The Traditional Symptoms Of Depression

Mood disorders are considered among the most disabling of all medical conditions. A leading cause of suicide, they have an impact on nearly every level of an affected person’s functioning. These large numbers may be surprising. People often hide their illness and do not speak openly of it for a variety of reasons. Stigma, or unfounded judgment and criticism based on misinformation, upsets the lives of many people with mental illness and causes great anxiety. Even though we’ve made great strides in understanding mood disorders as a medical condition, those affected still face discrimination both socially and in the workplace. Mental health researchers commonly report that women experience symptoms of depression twice as often as men. However, some in psychiatry wonder if these numbers are accurate. They question whether or not we are identifying all of the instances of depression in men. For example, it might just look as if women experience twice the rate of depression as men. This is because men may experience different symptoms or fail to report the traditional symptoms of depression, such as sadness, fatigue, loss of interest, sleep, or appetite. They are often brought up to withhold their feelings.

Speed of Life

They may numb their pain with alcohol, drugs, gambling, or excess work. First, they looked at gender differences in depression symptoms using a rating scale. The researchers then combined these symptoms with fifteen traditional symptoms of depression in a new rating scale. Men and women met the definition for depression in fairly equal numbers when measured using this combined rating scale. The researchers believe that current depression screening, which relies only on traditional symptoms, may fail to include symptoms common to men. As a result, depression in men may be underreported. More studies are needed to fully understand which symptoms accurately identify depression in men and to learn if men and women experience depression in equal proportions. There are some limitations to this study. It is a secondary data analysis study, which means that it was planned out in advance and information was collected and analyzed after the fact. None of this affects the point of the study for our purpose. In keeping with the numbers showing women’s higher depression rates, three times more women than men attempt suicide. However, four times as many men die by suicide.

The Pain To Seem Purposeful

Of those, 77.9 percent were male and 22.1 percent were female. No accurate numbers exist for those who have tried to seriously harm themselves or attempt suicide. Most people with depression don’t experience this illness alone. They have family members and close friends, like you, who care and want to know what they can do to help. In fact, depression and bipolar disorder are considered family illnesses, for two main reasons. First, depression can be genetic, or run in families. Second, it usually affects a person’s friends or family in some negative way. You may feel you’ve done something to cause her unhappiness, isolation, or irritability. You may find that your family plans are frequently interrupted, personal finances are affected, and more of your energy goes toward dealing with her life issues. There may be more stress in the family in having to cope with a member who is ill.

Got Your Mojo Working?

It is not easy to help someone with any medical problem, including a mental health disorder like depression and bipolar disorder. You may feel burned out from the work and effort if the illness lasts for a long time. Most important, helping someone who has a mood disorder is and feels different from caring for a person with other medical problems. With depression, it may not be as simple as asking your family member or friend How can I help? and receiving feedback on what you can do. You may instead hear, Leave me alone, I just want to stay in bed, You don’t understand, or There’s nothing anyone can do to help. Unlike other illnesses, someone who has depression may reject help rather than welcome it. This is because depression affects a person’s mind and thinking. Your friend or family member may be unable to cope using her regular methods of dealing with other illness or stress. She may feel far beyond any hope or help. She might believe that even if she were to get better, she has nothing to offer anyone and will never have a life worth living, a meaningful career, or a fulfilling relationship. She could feel fundamentally flawed and defective, unlovable, and incompetent. Or she may be convinced that this is a permanent state that will never improve. Even if she has successfully overcome depression before, it’s not uncommon for her to forget ever having felt well and deny it. In depression, it’s hard for the affected person to separate the illness symptoms from just me. She may believe that her current state is her normal, usual self and forget what she was like before the depression episode. For example, she may not recall that she ever had a sense of humor or was good at making friends. She may angrily reject help, believing you’re the one with the problem, misguided and narrow minded. This makes your job all the more difficult. Stigma and misunderstanding. Symptoms of depression often overlap with feelings such as sadness or fatigue, making it difficult to know what’s really going on. We now know that depression is a biologic medical condition. Even so, it’s not unusual for people to wonder whether their family member or friend who has depression really has an illness. They may believe he is just lazy or lacks ambition. You might sometimes feel that your family member or friend is simply not trying hard enough to get better. Perhaps you think he could just snap out of it if he really wanted to. This can happen even if you are knowledgeable about depression and have only the best intentions. I encourage you to let go of your guilt about having these thoughts on occasion, especially in private moments when you are tired and stressed.