Understanding Depression

Depression is frequently preceded by set-backs in life, such as bereavement, relationship or financial difficulties, problems at work or medical illness. Some types of depression run in families, suggesting that a biological vulnerability can be inherited. This seems to be the case with bipolar disorder. In some families, major depression also seems to occur generation after generation. However, it can also occur in people who have no family history of depression.

Whether inherited or not, major depressive disorder is often associated with changes in brain structures or brain function. People who have low self-esteem, who consistently view themselves and the world with pessimism or who are readily overwhelmed by stress, are prone to depression.

Depressive disorders come in three different forms, however within these types there are variations in the number of symptoms, their severity, and persistence.

Reactive Depression is an extension of the normal upset feeling following an unhappy event in a person's life, such as the death of a close relative or friend, marriage break-up or loss employment. Typically a sufferer will feel low, anxious and often will be angry or irritable. For some people reactive depression can follow even minor set-backs, as the individual's personality leaves them particularly vulnerable to disappointments.

Unipolar or Endogenous Depression is primarily a biological or inherited condition, disappointment will often provoke its onset. The typical symptoms are those outlined in the Festival list of symptoms, where there is extreme tiredness, slowed thinking, impaired concentration, waking during the night and tending to feel worse in the early morning.

The symptoms of Bipolar Disorder or Manic Depressive Illness are identical to those of unipolar depression, but, in addition, there are also episodes of elation or mania with which the depression alternates. Although elation is usually considered a pleasurable experience, it often has a devastating effect on a person's life.