How Depression is Treatable?

January 3, 2019 by youngwell22 in Health Challenges

Not many people want to open up and talk about their mood. You are not alone if you are one of the millions of people affected by depression. When one suffers from a mood disorder it shouldn’t be taken lightly. Often people feel like depression is a dirty word and they won’t even say it out loud or even worst, they don’t even know that is the problem. In addition to the social stigma surrounding depression, sometimes the first symptoms are physical like fatigue and body aches.

Here are a few truth bombs for you.

Depression is treatable. Treating is about knowing why you have a problem. There can be underlying medical causes. Things like hormonal issues, nutritional problems and underlying diseases can cause depression. Symptoms are not always straightforward, anything from weight gain, fatigue and body aches can be signs of depression as well as these potential other health issues. You are not alone, there is help available to figure out the cause.

There are many types of depression and they are all treated differently. Some are considered a mood disorder and others are diagnosable diseases. For simplicity purposes, we like to break down depression into four categories:

Hormonal Disorders and Seasonal Affective Disorder
Clinical Depression
Situational Depression or Mood Disorders

We are going to touch on them here to give you a broad idea of what they are. In the upcoming weeks we will dive deep into each of them.

Hormonal Disorders and Seasonal Affective Disorder:

Perimenopause – declining hormones are a common reason for depression. We
Andropause – aka Menopause for Men. Yes gentleman, your hormones change too and your mood can be affected!
PMS Premenstrual Syndrome and PMDD – Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder – fluctuations in hormones can be a factor in mood at any age.
Adrenal problems like Low cortisol can reduce our energy and get us in a funk!
Postpartum Depression affects many women after having a baby.
Seasonal Affective Disorder is due to low light reducing your happy hormones.

Clinical Depression:

Major Depressive Disorder, the symptoms of depression are present, and they are more intense or severe. The cause of major depression can be a single traumatic event in your life or slow onset due to numerous stressful situations and life disappointments.
Dysthymic Disorder is characterized by chronic depression for at least two years. Person’s experience symptoms with less severity than that of a person with a major depressive disorder.

Situational Depression:

Adjustment Disorder, with depressed mood, is also known as reactive depression. The symptoms of adjustment disorder develop in response to a specific and identifiable psychosocial stressor.
Anxiety Depression is not really a conventional depression type (as defined by the DSM). However, anxiety often also occurs with depression.
Endogenous Depression – Endogenous means from within the body. This type of depression is defined as feeling depressed for no apparent reason.

Here are some of the Signs and Symptoms:

Loss of appetite and interest in food, or overeating, with weight gain.
Decrease self worth or feeling helpless or guilty without reason.
Hopeless about the future, excessive pessimistic feelings.
Irritability or restlessness or agitation.
Decreased energy and chronic fatigue.
Loss of memory, difficulty concentrating or making decisions.
Loss of interest and pleasure in your usual activities.
Sleep disturbances, either difficulty sleeping, or sleeping too much.
Recurring thoughts of death, or suicidal thoughts or actions.

If you think you suffer from any of these symptoms it is time to get the right diagnosis. Depression affects people from different walks of life. Health is your most precious asset, and you would want to put your wellness in the hands of experienced professionals!

If any of the following resonate with you then book a complimentary consultation with our patient care coordinator so that we can help address some of the possible underlying issues and get you supported in this journey.

We are super excited to spend the next few weeks reviewing these different type of depression and what you can do about them!