Whether or not you’ve ever been clinically diagnosed with depression, chances are that you or someone you know has suffered from it. Either way, almost everyone has been affected by depression to some degree. Some people use different forms of treatment and medication for the condition, whereas others will simple ‘grin and bear it’ until it passes. Ultimately, the best way to approach and treat depression is by addressing it holistically; that is, by admitting that everything psychological is equally as biological.
Depression comes in different forms. The psychologist’s handbook, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM IV TR) considers depression a type of ‘mood disorder,’ insofar that one suffering from a bout of depression is having their mood ‘affected,’ to a certain extent. If one is not routinely fatigued, unexcited, uninspired, and finding him or herself disinterested in things they normally do, then depression is the affectation.
When people usually think or talk about depression, they are thinking of what psychologists and psychiatrists call ‘Major Depressive Disorder,’ or MDD. Other names for it are Unipolar Depression or Clinical Depression, and people suffering from it are the ones at highest risk for suicide. They may turn to different substances or behaviors to self-medicate their depression, and some of these habits can be just as dangerous.
Other forms of depression are Bipolar Disorder, which is characterized by very low emotional states (like MDD), and spontaneous moments of hyperactivity (impulse shopping, for example). There is also Melancholic Depression, which may put an individual in a certain emotional state like that of someone grieving, and Catatonic Depression, when a person may cease to function normally, and perhaps become mute as a way of coping, or self-abuse.
Some depression is a result of chemical imbalance, in which case different types of medication can be used to reactivate those dormant chemicals. In other cases, however, depression truly can be more metaphysical, and can be best treated through conversation, understanding, and holistic treatment, like exercise and study.
Depression is never easy, but even for the worst cases, there is help.