Characteristics

• Depression


  A mental health disorder characterised by low mood and low energy levels
• DSM-5 categories of depression


  • Major depressive disorder
  • Persistent depressive disorder
  • Disruptive mood dysregulation disorder
  • Premenstrual dysphoric disorder
• Major depressive disorder


  Severe but often short-term depression
• Persistent depressive disorder


  Long-term or recurrent depression
• Disruptive mood dysregulation disorder


  Childhood temper tantrums
• Premenstrual dysphoric disorder


  Disruption to mood prior to and/or during menstruation
• Behaviour characteristics of depression


  1. Anxiety levels

  2. Disruption to sleep and eating behaviour

  3. Aggression and self-harm
• Anxiety levels


  • People with depression have reduced levels of energy
  • Tend to withdraw from work, education, and social life
  • May also lead to psychological agitation – agitated individuals struggle to relax and may end up pacing up and down a room
• Disruption to sleep and eating behaviour


  • A person may experience reduced (insomnia) or increased (hypersomnia) sense of sleep
  • Appetite and eating increase and decrease, leading to weight gain or loss
• Aggression and self-harm


  • Irritable
  • May become verbally or physically aggressive
  • Can have severe impacts on certain aspects of their lives, such as ending a relationship or quitting a job
  • May lead to cutting or suicide attempts
• Emotional characteristics of depression


  1. Lowered Mood

  2. Anger

  3. Lower self-esteem
• Lowered Mood


  • Feeling sad
  • A lethargic and sad experience - like a daily torment
  • Feeling worthless and empty
• Anger


  • Another negative experience they may go through
  • Experience anger sometimes extreme anger
  • This anger can be directed at themselves or others
  • It may sometimes lead to aggressive and self-harming behaviour
• Lower self-esteem


  • Self-esteem - the emotional experience of how much we like ourselves
  • Depression can include reduced self-esteem - they like themselves less than usual
  • May be extreme
  • Some may have a sense of self-loathing
• Cognitive characteristics of depression


  1. Poor concentration

  2. Attending to and dwelling on the negative

  3. Absolutist thinking
• Poor concentration


  • Unable to stick with a task and may find it hard to make a decision that they would usually find straight forward
  • Likely interfere with an individual's work
• Attending to and dwelling on the negative


  • Inclined to spend more time paying attention to the negative aspects of a situation and ignore the positives
  • Bias towards recalling unhappy events rather than happy ones
• Absolutist thinking


  • Black and white thinking
  • Things are either all bad or all good
  • When there is an unfortunate situation, they will see it as an absolute disastrous situation