What is Depression
By Rebecca Jaiden at 5 April, 2009
The symptoms may not seem overly serious at first. Perhaps a person suffers from fatigue, stomach cramps or chest pains. He may find himself waking up at wee hours of the morning for no apparent reason; or the trouble may be difficulty in getting to sleep. Possibly a change in appetite has led to weight loss; or maybe the problem is overweight due to a sudden splurge of eating.
Who of us has not experienced some of these symptoms? They may indicate a number of simple physical ailments. But what if they persist and an examination by a physician reveals that there is nothing wrong physically? In such a case is the ailment merely imaginary? Not necessarily.
Fatigue, physical pains and change in eating or sleeping habits can constitute what doctors call “the somatic mask of depression.”
Clinically, we mean something more serious when we speak of depression. In the intermediate stage, victims feel a lack of energy and interest in life that hangs on for a few days or a few weeks and affects their life functions. A depressed person finds it difficult to perform even the most routine tasks, such as getting dressed, brushing teeth, preparing breakfast and making routine decisions.
Sometimes depression results when a person reaches a “plateau” in his life after many years of painstaking labor. A hard-driving business executive may finally achieve the top position in his company, only to realize that he no longer has a goal in life. Housewives in their forties and fifties often suffer from what psychiatrists call “empty nest syndrome.” By this time their children usually have grown up, their husbands are at work for most of each day and they must face lonely hours in houses devoid of people.
These are just some few facts about depression. Considering the above information may healp you in checking whether you are experiencing some kind of depression.
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