We strongly recommend that you visit the page you may access by clicking Depression . Anything at all you need to know about the illness may be found here.

Depression. The Learning Path

Signs of Depression

Causes of Depression

Starting with the signs of depression, the Learning Path will take you on a journey during which you will learn astounding, revolutionary and vital facts about clinical depression. The aim is to give you up-to-date information on depression and what the research says is the best treatment. As you go along, follow the signs at the bottom of each page.

During your journey, you will learn:

How therapists are now lifting even severe depression quickly.
The astounding new discovery that shows how clinical depression is caused by over-dreaming, and what you can do about it.
Why depression is 10 times more common in those born since 1945 than in those born before, and why this is important to you.
The facts about drugs vs. therapy for clinical depression and much, much more.

Once you have completed the Learning Path, you will know enough about depression to decide on the best way for you to get rid of it, and stop it coming back. So, onto the first section...the signs of depression.

Have I Got Signs of Depression?

If you have been feeling down, or out-of-sorts, your thoughts can easily turn to whether you are depressed or not. This first section will take you through the signs of depression and how depression is diagnosed.

However, whether you 'fit' the depression diagnosis or not is unimportant. If you are feeling so down that you need to do something about it, that is enough.

Usually, our clients report one or more of the following:

Exhaustion on waking
Disrupted sleep, sometimes through upsetting dreams
Early morning waking and difficulty getting back to sleep
Doing less of what they used to enjoy
Difficulty concentrating during the day
Improved energy as the day goes on
Anxious worrying and intrusive upsetting thoughts
Becoming emotional or upset for no particular reason
Shortness of temper, or irritability

Not all people have all of these, and some have different signs, but if you are depressed, at least some of these will probably ring true with you.

The individual signs of depression - the way you feel - are what are used in diagnosing depression. So it's easy to see why there is so much confusion, seeing as the signs are generally common emotions and feelings.

There are also physical effects of depression, which we'll come to later.

Only a qualified doctor or health practitioner can formally diagnose you with clinical depression. However, how they reach this diagnosis gives an incredibly important insight into how to treat depression.

Depression screening and tests for depression undiagnosed.

So let's look now at how clinical depression is normally diagnosed.

Diagnosing depression

According to the definitions of most medical, psychological and psychiatric bodies, there is a commonality in the diagnosis of depression. Most depression tests have a very similar framework. Almost without exception, clinical depression will be diagnosed if a certain number of feelings, that are signs of depression, are present over a certain period of time.

Below is the 'official' guide for diagnosing clinical depression:

A person can be diagnosed as suffering from clinical depression if:

(A) Five (or more) of the following symptoms have been present during the same 2-week period and represent a change from previous functioning; at least one of the symptoms is either (1) depressed mood or (2) loss of interest or pleasure.

(1) depressed mood most of the day, nearly every day, as indicated by either subjective report (e.g., feels sad or empty) or observation made by others (e.g., appears tearful). Note: In children and adolescents, can be irritable mood.

(2) markedly diminished interest or pleasure in all, or almost all, activities most of the day, nearly every day (as indicated by either subjective account or observation made by others)

(3) significant weight loss when not dieting or weight gain (e.g., a change of more than 5% of body weight in a month), or decrease or increase in appetite nearly every day. Note: In children, consider failure to make expected weight gains.

(4) insomnia or hypersomnia nearly every day

(5) psychomotor agitation or retardation nearly every day (observable by others, not merely subjective feelings of restlessness or being slowed down)

(6) fatigue or loss of energy nearly every day

(7) feelings of worthlessness or excessive or inappropriate guilt (which may be delusional) nearly every day (not merely self-reproach or guilt about being sick)

(8) diminished ability to think or concentrate, or indecisiveness, nearly every day (either by subjective account or as observed by others)

(9) recurrent thoughts of death (not just fear of dying), recurrent suicidal ideation without a specific plan, or a suicide attempt or a specific plan for committing suicide

(B) The symptoms do not meet criteria for a Mixed Episode.

(C) The symptoms cause clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning.

(D) The symptoms are not due to the direct physiological effects of a substance (e.g., a drug of abuse, a medication) or a general medical condition (e.g., hypothyroidism).

