– Depression is classified as a mood disorder where an individual feels sad and/or lacks interest in their usual activities
BEHAVIOURAL
ACTIVITY LEVELS
– Typically sufferers of depression have reduced levels of activity, making them lethargic.
– Sufferers tend to withdraw from work, education and social life.
– In extreme cases this can be so severe that the sufferer cannot get out of bed.
– In some cases depression can lead to the opposite effect – known as psychomotor agitation.
– Agitated individuals struggle to relax and may end up pacing up and down a room.
DISRUPTION TO SLEEP AND EATING BEHAVIOUR
– Depression is associated with changes to sleeping behaviour.
– Sufferers may experience reduced sleep, particularly premature waking, or an increased need for sleep.
– Similarly, appetite and eating may increase or decrease, leading to weight gain or loss.
AGGRESSION AND SELF-HARM
– Sufferers of depression are often irritable, and in some cases they can become verbally or physically aggressive.
– This can have serious knock-on effects on a number of aspects of their life.
– Depression can also lead to physical aggression directed against the self.
– This includes self-harm, often in the form of cutting, or suicide attempts.
EMOTIONAL
LOWERED MOOD
– This is a defining element of depression and is more pronounced than in the daily kind of experience of feeling lethargic and sad.
– Patients often describe themselves as ‘worthless’ and ‘empty.’
ANGER
– Sufferers of depression frequently experience anger, sometimes extreme anger.
– This can be directed at the self or others.
– On occasion such emotions lead to aggressive or self-harming behaviour.
LOWERED SELF-ESTEEM
– Self-esteem is the emotional experience of how much we like ourselves.
– Sufferers of depression tend to report reduced self-esteem, they like themselves less than usual.
– This can be quite extreme, with some sufferers of depression describing a sense of self-loathing.
COGNITIVE
POOR CONCENTRATION
– The sufferer may find themselves unable to stick with a task as they usually would
– They might find it hard to make decisions that they would normally find straightforward.
– Poor concentration and poor decision making are likely to interfere with the individual’s work.
NEGATIVE THOUGHTS
– Sufferers are declined to pay more attention to negative aspects of a situation and ignore the positives.
– Sufferers also have a bias towards recalling unhappy events rather than happy ones.
ABSOLUTIST THINKING
– Most situations are not all-good or all-bad, but when a sufferer is depressed they tend to think in these terms.
– They sometimes call this ‘black and white thinking’.
– This means that when a situation is unfortunate they tend to see it as an absolute disaster.