Depression – What Is Depression?
Dec 16th, 2009 | By Dee | Category: Mental & Emotional HealthClinical depression is defined as ‘a persistent exaggeration of the everyday feelings that accompany sadness‘.
If you have severe depression you may experience low mood, loss of interest and pleasure as well as feelings of worthlessness and guilt. You may also experience tearfulness, poor concentration, reduced energy, reduced or increased appetite and weight, sleep problems and anxiety. You may even feel that life is not worth living, and plan or attempt suicide.
Depression can affect anyone, of any culture, age or background. About twice as many women as men seek help for depression, though this may reflect the greater readiness of women to discuss their problems.
One thing that may make it hard for doctors to recognise depression is that people with depression often complain of physical problems, commonly headaches, lethargy, stomach upsets or joint pains, rather than low mood, sometimes because these can be significant symptoms, but sometimes because they find it difficult to admit to feeling emotionally distressed for reasons they may not even be able to identify.



