by Norman Munro

Created on: August 11, 2009

Depression - a disease of the mind.

The major tool used by medical professionals to classify illness is the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, DSM-IV, and in DSM-IV, depression is classified as a mood disorder. It sounds fairly innocuous, doesn't it?

However, the various types of depression referred to in DSM-IV are some of one of the most common illnesses in the developed world, affecting at least 20% of the population at some stage of their lives. A greatly mis-understood and often casually dismissed illness it is in fact a serious and sometimes life-threatening.

We all feel low at times, but usually, these feelings don't persist to long, and we pick up the threads of our lives again. With depression, that does not happen.

DSM-IV goes into great detail about what constitutes mood disorder, and describes the various subtypes of depression in great detail, which is fine for defining a diagnosis, but for the average reader, the following simplified guide may suffice.

The major symptoms of depression will be discussed later, but in general, ddepression can be classified as mild, moderate or severe.

Mild depression is mainly low mood, with perhaps one or two other symptoms which will be discussed further on. The sufferer can usually function more or less normally.

Moderate depression brings the same low mood, but with more, maybe five or six other symptoms and can make it hard just to get through the day.

Severe depression is a much more serious issue. Similar in many ways to moderate depression, there are usually a considerable number of symptoms present, but often together with thoughts of self-harm or suicide.

The various types of depression present in many different ways, with a large variety of symptoms, which may include: -

- Constant tiredness and lack of energy. Some physical problems (anaemia, thyroid problems) may also cause these, and these should be ruled out.

- Low mood - just feeling really down.

- Appetite changes - eating either too little or too much!

- Finding no pleasure in the things you used to enjoy.

- Feeling that your personal relationships are going astray.

- Difficulty getting off to sleep, disturbed sleep or waking in the early hours and not being able to get back to sleep.

- Fear or anxiety on wakening - not wanting to face the day

- Being over emotional and crying for no reason at all.

- Feeling isolated, rejected and mis-understood.

- Physical symptoms such as pains, headaches,

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