Even if you’re not involved in the field of psychology or have been diagnosed with depression, I’m quite certain you heard of someone experiencing the symptoms of depression. Although the word depression is been used in our everyday language, I think you would agree with me that very few actually, know what depression is.
Over time, the symptoms of depression have changed. Historically, Hippocrates was thought to be the first one to talk about depression. He named it “melancholia” and he suggested that it was caused by the imbalance of the four body fluids (known as humors). Later on, in the 18th and 19th centuries, doctors believed that depression was a weakness in the temperament, caused by aggression and it was inherited. It was not until 1980 that depression was included in the DSM-3 (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders). Therefore, for so long, doctors focused more on the symptoms rather than on the cause of depression. According to DSM-5, some of the symptoms are:
- Depressed mood most of the day, nearly every day.
- Markedly diminished interest or pleasure in all, or almost all, activities most of the day, nearly every day.
- Significant weight loss when not dieting or weight gain, or decrease or increase in appetite nearly every day.
- A slowing down of thought and a reduction of physical movement (observable by others, not merely subjective feelings of restlessness or being slowed down).
- Fatigue or loss of energy nearly every day.
- Feelings of worthlessness or excessive or inappropriate guilt nearly every day.
- Diminished ability to think or concentrate, or indecisiveness, nearly every day.
- Recurrent thoughts of death, recurrent suicidal ideation without a specific plan, a suicide attempt, or a specific plan for committing suicide.
Before you mistakenly self-diagnose yourself with depression, bear in mind that these symptoms have to persist for more than two consecutive weeks and cause dysfunction in different areas of your life.
As mentioned in past posts, symptoms are the body’s way of communicating that something is going wrong. So, what is going wrong? On a biological level, serotonin levels tend to be low. Serotonin is a neurotransmitter and hormone, which is responsible for appetite, sleep, memory, mood, learning, and cognition. Other hormones and neurotransmitters are involved; however, serotonin is thought to have one of the greatest impacts. Cognitively, people tend to focus mainly on the negative side of a situation and set inflexible rules on how things should be. Consecutively, this thinking pattern provides negative feelings and causes stress. Sometimes, people believe that the stress is unbearable, leading to suicidal ideation.
Considering that depression has been included in the DSM-5, which is edited by psychiatrists, automatically it is considered a medical condition, in Western culture. Therefore, it is easily recognizable and measurable; yet, it leaves the stigma of being “sick” and the need for medication to be “cured.” However, depression is a state of emotional and biological imbalance. Having in mind, the unprecedented events occurring around the world, the uncertainty of the future, and different life events which cause distress, but you were unable to cope with, leave no one to wonder why so many people are found in a state of depression.