Depression
NorthPoint Depression counseling is designed to help individuals regain a productive life. NorthPoint's approach is to begin by understanding the issues surrounding the depression. NorthPoint focuses on the clients: What you do (Behavioral therapy); How you think about things (Cognitive therapy); How you relate to others. (Interpersonal therapy); How things are going to be better in the future (Solution focused therapy) – All directed in getting your basic emotional needs met in the wider world and helping you find solutions to your immediate problems. Through this process a person can understand, unravel, and transform their depression. Depression can be treated.
Recent studies state that "In any given 1-year period, 9.5 percent of the population, or about 18.8 million American adults, suffer from a depressive illness. The economic cost for this disorder is high, but the cost in human suffering cannot be estimated. Depressive illnesses often interfere with normal functioning and cause pain and suffering not only to those who have a disorder, but also to those who care about them. Serious depression can destroy family life as well as the life of the ill person. But much of this suffering is unnecessary.
Most people with a depressive illness do not seek treatment, although the great majority - even those whose depression is extremely severe — can be helped. Thanks to years of fruitful research, there are now medications and psychosocial therapies such as cognitive/behavioral, "talk," or interpersonal that ease the pain of depression.1
What Is Depression?
A depressive disorder is an illness that involves the body, mood, and thoughts. It affects the way a person eats and sleeps, the way one feels about oneself, and the way one thinks about things. A depressive disorder is not the same as a passing blue mood.
It is not 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. Without treatment, symptoms can last for weeks, months, or years. Appropriate treatment, however, can help most people who suffer from depression."1
Causes of Depression
Some types of depression run in families, suggesting that a biological vulnerability can be inherited. This seems to be the case with bipolar disorder. Studies of families in which members of each generation develop bipolar disorder found that those with the illness have a somewhat different genetic makeup than those who do not get ill. However, the reverse is not true: Not everybody with the genetic makeup that causes vulnerability to bipolar disorder will have the illness. Apparently additional factors, possibly stresses at home, work, or school, are involved in its onset.
In some families, major depression also seems to occur generation after generation. However, it can also occur in people who have no family history of depression. Whether inherited or not, major depressive disorder is often associated with changes in brain structures or brain function.
People who have low self-esteem, who consistently view themselves and the world with pessimism or who are readily overwhelmed by stress, are prone to depression. Whether this represents a psychological predisposition or an early form of the illness is not clear.
In recent years, researchers have shown that physical changes in the body can be accompanied by mental changes as well. Medical illnesses such as stroke, a heart attack, cancer, Parkinson's disease, and hormonal disorders can cause depressive illness, making the sick person apathetic and unwilling to care for his or her physical needs, thus prolonging the recovery period. Also, a serious loss, difficult relationship, financial problem, or any stressful (unwelcome or even desired) change in life patterns can trigger a depressive episode. Very often, a combination of genetic, psychological, and environmental factors is involved in the onset of a depressive disorder. Later episodes of illness typically are precipitated by only mild stresses, or none at all.1
What Are the Common Symptoms of Depression?
If you talk with others about depression, you'll find that its symptoms vary for different people. For some, depression is mild but constant. For others, depressed moods may be more severe but come and go. Some people suffer only one period of depression in their lifetime. Others may have many episodes.
While symptoms may vary in different types of depression, mental health experts say these core symptoms are common:
- feelings of sadness, despair, emptiness
- inability to feel pleasure
- low self-esteem
- loss of motivation and withdrawal from others
- feeling very sensitive emotionally
- pessimism, negativity
- feelings of irritability
- sleeping problems
- appetite problems
- decreased energy
- difficulty paying attention or making decisions
- thoughts about suicide and death1
Types of Depression
Depressive disorders come in different forms, just as is the case with other illnesses such as heart disease. Three of the most common types of depressive disorders are discussed here. However, within these types there are variations in the number of symptoms, their severity, and persistence.
Major depressive disorder:
This type of clinical depression is characterized by a severe lack of interest in the things that were once enjoyed or nonstop feelings of sadness. It is manifested by a combination of symptoms that interfere with the ability to work, study, sleep, eat, and enjoy once pleasurable activities. Such a disabling episode of depression may occur only once but more commonly occurs several times in a lifetime.
Bipolar disorder:
Also called manic depression, bipolar disorder is a type of depression that has either subtle or extreme "high" periods alternating with "low" periods of depression.
Also called manic-depressive illness. Not nearly as prevalent as other forms of depressive disorders, bipolar disorder is characterized by cycling mood changes: severe highs (mania) and lows (depression). Sometimes the mood switches are dramatic and rapid, but most often they are gradual. When in the depressed cycle, an individual can have any or all of the symptoms of a depressive disorder. When in the manic cycle, the individual may be overactive, over talkative, and have a great deal of energy. Mania often affects thinking, judgment, and social behavior in ways that cause serious problems and embarrassment. For example, the individual in a manic phase may feel elated, full of grand schemes that might range from unwise business decisions to romantic sprees. Mania, left untreated, may worsen to a psychotic state.
Dysthymia:
This type of depression is characterized by ongoing yet mild symptoms of depression. Is a less severe type of depression. It involves long-term, chronic symptoms that do not disable, but keep one from functioning well or from feeling good. Many people with dysthymia also experience major depressive episodes at some time in their lives.
Seasonal affective disorder:
This type of depression occurs seasonally and is caused by lack of sunlight.2
1 Grace Tsai, Ph.D. 2 Bobby Hasselbring