Depression is an illness that impacts your life negatively – how you feel and how you act. It often comes with feelings of sadness or hopelessness that feel uncontrollable. Fortunately, depression is a medical illness that can be treated.
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Symptoms of depression vary widely from person to person and in a variety of severity levels. However, some of the most common symptoms include:
- A struggle to fall asleep, waking up multiple times in the night, or a tendency to sleep too much
- Feeling sad without a known reason or for a prolonged period of time
- Changes in appetite – being overly hungry or struggling to eat
- Difficulty concentrating or finishing what was once a very doable task
- Struggling with feelings of despair, dark thoughts, and/or feelings of unworthiness
- Thoughts that the world would be better off without you
- An inability to sit still and/or obsessive motions such as wringing of the hands or pacing
- Uncharacteristically slow movements that are persistent and easily observed by others
- Loss of enjoyment in activities from which you once gained pleasure
How is depression different from sadness due to a difficult circumstance or the loss of a loved one?
While sadness over a difficult life transition or the loss of someone you love is tough, it does not necessarily mean you are depressed. Grief is experienced in a variety of ways and has several stages, and sadness does go along with it. However, some of the big differences between sadness and depression are the length of the sadness, feelings of worthlessness, and thoughts about death related to one’s own purposelessness.
Grief is often described as coming “in waves,” and sadness is similar. You may feel sad in one moment or for several hours, but then you are able to also experience light feelings of enjoyment and happiness. In addition, a grieving person or a sad person can usually discern between his or her emotions and his or her actual value as a person; the grieving person also sees himself or herself as someone who is having a tough time or mourning a loss of some kind. But he/she is not contemplating his/her existence as it relates to life and death.
Someone who is depressed may struggle for weeks or longer with sadness that doesn’t seem to go away or get better by hearing something funny or having a sweet memory. Instead, these feelings of sadness go deeper and can involve doubt related to the value of your own life, causing feelings of unworthiness.
Depression does have a few markers, which include:
Biochemistry: Certain markers in the brain may make one person more susceptible to becoming depressed than another.
Genetics: Your family of origin may have a deep impact on your propensity to develop depression. Studies have shown that depression tends to run in families.
History of Trauma: Being exposed to neglect, violence, or poverty in early childhood and for prolonged periods of time can be contributors to a person’s struggle with depression.
Personality: A person who is suffering from low self-esteem or someone who is pessimistic may struggle more with depression.
Once a thorough assessment is done by a licensed medical professional, treatments for depression vary. Some find hope in medical advances alone, and others are treated with a combination of counseling and medication. Still others choose to undergo only counseling for help to see where their negative thought patterns may have a contributing factor to their struggle with depression. A counselor can ask questions, listen, and draw out a person’s ability to see what’s causing their extended sadness while also teaching the person coping mechanisms to rise above it.
Major depressive disorder is a clinically diagnosed form of depression, or intense sadness, that lasts longer than two weeks.
Bipolar depression is when the person experiences alternating periods of “high” and “low.” Moments of highs may include excitability, a prolonged ability to keep going at a specific activity, and trouble sleeping. Low moments may include intense sadness, lethargy, and lack of desire to do what a person might normally enjoy.
Perinatal depression revolves around pregnancy and motherhood. Perinatal refers to the time before and after the birth of a child. Perinatal depression can include prenatal (during pregnancy) and postpartum (after the child has been born) depression. This depression brings intense feelings of anxiety and/or sadness that does not go away within a few weeks. It is not “the baby blues,” and often interferes with a woman’s ability to carry out regular tasks such as caring for herself or her child. It may, in severe cases, include thoughts of harming oneself or one’s child. In this case, it’s important to seek medical attention no matter what the severity of a mother’s illness is.
Persistent depressive disorder (PDD), otherwise known as dysthymia, is a prolonged, chronic form of depression. Someone with this disorder can struggle for years with feelings of low self-esteem, low productivity, and loss of desire to engage in activities once experienced as fun. This person may also struggle to enjoy happy moments too. The long-term nature of this can make it very discouraging, but treatment is available with trained counselors who can help over time.
Premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) is a form of depression leading up to and during a woman’s menstrual cycle. Unlike PMS, this disorder has severe symptoms that occur because of an abnormal reaction to a very normal hormonal change that happens in a woman’s body at that time. Intense moodiness, anger, and feelings of being out of control are some of the characteristics related to PMDD.
Psychotic depression is a form of severe depression where the sufferer has delusions and/or hallucinations. A delusion is when a person believes things that are not based in reality, and hallucinations are seeing or hearing things that are not truly there.
Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) is a type of depression that revolves around seasons of the year. These feelings of sadness recur every year around the same time (fall/winter) and resolve around the same rhythm as well (spring/summer).
Depression is a mental health issue with which many people struggle, and seeing a counselor is the first step in getting help. A licensed counselor will spend the first one to three sessions getting to know you, hearing about what brought you to counseling, and asking questions related to how you’ve been feeling. He or she may also want to spend a session or two talking about your goals for therapy and what you’d like to get out of it.
At Flower Mound Christian Counseling, your counselor will help by identifying the root of your depression and work with you to develop a treatment plan that works with your stage of life and your medical history. He or she is there to help and wants you to be able to function and enjoy life to the fullest.
While every patient is different, depression of any kind typically doesn’t just “go away” on its own. A specific treatment plan, designed in collaboration with a trained mental health professional, can guide a patient forward with hope for the future. In general, depression can last anywhere from a month to a few years. It can occur continuously or be intermittent in nature. It’s impossible to say how long a person’s struggle with depression will last, but a caring counselor in Flower Mound can help along the journey to wellness.
Even the most well-meaning friends and family may not recognize your depression. It is so important to take charge of your own health and call for help when you need it. At Flower Mound Christian Counseling, we have licensed counselors who are trained to help you identify if what you are feeling is depression, and they can help you see a better way of life as you grow in your journey to overcoming depression.
Get connected with a Christian Counselor
Please contact our reception team at
(469) 333-6163