Updated: 15-05-2025
What is Mental Depression? How To Prevent It?
Everyone goes through difficulties in life.
But if you cannot tackle being desperate and empty, it eventually leads to mental depression.
It can be overwhelming at times just to get through the day.
However bad the situation may be, you can always get over it and enjoy life just as you did once before.
But for that, it is very important to understand the signs and symptoms of mental depression.
It helps to address the reasons that are making you feel sad and also prevents the new onset of depression.
Explaining Mental Depression
Downswings or sadness in the mood are normal in the struggle of life, and everyone goes through the phase of disappointments and setbacks.
Most people mistake regular problems and sadness for depression.
However, mental depression is largely different from it and at times difficult to explain.
Depression is not at all normal grief. It interferes with your ability to eat, sleep, study, work, and have fun.
You feel restless and apathetic, angry and aggressive.
When you are depressed and feeling sad, you feel hopeless, helpless, and worthless.
Symptoms And Signs Of Mental Depression
Although the symptoms of depression differ from one person to the other, there are several common signs and indications from which a psychiatrist can deduce the condition of your mind.
These include:
- The feeling of hopelessness and helplessness
- Weight gain or weight loss
- Loss of interest in regular daily activities
- Disturbed sleep pattern
- Self-loathing
- Irritability or anger
- Feeling fatigued all the time
- Problem in concentrating
- Reckless behavior
- Unexplained pains and aches
Can Mental Depression Increase the Tendency to Suicide?
Studies suggest that mental depression or feeling sad most of the time leads to the thought of suicide.
A person suffering from depression feels deep despair and hopelessness, and for them, suicide is the only way to escape and overcome pain.
Talking, counselling, and interaction are the only ways of handling such a tendency in a person.
Types of Depression
Very few people are aware that mental depression has different types, and each needs different treatment from an expert.
The kind of depression is categorised based on its cause, effects, and symptoms.
Knowing the exact type of depression helps in getting the most effective treatment.
So, there’s a therapy called Dialectical Behavioural Therapy, and you can opt for one such DBT for depression and anxiety that produces the desired results, and it can be well seen in your overall thought process, mentality, and body language after one such session with an expert counsellor.
1. Major Depression
The inability to experience pleasure and enjoy life is caused by major depression.
The symptoms are constant and can be moderate to severe.
If these symptoms are not treated at the right time, major depression may last for a prolonged period, extending up to six months.
Although major depression recurs quite frequently in life, in very rare cases, it can be a one-time affair.
2. Mild Depression or Dysthymia
Mild depression, or dysthymia, is a type of low-grade mental depression that does not last more than a few days.
During this phase, you feel moderately or mildly depressed, and in between, you can also have small periods of normal mood.
Since the depression is mild, its symptoms are not as strong as major depression.
But these spells of dysthymia can last for two years or even more.
Many people also complain of double depression, which is a combination of dysthymia and major depression.
Such people experience bouts of major depression in between the spells of mild depression.
One of the primary symptoms of this type of depression is that the person is constantly in a low mood.
Unfortunately, because of its deceptive nature, many times it often goes unnoticed for years together.
3. Bipolar Disorder
This type of depression is also known as manic depression, and its highlighting feature is cyclic mood changes.
In this kind of depression, a patient feels depressed alternating with manic episodes that include hyperactivity, impulsive behaviour, little or no sleep, and rapid speech.
These symptoms are easily detectable as the changes from extreme mood to a lighter one are gradual.
Each depression or manic episode can last up to several weeks.
A person afflicted with bipolar disorder shows symptoms of major depression.
But regular treatment for depression is not effective in treating this disease.
Rather, antidepressants worsen the condition further.
4. Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
It is usually caused by winter. The onset of winter can be depressing and bring about a drop in mood.
Many people tend to develop seasonal depression, known as seasonal affective disorder.
You are a different person in summer, sometimes sad, sometimes tense or stressed, with no interest in activities and friends.
While in winter, you can suddenly feel highly energetic and spirited.
Causes of Depression
Many times, there is a particular medical reason for mental depression or feeling sad.
However, certain risk factors can increase your chances of having depression.
This includes:
- Lack of social support
- Loneliness
- Financial strain
- A family history of depression
- Stressful experiences of life
- Alcohol or drug abuse
- Early childhood abuse or trauma
- Relationship or marital problems
- Underemployment or unemployment
- Chronic pain or health problems
Depending on the cause of mental depression, the treatment is determined.
Psychotherapy and antidepressants are the two treatments mainly followed for treating different types of depression.
Sometimes, mere counselling can help a person overcome depression symptoms.
Preventing Mental Depression
Treatment comes second. The first is to try to prevent feeling sad.
Here are some steps that you can easily follow to keep depression away:
- Take action to increase your self-esteem, boost your confidence, and increase resilience.
- Usually, a lack of confidence or an inferiority complex is the primary cause of depression.
- Attending a motivational seminar can go a long way in taking care of all the depressing thoughts.
- Sharing your problems with friends and family members also helps in overcoming the depression crisis whenever you are going through a rough spell.
- Make sure to get the treatment at the earliest possible so that you prevent the condition from worsening.
- If you have already been diagnosed with depression, ensure that you take the long-term maintenance treatment so that it does not come back.
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