Realistic types of depression – get it right

Depression is a major disorder that can be easily confused with sad or nostalgic states, as its symptoms are negative emotions that lead to serious psychological damages. According to psychiatrists there are two major classes of depression: Major depression, which occurs in episodes that interferes with everyday activities, and Persistent depressive disorders, which consists in depressed moods that persist more than two years. Personally, I believe each person reacts differently to the changes in mood that depression brings resulting in more types of depression.

Addicted to antidepressants or other kind of drugs

In most ‘treated’ depression cases there is the issue of drugs. The psychiatrist prescribes antidepressants which help depressive people to get over some of their problems or at least make them feel numb. In some cases it works but in some cases it just makes it worse because some antidepressants have as a side effect ‘suicidal thoughts’. I can say that I was one of the lucky ones who never experienced those side effects, but what if somebody did and couldn’t control themselves?

The psychiatrist recommends to increase the dose every other two or three days but what they don’t tell you is that after you’ve finished your treatment you still have to decrease the drugs gradually. Again, it might work, but for some people it is an impossible task because after you start to decrease your medication, you will start and feel some things again and if you are in the same spot you were when you were diagnosed with depression, you cannot control the urge to take the pills again and you will become an addict.

If you just stop taking the pills you will be in withdrawal and usually the symptoms are worse than depressive thoughts, because they might even result in death. When you are in the withdrawal phase you will feel like something is off and you will have the urge to start the medication again, because if you don’t you have the strange feeling that you will die. That strange sensation will keep you down for a couple of days it will even get a hold of you and it is something you can’t forget.

Frequently, patients diagnosed with depression have some other kind of diseases that need treatment. In these cases, the previous physical disease is the main cause of the depression. You either get tired of always being sick or always having to take medication, you simply start to feel like a burden to those around you and you lose hope. Taking pills to numb the pain seems like an easy way out and that worsen the addiction.

Depressed prone to feel physical pain, cutters and suicidal

Imagine finding yourself completely empty and staring at your walls. Then you start drowning and tears simply come to you as you drown completely in your sorrow. There is so much sadness inside your soul that your body begins to hurt, each cell at a time. This is where this type of depression starts acting differently in each individual. They don’t have a reason for being sad, it just comes to them in waves and this type of depression usually comes in episodes.

There are days when negative feelings are there since the moment they wake up and days when they feel nothing or even “normal”. But those moments when they are depressed their world feels like it crumbles. Some feel like they are suffocating, some feel acute pain in their chest, others feel like their cells are being ripped apart. Defense mechanism are soon to follow as some depressed people start cutting themselves to relieve the pain while others become suicidal.

The more they try to link that particular sadness to life events, nothing seems to make any sense and alternate personalities are born. They have a constant battle inside themselves as they don’t want to be depressed, but they simply can’t control it.  Sometimes resorting to escape mechanisms is better than actually admitting you have a problem and it needs to be treated. Most cutters or suicidal people don’t want to be diagnosed, because they have the illusion they can control their urges by themselves. The more episodes of depression they go through, the more they distance themselves from their loved ones and eventually lead to worst case scenarios.

Extroversive depression

In mild cases of depression, people simply start feeling emotional over anything. I like to call them whiners, because you’ll always hear from them, they almost always ask for help in a way or another. Usually, these are those who before having a depressive episode were very active persons, with a lot of dreams and plans that lately have been faced with some failures. It doesn’t necessary have to go that way, but usually some tragic events or minor issues trigger the change in their brains chemical composition and they become somewhat depressive and end up complaining about it. Most of the time this manifests in them not wanting to get out of bed or of the house, they suddenly burst in tears and find themselves hopeless. With support from family and friends and some desire to go to their previous self, they might manage to get past the depressive episode without medication.

Hiding behind a smile

It sounds odd, but I am referring to those who suffer from severe depression, yet they perfectly fake happiness. Faking a smile, while you’re filled with negative emotions is not an easy task and it is no wonder that most of these people aren’t even depressed, but psychopaths. What I usually associate with these time of depressives is that they live in the past a lot. They are nostalgic and always reminisce moments they felt something. Also, these are people with cognitive dissonance, they don’t find meaning in life and can’t understand what’s the point of all the suffering and pain, yet they always search for a purpose.
As they get confused and scared, they find it easier to simply fake happiness, after all happiness is a state of mind. Their problem is that it doesn’t stick, the emptiness, the fear and that feeling of being of no use remains. Some find meaning in helping others, some from taking advantage of others, their problem is that they are not able to admit they are depressed and will gradually destroy their sanity.