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Depression Is a Common but Serious Illness

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All individuals experience feelings of emptiness and despair at some point in their life. When these feelings seem to consume one’s life and not disappear it can lead to depression. Depression is a common but very serious illness. This illness affects the daily activities of an individual and the people that surround them.
Depression can occur in many different ways. Major depressive episode, or major depression, is a period of intense depressed mood. This particular type of depression can occur at any age and have diverse characteristics depending on the circumstance. Individuals may experience a single episode or may have reoccurring episodes. Major depressive can affect a person’s sleep, school, work, and activities that once were …show more content…

Individuals with this type of depression are at an elevated risk of forming major depressive disorder.
Some depression disorders form under altering circumstances. For example, they may occur in seasonal patterns referred to as Seasonal Affective Disorder. This is when individuals typically become depressed in the fall or winter months and improve in the spring months. Most occur for several years before the diagnosis is properly made. The best treatment for this disorder is phototherapy. Psychotic depression is formed when an individual has serve depression in addition to a psychosis. This includes a person having delusions or hallucinations of some sort. Another form of depression often occurs after a woman experiences birth; this is called postpartum depression or “baby blues”. For any mother, after delivery, responsibility for a newborn, hormonal, and physical change can be a lot to process and can become overpowering. This illness is very common for women to experience after child-birth. In addition, Bipolar disorder is commonly associated with the changing in mood an individual’s mood rapidly. This instability can go from periods of mania to depression. This disorder is very common but is not as common as major depression or dysthymia. Almost all of individuals with bipolar disorder will suffer from recurrent episodes. There are three different types of bipolar disorders that are found in the DSM-IV-TR which include: Bipolar I, Bipolar II, and

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