We all know depression is a serious condition affecting millions of people worldwide. Depression is also one of the leading causes of suicide. The disorder is characterized by several mental and physiological changes. Mental changes typically lean towards negative emotions while physiological changes include insomnia (or hypersomnia), loss of appetite (or increased appetite), headaches and other generic symptoms. There are plenty of causes of depression but they are not so much causes for depression as they are triggers. Technically, no one knows exactly what causes depression in the brain.
Some of the common types of the condition include major depressive disorder, dysthymia and manic depression. Major depressive disorder is also referred to as clinical depression and is the most common form of the condition. Symptoms apart from the aforementioned ones include body pains, malaise, digestive changes as well as loss of concentration and motivation. Despite the difficult name, dysthymia is simply a mild form of the disorder. This typically is a chronic condition and can affect a person’s mood for a considerable time. People who tend to be in a perpetually bad mood may be actually suffering from dysthymia. Manic depression is similar to bipolar disorder where a person may alternate between aggressive and depressed moods.
Before treating the condition, you need to understand what causes depression. As aforementioned causes of depression are merely triggers and not the exact root cause. Let’s look at some of the causes of the depression.
1) Trauma
This can be either emotional or physical trauma. It is very common and even expected for people to project the symptoms of depression shortly after being traumatized but prolonged presence of symptoms may indicate the person is suffering from the disorder.
2) Stress
Severe stress for an extensive period of time can have lasting psychological and physiological impacts on the body including depression. If you have been stressed for a considerable period of time, think about taking some time off.
3) Drug abuse
Several drugs including alcohol are depressants. It may be ironic considering the elating effects they have when in your system but after the drug has left the system, it leaves you feeling more depressed.
4) Medical problems
Being diagnosed with a condition or disease that affects your life can mentally tear you down which may eventually lead you to manifest symptoms of the condition.
There are several other causes for the malady but these are the most common scenarios. The ideal form of treatment would depend on the causes of depression.