Depression can ruin your life

Depression is a serious mental disease that affects your lifestyle in a harmful way. It is a very common disorder among people of all ages and social groups. Depression changes the way you think and feel, your activities, how you handle the pressure of everyday routine. In order to be officially diagnosed with depression, disease symptoms should last at least for two full weeks. There are a few different major types of depressions: perinatal depression, psychotic depression, persistent depressive disorder, seasonal affective disorder, and bipolar disorder. Every type needs a special kind of treatment. 

Symptoms and signs ?

The most common signs that you might be struggling with depression are constant sadness or empty mood, pessimism, hopeless convictions, easy irritability, feeling guilty or worthless, inability to concentrate or remember things, loss of interest in hobbies, talking and moving slowly, feeling restless and exhausted, intrusive thoughts about death and suicide, sleeplessness or insomnia, loss of appetite, aches and pains without any cause. Some people may experience only a few of the listed symptoms, while other people are going through most of them.

The duration of depression symptoms varies depending on every individual person and their health, or on the stage of disease that they are on. Depression is common for people of every age group, but usually it starts on the verge of adulthood, and often around the adolescent age. Also depression could lead to some even more serious illnesses or coexist with them, causing a troublesome situation, so it should be treated as soon as it was realized. Usually these people, who have some factors behind like family cases of depression, major changes or traumatic events, or physical diseases, are under risk to suffer from depression more than others.

How to treat depression

Depression is a treatable case, if a qualified doctor works with you. It is important to start your treatment as soon as possible – the effectiveness fully depends on it. Most commonly this disease is treated with the help of antidepressants – these drugs are designed specifically for treating depression and its syndromes. Antidepressants usually take from two to four weeks before visible improvements in your health, so you should not judge its effectiveness by the first few days.

You have to consult your doctor before starting your course of treatment, and stopping taking medication without doctor’s help is not acceptable, because the illness could return. It should be noted that sometimes people, especially young ones under twenty-five, experience severe suicidal thoughts while taking antidepressants, this is why people close to the patients are recommended to take care of them and watch their state every day. If you consider taking antidepressants while being pregnant or breastfeeding a newborn baby, you should talk to the doctor first, because in some cases you go under risk.

Aside from antidepressants treatment, there are some common tips that can help you or your close person survive the depression. You should try your best to be as active as you can and exercise every day. It is recommended to set the realistic goals and slowly but surely approach their realization. A very important thing is to spend a lot of time with the people that you trust and can confide in. Isolating yourself from people is not going to help in fighting depression; you have to let other people support you.

Your mood will get better, but do not expect it to rise immediately: it always needs some time. Try to postpone some life-changing decisions for the better times or discuss them with someone who can give a good objective advice. Finally, you should learn a lot about depression and different ways to beat it – maybe some of them will be suitable for your individual case.