What is a depressive disorder?

A depressive disorder is an illness that involves the body, mood, and thoughts. It affects the way a person eats and sleeps, the way one feels about oneself, and the way one thinks about things. A depressive disorder is not the same as a passing blue mood. It is not a sign of personal weakness or a condition that can be willed or wished away. People with a depressive illness cannot merely "pull themselves together" and get better. Without treatment, symptoms can last for weeks, months, or years. Appropriate treatment, however, can help most people who suffer from depression.

THE D EXTREME. MY VISION ABOUT DEPRESSION.

Imagine for a moment that you are inside a room, in one of the extremes (extreme D). From this angle you have a vision about things determined by where you are.
Every object you find is seen with a unique perspective no matter how many times you are asked to describe the objects of the room. You will see them always in the same way.

If you could walk inside the room you would have a different view, you could view new things, new angles and new perspectives. If you could walk... but you can not.
The depression is one of the extremes of the room (extreme D). An extreme that when reached, remains immobilized, and can't walk.

A lot of circumstances can make you go to that point. Everyone arrives at that extreme of the room due to different reasons . May be you felt during your childhood that you were not loved s much as you had wished, or you believed that you were less than other people or you suffered from the loss of people you loved or may be you resigned of the life you had. Or may be you had a good childhood and adolescence but one day without apparently reasons you found yourself in the corner of the room.

But how do you reach that extreme ? How many steps do you have to take to reach depression ? It can be only a big one, or two smaller steps, or four shorter or may be hundred of very small steps, it can take you weeks or many years to reach the extreme, but when you are there, one feels trapped, immobilized and in the dark.

When someone reaches the D extreme, everyone manifests the depression differently, according to the symptoms suffered they classify in different types of depression.

TYPES OF DEPRESSION

Depressive disorders come in different forms, just as is the case with other illnesses such as heart disease. This pamphlet briefly describes three of the most common types of depressive disorders. However, within these types there are variations in the number of symptoms, their severity, and persistence.

Major depression is manifested by a combination of symptoms (see symptom list) that interfere with the ability to work, study, sleep, eat, and enjoy once pleasurable activities. Such a disabling episode of depression may occur only once but more commonly occurs several times in a lifetime.