Depression can be defined as an affective, or mood disorder characterized by mood deviations that exceed normal mood fluctuations. At its most extreme, depression can describe a psychotic state where the individual cannot function on his or her own. Everyone can go through times of feeling down for a period of time after having suffered a loss, but for people with the illness known as depression, these feelings of sadness can go on for long periods of time. In fact, about 1 in every 10 of us will be seriously depressed during sometime in our lives. As viewed by psychiatrists, depression is an illness in which a person experiences a marked change in their mood and in the way they view themselves and the world. Sometimes, depression seems to happen because of a stressful event, sometimes it seems to happen for no reason at all. Depression as a significant depressive disorder ranges from short in duration and mild to long term and very severe, even life threatening. Depressive disorders come in different forms, just as do other illnesses such as heart disease. The three most prevalent forms of depression are major depression, dysthymia, and bipolar disorder. Depression is a sickness which involves ones body, mood and thoughts, it even affects the way you eat and sleep. Depression strikes people of all ages, backgrounds, and ethnic groups. Approximately 20 million adults suffer from depression each year in the U.S. Up to 25% of all women and up to 12% of all men in the U.S. will experience an episode of major depression some time in their lives. 15% of those who suffer from depression kill themselves and succeed, and sadly many more attempt it. TYPES OF DEPRESSIONDepressive disorders can appear in different forms, there can be many different diagnoses for depression which are mostly determined by the intensity of the symptoms, the duration of the symptoms, and the specific cause of the symptoms. One type of depression is...
