Depression - A mental disorder characteristed by low mood and low energy levels
All forms of depression and depressive disorders are catagorised by changes to mood.
Behavioural - Behaviour changes when we experience an episode of depression
Typically people with depression have reduced levels of energy, making them lethargic.
Lower activity levels can cause people to withdraw from work, edducation and social life.
In extreme cases changes in activity level can cause the person to be unable to get out of bed.
Psychomotor agitation - Struggle to relax and may end up pacing up and down a room.
Depression is associated with changes to sleeping behaviour. A person may experience reduced sleep or increased sleep.
Appetite may also increase or decrease
People with depression are often irritable, and in some cases they can become verbally or physically agressive - May lose job or experience anger towards themselves.
Emotional Characteristics include; lowered mood, anger and lowered self esteem
Anger can be directed towards the self or others and can lead to self-harm
People with lowered mood often describe themselves as worthless or empty
People tend to report reduced self-esteem - this can be as bad as self-loathing
Cognitive - Refers to the process of 'knowing', including thinking, reasoning, remembering, believing
Poor concerntration - Person may find themselves unable to stick with a task as they usually would and make straightfoward decisions
People tend to 'dwell on the negative' and ignore the positives and have a bias when recalling unhappy events.
Absolutist thinking - View situations as all-good or all-bad aka 'black and white thinking'