The term "depression" comes from the Latin word deprimo, which means "suppress," "crush." This name very clearly describes a mental illness. A person who suffers from depression feels depressed, depressed. Such people are in a bad mood, they lose their ability to have fun and enjoy a variety of things, and motor inhibition appears: patients become slow and lethargic.
From time to time, each of us experiences a bad mood in a given situation, as well as a feeling of apathy. But after a short period of time this passes, and the person returns to normal life again. As for depression, this condition does not disappear for a rather long time. Depression can drag on for several weeks, months, and years. Severely ill suffer from it throughout their lives. From the article you will learn how to recognize depression. However, first you need to understand the reasons for its occurrence.
Causes of depression
Experts identify several reasons that provoke a depressive state in humans. The main ones are divided into three groups: psychological, biological, as well as socio-cultural. Let's consider them in more detail separately.
Biological reasons
A depressive state very often arises under the influence of biological factors, for example, a genetic predisposition or heredity. As a rule, relatives of those people who have depression, also often suffered from this disease.
Another reason for the occurrence of the disease is a violation of the metabolic process in the human body. A vivid example is postpartum depression, which occurs in women under the influence of hormonal failure after the birth of the baby. Clinical analyzes suggest that in sick people, the level of serotonin, melatonin, and norepinephrine in the body decreases.
Psychological reasons
As for the psychological reasons for the development of depression, in most cases the trigger is the stress experienced by a person. A very heavy blow can be the death of a loved one or some other tragedy. Dismissal from work, divorce, ruin can provoke an oppressed mood, which eventually turns into a real depression.
Stressful chronic factors can also serve as an impetus to the development of the disease. These include failures at work, in family relationships, financial problems, dissatisfaction with life, loneliness and much more.
Socio-cultural reasons
Such reasons for the development of depression should include the low social status of a person in society, which provokes dissatisfaction with oneself. Also, a sharp transition from a high social level to a lower one can serve as an impetus. In addition, different cultures have their own rules and traditions, the discrepancy of which can cause condemnation in society, as well as lead a person to depression.
How to recognize depression?
To diagnose this disease, you should seek the help of a psychotherapist or psychologist. It is he who offers his patients special tests, due to which a similar disorder is detected.
How to recognize depression using such tests? They are a list of questions that the patient should answer as honestly as possible. In addition, you can find such questions yourself in the literature on psychology. It is very convenient to take tests online. It is only necessary to write down your answers on paper in order to then calculate the results. After passing this test, you can find out if you suffer from a similar disorder or not.
Speaking about how to recognize depression, the best tests should be highlighted, according to experts. These include:
- Beck.
- Zunga.
- Shihan.
- Research Institute named after Ankylosing spondylitis.
- Spielberg.
- Hospital scale of depression and anxiety.
- Depression Scale SLC-90.
- Depression Scale DEPS.
In addition to such tests for the detection of depression, you can recognize the disease by some symptoms.
Symptoms of Depression
So, how to recognize depression in women and men? This disease is characterized not only by poor mood and depression, but also by other symptoms by which the diagnosis is made. This disease adversely affects the emotional sphere, as well as the body as a whole, including even the physical plane. So, how to recognize depression in women and men?
Emotional manifestations
A person who is depressed is constantly experiencing longing, depression, suffering and despair. It seems to him that life is losing its meaning. A person feels unnecessary and miserable to anyone. He begins to feel uneasiness and anxiety, often he is haunted by a feeling of some impending disaster. The patient cannot relax, and the body is constantly in tension.
If you do not know how to recognize depression in a teenager or adult, then pay attention to the fact that during this condition a person is very irritable. Any little thing is able to bring him to tears or to lose his temper. The feeling of guilt begins to grow in a person: he rebukes himself in all the troubles that happen to relatives or to himself.
Depressive state provokes constant dissatisfaction with one’s life. The patient is greatly reduced self-esteem. It begins to seem like he is not capable of anything at work or in his family. A person is tormented by self-doubt. Patients lose their motivation, desire to work, as well as perform some other things.
Those things that previously gave the patient pleasure, are no longer interesting to him. The patient loses joy even from those activities that he previously loved the most. With a severe form of depression, people lose the ability to experience both negative and positive emotions.
Sleep disturbance
How to recognize the approach of depression yet? What should I look for? One of the common signs is sleep disturbance. The patient is not able to fall asleep for a long time, often wakes up, and therefore in the morning he gets up sleepy and broken. In some patients, on the contrary, drowsiness is constantly observed. The patient can sleep for many hours, but sleep does not bring any satisfaction. Such a state indicates that the consciousness is trying to distance itself from real life, to escape from existing problems, to plunge into slumber.
