
About Depression
Am I depressed quiz? Moments of depression or sadness are quite common and part of living. Depression becomes clinical, and a problem to varying degrees, when it continues for many months or even years, becomes crippling and makes it difficult or impossible to work/go to school, or occurs for no reason at all.
When a family member dies, a pet is lost, you lose your job or your marriage falls apart, it’s natural to be depressed. These things happen, and recovering from the depression is part of becoming a stronger person.
But depression can be crippling. Some of the symptoms are constant sadness, bouts of crying for no reason, inability to sleep oversleeping, losing interest in activities that you’ve always loved, not wanting to do anything at all, hating everyone and everything, suicidal thoughts, eating disorders, et cetera. These things can all be symptoms of something else, but if you’ve got more than four of these symptoms you should do some research of your own and take some psychiatric testing.
I personally am BiPolar and have actively struggled with depression for four and a half years. I may have shown symptoms of depression before that, but I am not aware of them as symptoms of depression. The depression became serious when my Dad was diagnosed with kidney cancer and was going through his treatments. I was always Daddy’s little girl, and it hurt to see him crippled by the pain of his cancer, and slowly wasting away.
Depression runs in my family as well. It is not completely a genetic disorder, and can be triggered by circumstances and a variety of other things, but having family members who have struggled with depression does increase the risk of getting it yourself.
Depression can be painful. It can be fatal, or near-fatal, as is my case. It can manifest in any number of behaviours. I was lucky in that I never lost a passion for my writing when depressed-in fact, when struggling with depression I have written more poetry than at any ‘stable’ or ‘manic’ time in my life.
There are many ways to help a family member or friend who is depressed, and to identify depression in yourself and others, but these are not the focus of this article.…
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