Mental Health

Depression

What is depression?

Depression is a depressive disorder that involves a person's body, mood, and thoughts. It can affect and disrupt eating, sleeping, or thinking patterns, and is not the same as being unhappy or in a "blue" mood, nor is it a sign of personal weakness or a condition that can be willed or wished away. People with a depressive illness cannot merely "pull themselves together" and get better. Treatment is often necessary and many times crucial to recovery.

Three types of depression:

Depressive disorders come in different forms, just as other illnesses such as heart disease do. Three of the most prevalent types of depressive disorders are:

major depression - a combination of symptoms that interfere with the ability to work, sleep, eat, and enjoy once pleasurable activities. These disabling episodes of depression can occur once, twice, or several times in a lifetime.

dysthymia - long-term, chronic symptoms that do not disable, but keep people from functioning at "full steam" or from feeling good. Sometimes people with dysthymia also experience major depressive episodes.

bipolar disorder - a chronic recurring condition that includes cycles of depression and elation, or mania.

Within these types there are variations in the number of symptoms, their severity, and persistence.

Treatment for depression:

Without treatment, symptoms can last for weeks, months, or years. Appropriate treatment, however, can help most people who suffer from depression. During any one year period, 17.6 million American adults or 10 percent of the population suffer from depressive illness.

This page was last updated on: May 30, 2006.

For patient inquiries, call 1-800-492-5538 or click here to make an appointment.