. Understanding the different types can help identify potential causes and signal when it’s time to seek support.
Several common types of depression exist, each significantly disrupting daily life and overall functioning.
Major depressive disorder (MDD) involves symptoms that persist nearly every day for at least two weeks, often interfering with work, school, relationships, and overall quality of life.
These symptoms can include low mood, loss of interest or pleasure in activities, fatigue, difficulty concentrating, changes in sleep or appetite, and feelings of worthlessness or guilt.
Persistent depressive disorder, formerly known as dysthymia, is a long-lasting form of depression in which symptoms linger for at least two years in adults (or one year in children and adolescents).
While the symptoms are often less severe than those of major depressive disorder, their chronic nature can take a significant toll on daily life, leading to ongoing feelings of sadness, low energy, and difficulty finding enjoyment in everyday activities. Due to its duration, the condition can gradually affect self-esteem, relationships, and overall well-being.
Bipolar disorder, formerly known as manic depression, is characterized by alternating periods of depression and mania.
During depressive episodes, individuals may experience persistent sadness, loss of interest or pleasure in activities, low energy, difficulty concentrating, and feelings of hopelessness. These periods alternate with episodes of elevated mood, intense happiness or euphoria, increased energy, and impulsive behavior.
Depressive psychosis occurs when severe depression is accompanied by a break from reality, adding symptoms such as hallucinations or delusions to the usual depressive feelings. These symptoms often involve themes of guilt, worthlessness, or personal failure, intensifying the impact of depression.
Symptoms are experienced during pregnancy and for a period of time after the birth of a baby. Perinatal depression is a combination of both prenatal depression (depression occurring before birth) and postpartum depression (depression occurring in months after birth).
Many new mothers will experience “baby blues” after childbirth. Baby blues include mood swings, trouble sleeping, and anxiety, and begin within two to three days after delivery and may last for up to two weeks. Postpartum depression is a longer-lasting, more severe form of depression and can take as long as a year after childbirth for symptoms to appear.
Premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) is a severe form of premenstrual syndrome in which depressive symptoms, irritability, or anxiety occur in the two weeks before menstruation. These symptoms typically improve once the period begins, reflecting hormonal changes.
Seasonal depression, also known as seasonal affective disorder (SAD), is a type of depression that occurs at certain times of the year, most commonly during the fall and winter months.
Symptoms such as low mood, fatigue, changes in sleep and appetite, and difficulty concentrating are often linked to reduced sunlight exposure and changes in circadian rhythms. Treatments such as light therapy, counseling, and medication can help manage symptoms.
Atypical depression is a subtype of major depressive disorder in which mood can temporarily improve in response to positive events, but depressive symptoms return when faced with stress or negative experiences. Individuals may experience increased appetite or weight gain, excessive sleep, heaviness in the arms or legs, and sensitivity to rejection.
Symptoms become present after specific, identifiable, and life-altering experiences, such as the loss of a loved one, job loss, or illness.
Experts do warn that the phrase “situational depression” can be misleading. Despite depression being the result of a chemical imbalance or the result of an external factor, symptoms may not resolve even if the situation does.
If your mood is negatively impacted, whether from a specific event or for no clear reason, treatment may be needed.
How Do I Know if It’s Depression?
You often know when you feel upset, down, and sad. But if you feel this way often, you may start to wonder if you are struggling with depression.
A key indicator of a depressive episode is if sadness has lasted more than two weeks. Most people have ups and downs in their lives and have happy times to compensate for times that are not so great.
Depression has physical, emotional, and mental symptoms. While some people experience only one depression episode in their lives, these symptoms occur most days and over prolonged periods of time.
To be clinically diagnosed, someone must experience five or more of the following symptoms during the same two-week period. At least one of the symptoms must be either a depressed mood or loss of interest or pleasure.
Some of the mental and emotional symptoms of depression include:
- Feeling hopeless
- Feeling indifferent
- Being irritable
- Feeling worthless, helpless, or guilty
- Feelings of anxiety or agitation
- Withdrawing from friends and family
- No longer interested in hobbies, activities, and spending time with others
- Difficulty with concentration and making decisions
- Thoughts of self-harm or suicide
- Loss of memory
Some of the physical symptoms of depression include:
- Fatigue or a noticeable loss of energy
- Headaches
- Digestive difficulties
- Body aches and pains with no clear reason for their presence
- Restlessness or an urge to move around constantly
- Trouble falling and staying asleep, waking extremely early or late
- Changes with weight due to overeating or not eating enough
- Self-harm
- Attempts at suicide
Depression in Kids and Teens
While depression can occur at any stage of life, the symptoms of the condition may be different in a child than in an adult.
Teens live very up-and-down lives—peer pressure, schooling, employment, and puberty can all contribute to emotional swings. With some teens, feeling low isn’t temporary and can be overlooked as “just part of growing up” instead of signs of possible depression.
Some of the symptoms of depression in kids and teens may include:
- Sadness
- Irritability
- Clinginess
- Excessive worrying
- Inexplicable aches and pains
- Feeling negative or worthless
- Refusal to go to school or participate in school-based activities
- Loss of interest in activities, including socializing
- Using drugs or alcohol
- Poor performance in school
- Being underweight
Depression in Older Adults
Older adults are at a higher risk of depression than other age groups. Depression is more common when a person is experiencing other health conditions. They may also experience depression when going through the loss of a loved one or losing the ability to do something.
Often depression is either overlooked in older populations or is assumed to be part of growing older. Neither is true, but by increasing awareness of symptoms, we can help our older loved ones.
Some symptoms of depression in older adults may include:
- Difficulty with memories or remembering things
- Changes in personality
- Physical aches or pains without cause
- Fatigue or sleep problems
- Loss of appetite
- Loss of interest in sex, not caused by a medical condition or medication
- Strong desire to stay at home instead of socializing or participating in activities
If you are depressed, you may only have one or two of the above symptoms, or you may experience several. Symptoms may also change depending upon the intensity of a depressive episode.
Knowing these symptoms, however, will help you in determining whether you need to seek medical treatment to help make the symptoms decrease in intensity or go away altogether.