Major depression is one of several depressive disorders including chronic, bipolar, postpartum, and seasonal depression.
Depressive disorders can be brought on by a number of factors like the loss of a loved one, a major illness such as cancer, heart attack, or Parkinson’s disease, stress from a significant change in life such as a move, job change, or divorce, and other health conditions like eating disorders and chemical dependency problems.
Possible symptoms of major depression one might experience are sadness, feelings of hopelessness or worthlessness, loss of energy, difficulty concentrating or making decisions, changes in appetite causing either weight loss or gain, loss of enjoyment from things that used to make one happy, abnormal sleep patterns either insomnia or over sleeping, restlessness, irritability, and thoughts of suicide.
Depression can affect men, women, children, and the elderly. Women are said to experience depression twice as often as men, though the rate of suicide in men with depression is four times greater than that of women.
Hormonal changes within women associated with pregnancy, miscarriage, menopause, and menstrual cycles might contribute to their high rate of depression.
Men often experience depression differently than women. Instead of feeling hopeless or worthless, men tend to report feeling angry and irritable. Men are also more likely to turn to alcohol or drugs to try to conceal their depression.
Depression is a treatable condition. Depending on the severity and type of depression, doctors will typically prescribe an antidepressant along with some form of psychotherapy treatment.