Appetite
But how to recognize depression or laziness in a person? In parallel with prolonged sleep, the patient has a loss of appetite. Often, such patients complain of a lack or decrease in desire to eat, and the food at the same time seems very tasteless. In some patients, on the contrary, their appetite increases significantly, as a result of which they consume everything in a row. In some cases, hunger wakes people up even at night, which is why they get up and go to the refrigerator. Often patients have constipation for this reason.
Physiological symptoms
When answering the question of how to recognize depression in men and women, one should pay attention to the fact that the disease often provokes unpleasant sensations at the physiological level: shortness of breath, rapid heartbeat, pain in the abdomen, muscles, back, joints, and also headaches and dizziness. These symptoms are easy to confuse with other ailments, but an experienced specialist is able to quickly determine the psychological disease by these signs.
What else do you need to know about how to recognize depression in humans? During this state, people experience a breakdown, get tired quickly even from simple, everyday activities. What was previously done easily now requires a lot of effort. The feeling of fatigue does not go away even after a person has slept. The movements will be slow, inhibited.
Patients are reduced and sexual desire. Sometimes a depressive state provokes complete indifference to your partner.
Behavior features
As mentioned earlier, women often experience postpartum depression. How to recognize a similar psychological state in other people? First of all, you need to pay attention to behavior. Depression makes people passive, takes away their motivation for any activity. Patients are difficult to get involved in any business, it is difficult for them to focus on something.
People are able to withdraw into themselves without leaving their homes. They are no longer interested in meeting friends, going on holiday, parties. They do not want to see anyone, it is difficult for them to communicate with other people. Due to the decline in self-esteem, patients feel uncomfortable in society. They think that others perceive them as losers or laugh at them, so they try to avoid other people. Communication with others at the same time becomes uninteresting for those who suffer from depression.
Patients can sit or lie in the same place for a long time without doing anything. They don’t feel like getting up. Very often a sad and painful state provokes that patients begin to get involved in alcohol, psychoactive or narcotic substances. Thus, they try to alleviate the condition, but these methods give only a temporary effect, after which the depression only intensifies.
Thought signs
How to recognize hidden depression in your loved ones? First of all, pay attention to the fact that such a condition impairs memory, as well as the ability to concentrate on something. Patients cannot concentrate on anything, and any mental actions are rather difficult. They become distracted; they experience inhibition of any thought process.
How to recognize depression in yourself and loved ones? A sign of depression will also be that it becomes difficult for a person to make any decisions. Such people think for a long time, hesitate. They are constantly pestering some gloomy thoughts about their life, about themselves, as well as about the world as a whole. It begins to seem as if the colors of life have faded, and in the future nothing good will happen. Even if patients understand that negative thoughts are provoked by the disease, they are not able to get rid of them.
So now you know how to recognize depression. Symptoms, as you can see, concern not only the emotional background, but also the physical one. However, you should pay attention to the fact that experts distinguish several types of depression.
Types of Depression
The most common varieties are the following:
- Endogenous depression. This species is provoked by biological factors, as well as various disorders of the nervous system. In addition, endogenous depression may not be associated with unpleasant situations in the patient's life. The patient becomes apathetic, withdrawn, loses interest in life.
- Reactive depression. It arises in the form of a reaction to some traumatic event. If a person has had a tragedy in his life, then he can get this type of depression. Pathology is very easy to diagnose, since in most cases the patient himself knows about the causes of its appearance.
- Masked depression. This variety is not for nothing received this name. Such depression has the ability to disguise itself as other ailments. The patient often complains of heart problems, stomach pains, headaches, sexual disorders, cycle disorders (in women).
- Seasonal This type of disease is directly related to the time of year. Many people currently suffer from this type of depression. However, in most cases, they do not attach any importance to the disease, believing that this is only a manifestation of a bad mood. Mostly observed in winter and autumn.
- Anxious Depression This disease provokes a person's feeling of fear, anxiety and anxiety. Such people become aggressive, unbalanced. In addition, a person may have a tendency to suicidal behavior.
- Dysthymia. This type of disease is chronic. Symptoms are similar to an acute form of depression, but it has been observed for a long time - more than 2 years. The patient constantly has a feeling of depression and longing.
- Bipolar. This type of disease is characterized by a transition from a state of intense excitement to depression and longing. In addition to mood swings, confusion of thoughts, as well as a violation of perception, appear.
- Depressive stupor. This type of disease is considered one of the most severe. The patient lies all the time, looking into the void, refuses food, does not make contact with others.
Based on the foregoing, it can be concluded that depression is a very serious disease that needs timely and competent treatment. The absence of it can provoke sad consequences.