So in the past few days I have made a list of future blog topics based off of what people in a support group told me they wanted. So naturally I showed the list to my boyfriend and told him to pick a topic for me to write about tonight. And naturally, him being him, he ignored the list and picked his own topic: depression. I have decided however that this is a great topic to write about. Thusly this post will be based off of our experience with depression rather than just mine.
There are a variety of disorders that are depressive in nature and I like to include bipolar in there because every type of bipolar experiences some form of depression. It is a crippling mood episode and it just fuckin’ sucks to be blunt.
Firstly, I should start with some education: causes, symptoms, and treatment. Then I will blather on about its effects and stuff!
So what are the symptoms of depression? Some of them are obvious and well known, but their are others that people don’t know about until they are depressed. Below is a list of symptoms:
- Low mood
- Anhedonia: the inability to enjoy activities that you normally enjoy
- Feelings of worthlessness
- Illogical guilt or regret
- Hopelessness or pessimism
- Self-hatred or deflated self-esteem
- Withdrawal from friends, family, and social activities
- Reduced sex drive, (often made worse by antidepressants!)
- Poor concentration
- Suicidal ideations: thoughts or preoccupations or obsessions with suicide or death
- Insomnia (difficulty sleeping) OR hypersomnia (sleeping too much)
- Fatigue
- And in extreme cases, psychosis. Psychosis can include delusions or hallucinations or both
But what causes these symptoms? Why do people become depressed? There are different categories for the causes which I have broken down into:
- Biological/Genetic
- External Factors
- Evolution
- Drugs & Alcohol
Probably my least favorite thing in the world is when somebody says, “But your life is awesome! There’s no way you’re depressed!” Yeah, you’re right. Because my life is good I have to be sound of mind. No. Depression and bipolar depressive episodes occur in many cases for no apparent reason. You can meet the love of your life and get a major job promotion and be depressed the next day because your brain decided, “Eh, gonna mess with ya’ today!” This happens because depression has a major biological basis. From what I know, it hasn’t been exactly determined what biologically happens to cause depression but there are many well-supported theories. It is thought that depression happens because of the irregular production of 3 different neurotransmitters: serotonin, dopamine, and norepinephrine. Neurotransmitters are basically the chemicals in your brain that send signals to make your body do stuff.
The next cause is external factors. This one is a little more plain and simple. Depression caused by external events is a depression that results after things like loss of a job, loss of a loved one, and things like that. This is more closely related to PTSD but this can trigger depressive episodes in bipolar disorder as well.
The third cause is evolution. To be perfectly honest I don’t know much about this. This is a theory that says depression became a part of the gene pool to enhance a person’s reproductive fitness.
And the last is drugs and alcohol. Again, plain and simple. Abuse of drugs or alcohol can make a person depressed. Though this relationship goes both ways. Many people seek out drugs or alcohol to cope with depression caused by something else.
And next up: treatment. How do you treat depression? There are three popular methods: psychotherapy, medications, and electroconvulsive therapy. Psychotherapy is just talk therapy. There are a ton of different types, (CBT, DBT, art therapy, ect) and your therapist or counselor will decide which they think will benefit you most. Medications for depression are called antidepressants. The most common ones include Prozac, Zoloft, Celexa, Wellbutrin, ect. They act on various neurotransmitters to make you less depressed. Though it does take a lot of trial & error to determine which works best for each patient. They also have a lot of side effects but are generally effective. The last type of treatment is ECT. This is used when all other measures have failed. Doctors shock you to induce seizures which over time will relieve your depression. This method is pretty effective but is a last-resort sort of thing because 1) patients are usually afraid of it and 2) the long-term effects of it.
Bipolar Pookie 