Depression

• definition


  a mood disorder where an individual feels sad and/or lacks interest in their usual activities.
• emotional characteristics


  • formal diagnosis requires 5 symptoms and must include sadness or loss of interest and pleasure in normal activities.
  • sadness
  • feeling empty
  • feel worthless, hopeless, low self-esteem
  • loss of interest
  • anger
• behavioural characteristics


  • shift in activity level, reduced or increased
  • tiredness and wish to sleep all the time
  • agitated and restless
  • some sleep more and some experience insomnia
  • some eat less and some eat more than usual
• cognitive characteristics


  • negative sef-concept
  • guilt
  • sense of worthlessness
  • negative view of the world and expect things to go badly, can be self-fulfilling