Depression can be classified as mild, moderate, or severe, depending on the number and intensity of symptoms:
- In some cases, the symptoms affect daily life little or do so only in some specific aspect. This is the so-called mild depression.
- Other times, there may be many symptoms that can cause impairment or disability in different aspects of daily life. In this case, we are facing a serious depression.
- It is often referred to as moderate depression when the symptoms and limitations are not as specific as in the first, nor as generalized as in the second.
Depending on these degrees, there are several types of depressive disorders. The most common are:
- Major depressive disorder: also called major depression, and it is a combination of symptoms that interfere with work, sleep, study, eat and enjoy once pleasurable activities. Severe depression incapacitates the person and prevents him from functioning normally. An episode of severe depression may occur only once in a lifetime, but it usually recurs from time to time.
- The dysthymic disorder, also called dysthymia, is characterized by long-term symptoms (two years or more). Although less serious, they may not hinder a person but prevent the development of everyday life or feeling well. People with dysthymia can also experience one or more episodes of severe depression throughout their lives.
- Adaptive disorder: depressive symptoms are mild, are present for a short period of time and are due to a specific problem that has been suffered.
- Other depressive disorders: are those depressive syndromes that can be part of the set of symptoms of other psychiatric diseases (for example, bipolar disorder, social phobia, etc.) and non-psychiatric (anemia, multiple sclerosis, hypothyroidism, cancer, etc. ).
Some forms of depressive disorder show slightly different characteristics than those described above. However, not all scientists agree on how to characterize and define these forms of depression. These include:
- Psychotic depression is a severe depressive illness is accompanied by some form of psychosis, such as a break with reality, hallucinations, and delusions.
- Postpartum depression, which is diagnosed if a woman who has recently given birth experiences severe depression within the first month after delivery. Around 10 to 15 percent of women suffer from postpartum depression after giving birth.
- The seasonal affective disorder is characterized by a depressive illness’s appearance during the winter months when decreasing the hours of sunlight. Depression usually clears up during the spring and summer.
How to overcome depression
You don’t have to face depression alone. It is essential to follow the recommendations of Medical professionals about treatments. It is also beneficial to support someone you trust, be they family, friends, or partner. But do not isolate yourself.
Although carrying out a treatment is essential when suffering from depression, it is also necessary to “help oneself,” thus promoting the treatment’s effectiveness, accelerating healing, and avoiding a new appearance of symptoms. But what to do when you suffer from depression, when, precisely because of this illness, you tend to lose self-confidence and not feel like anything.
There are a series of recommendations that will help you on a day-to-day basis:
- Learn more about depression so that you can better understand your symptoms and what they mean.
- Try to do physical exercise and carry out a healthy diet: it is advisable to start small, and you can turn to friends and family for support.
- Get regular sleep: Although some people with depression have insomnia, others sleep a lot. That is why it is vital to follow rules that help you maintain sleep hygiene, such as going to bed at about the same time every day, not taking stimulants, or not falling asleep during the day. If these measures do not work sometimes, it is necessary to take a drug to sleep.
- Avoid alcohol and drug use
- Break big tasks into small ones, set some priorities, and do what you can when you can.
- Set yourself achievable goals.
- Try to spend time with other people you trust.
- Express your suffering and accept the help.
- Always keep a positive attitude.
