Depression

• 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'