(E) The symptoms are not better accounted for by Bereavement, i.e., after the loss of a loved one, the symptoms persist for longer than 2 months or are characterised by marked functional impairment, morbid preoccupation with worthlessness, suicidal ideation, psychotic symptoms, or psychomotor retardation.

OK, so that's what the doctors use. But if we look at E), it raises some interesting questions.

It says that clinical depression can be diagnosed if the symptoms cannot be attributed to bereavement. So, since grieving is a natural response, we can see that depression is simply an out-of-place natural response.

And of course it is. If it were not, we would have to take drugs to create it.

So what about the incredibly popular idea that depression is due to some unnatural chemical imbalance in the brain. That this 'imbalance' is the source and root cause of depression?

It's possible, but it just doesn't make sense for the majority of cases. And when we look at the increase in depression over the last 50 years or so, we will see that our brain chemistry just can't change that quickly.

Key Understanding

Most depression is not due to a chemical imbalance, or genetic factors. Low serotonin levels are a result, not a cause, of depression.

Despite the prevailing ideas for the last few decades, this is now known to be a fact. (1)

This misunderstanding is also the reason why drugs for depression miss the point, and treat the symptoms instead of the causes.

Understanding this is one of the keys to understanding depression itself.

Now that you know about the external signs of depression, next we'll look at depression symptoms and how they come about...

Please Click Here to visit Teen Depression

Depression, like alcoholism, is intensely personal, so please understand that when I give the stages of depression, they're as I experienced them. I wouldn't dream of suggesting that these are written in stone for everyone to follow. This article relates purely to me, and if I'm a little bit fuzzy on the final stages, I would ask forgiveness.

I worked for myself, and I loved what I did. Business was good and work was backed up by about three months. Good quality work too, so I had nothing about which to complain. Indeed, the last job I remember taking in was priced at just under $1500.00, and I recall being very excited about this.

I should mention that I'd taken Valium on and off for a number of years, but at that time I was free of all medication. I felt fit and cheerful and worked long hours. I worked from home, and my poor wife used to sometimes threaten to physically drag me away at the end of the day. I was sensible in one respect. I realized I was over doing it a bit, and I cut my time back so that at least I'd stop work at a set hour.

Now we begin to see how insidious depression can be. Almost imperceptibly, the work started to hold my interest less and less. Here was my first mistake. My wife is extremely supportive and in fact worked in a psychiatrist's office some years ago. She's a very easy and understanding person to talk to and since I'd experienced depression in the past, I should have gone straight to her and told her that my interest in work was dropping off and that maybe I should go and see someone. Actually, just talking to her may well have proved sufficient.

But no, idiot that I was, I ignored the warning signs, the outriders of the storm, if you like. My wife realized that things weren't quite as they should be and questioned me about how the work was going. I was irritable and told her that things were as they'd always been. I pressed ahead, but found myself becoming more and more relieved at the end of the day, and more and more reluctant to climb out of bed in the morning.

So, let's recap. I noticed my enthusiasm waning bit by bit, but I simply ignored that. My wife asked me how things were going, but even at that relatively early stage, my thoughts were twisting and I felt she was interfering. The upshot of this was irritability.

Then I thought that perhaps another course of Valium, or some other like medication, would do me good. So off I went to the doctor and obtained some Valium. All was fine then for a while. I kept strictly to the recommended dose, my mood lightened and life was good again. For a little while. Then my dislike of starting the day kicked back in and I'd lie in fetal position, watching the red numbers on my digital clock inexorably count the hours until it was time to face things again.

Well, there's always the Valium, isn't there? So I'd have one with coffee, and I'd start into work almost with as much gusto as before. It wasn't long before my depression became really angry at being shoved to one side by some puny medication, and I found myself tossing back another Valium at lunchtime. I ended up sitting in a daze. I'd run the stages of depression.

I can vaguely remember my wife coming to me, all ready to go out, gently taking my arm and leading me to the car. I was way past any objections by this time.

So to sum up, the closest I can come is that firstly I ignored the problem. Secondly, I became irritable and denied the problem. Thirdly, I was forced to accept that something was wrong. Fourthly, I self-medicated, and the fifth symptom proved a knock out - in favour of depression! I know I was taken into a clinic then, but I'm afraid I'm very misty about this. There was to be one more, worse, session, but that's for another time.