Depression

• What is depression?


  A mental health disorder characterized by persistent feelings of sadness, hopelessness, and a loss of interest in activities.
• What are the behavioural characteristics of depression?

  • Activity levels - reduced levels of energy. Can lead to withdrawal from work/social life & be as severe as struggling to get out of bed
  • Disruption to sleep and eating behaviour - Could be increased or decreased which leads to numerous health issues
  • Aggression & self-harm - verbal/physical and could be against others or against themselves
• What are the emotional characteristics of depression?

  • Lowered mood - feelings of sadness, worthlessness & emptiness
  • Anger - Can be directed at self or others which can lead to aggressive/self-harming behaviour
  • Lowered self-esteem - i.e. like themselves less than usual. Can be quite extreme
• What are the cognitive characteristics of depression?

  • Poor concentration - unable to stick to tasks or find it hard to make decisions that they would usually find straight-forward
  • Attending to/dwelling on the negative - Has a bias to recalling unhappy events rather than happy ones
  • Absolutist thinking - Thinking things are 'all-good' or 'all-bad'. View unfortunate events as absolute disasters