Depression Case

Depression is a mental health problem that affects 19 million adults in the United States alone. Every one in thirty three children have depression, along with every one in eight teens. Depression causes stress and has been known to lead to suicide, which takes approximately 825,000 lives every year (World Health Organization (WHO) 2011). According to MediLexicon's medical dictionary, depression is "a mental state or chronic mental disorder characterized by feelings of sadness, loneliness, despair, low self-esteem, and self-reproach; accompanying signs include psychomotor retardation (or less frequently agitation), withdrawal from social contact, and vegetative states such as loss of appetite and insomnia, which is a lack of sleep." It can be categorized as mild, moderate or severe depression based on the symptoms (Earls). People with depression lose interest in things that he or she would normally enjoy, he or she loses or gains weight, and he or she's sleeping pattern becomes altered. One who has depression would feel alone and would have a low mood all of the time. In this paper, I will discuss the different types of depression, the causes for depression, and the signs and symptoms that one with depression would experience.

There are many different types of depression. According to an article from Medical News Today from April 2009, during major depressive disorders the patient suffers from his or her ability to sleep, study, work, eat, and enjoy activities he or she used to enjoy. Experts say that major depressive disorder can be very disabling, preventing the patient from functioning normally. Some people experience only one episode, while others experience multiple episodes.

Another type of depression is dysthymia, or mild chronic depression. The patient will suffer from symptoms for a couple of years. The symptoms are not as severe as they are in major depression. One may find it hard to function normally and feel well. Psychotic depression is when one experiences hallucinations, delusions, and withdrawals from reality for short periods of time. Postpartum depression is another type of depression. A mother that experiences a major depressive episode within a few weeks of giving birth most likely has postpartum depression. Medical News Today states that about ten to fifteen percent of all women experience postpartum depression after giving birth. Many of them go undiagnosed and suffer for long periods of time.

Seasonal Affective Disorder, or SAD, is common in places that don't experience as much sunlight like the North and South Poles. A person who has something major happen to them in a certain season, such as a death in the fall, will always get depressed during that season, but the symptoms go away after the season. In Scandinavia, where winter can be very dark for many months, people use light therapy where they sit in front of a special light. Light therapy works for only about half of all SAD patients. Light therapy is becoming more popular in Canada and the United Kingdom (Medical News Today). Bipolar disorder is a dangerous type of depression. Someone that is diagnosed with bipolar disorder experiences moments of extreme highs and extreme lows. One with bipolar disorder has feelings of pure happiness and one feels like nothing can go wrong, and then two minutes after will have a mental break down and throw a huge tantrum. Bipolar disorder is a condition in which people go back and forth between periods of a very good or irritable mood and depression. The mood changes between mania and depression can be very quick.

Depression can be caused by many things. Some of the main causes are past physical, sexual, or emotional abuse, certain medications that