How to distinguish clinical depression from the blues
ALL WE HAVE GROWN THE MASS OF QUESTIONS TO THEMSELVES AND THE WORLDwith which there seems to be no time or need to go to a psychologist. But convincing answers are not born when you talk to yourself, or to your friends, or to your parents. Therefore, we asked a professional psychotherapist Olga Miloradova to answer pressing questions once a week. By the way, if you have them, send to [email protected].
How to distinguish clinical depression from the blues?
Here and there you can hear: “I have such a depression,” because “autumn”, “I do not get enough sleep”, “problems at work” or, for example, “everything is difficult with my boyfriend”. It is because of this use of the term that the stereotype has developed that depression is not a disease at all, but a convenient excuse for lazy and whiners, or, in extreme cases, a temporary decline, which sooner or later will pass. Unfortunately, this is not a ploy at all, but an absolutely real and truly serious illness. But due to stereotypes, it is sometimes difficult to understand where this line between health and illness goes and until what point you can try to get together and manage yourself, and at what point to honestly give up and ask for help?
Olga Miloradova psychotherapist
Many terms that have come to our everyday life from “big” psychiatry tend to entrench a new, often negative, meaning and ultimately spoil people, who already have a mental illness, to live. For example, words that previously determined the degree of mental retardation (idiocy, imbecility, moronity) eventually became curses, and for diseases I had to come up with other definitions that were correct and did not have a negative history. But depression suffered a diametrically opposite fate. She, as a disease in the public opinion, more noble also turned into a common noun - but for people who are actually suffering from depression, it did a disservice.
To begin with, let's look at the reasons that lead to the development of depression. First, it is important to understand that it is impossible to constantly experience happiness and joy, and such emotions as sadness, longing, or anxiety are absolutely normal. Of course, sad if there is trouble at work; sadly if you have a falling out with someone; it is very difficult and dark to endure a gap or divorce; It is unbearably painful to experience the death of a loved one, but all of this is your normal, natural emotions, no matter how unbearable and destructive they may seem.
Another question is if time passes: a month, another one follows it - and the pain does not subside at all, and it is impossible to cope with it or with oneself. Then you can already say that you have developed a reactive depression, that is, a depression that has arisen not out of the blue of illusory well-being, but for some real, unsettling reasons. However, no one doubts this kind of depression, as in this situation, it is more or less clear to everyone why a person suffers. Although even here it sometimes begins to seem to those around him that he is suffering for too long and it’s time to take himself in hand.
With the blues you can laugh a sudden joke, with depression you will not be amused even by Louis C. Kay
There is depression and for no apparent reason at all, which is why it is no easier for a person who is staying in it, and sometimes even vice versa - harder, as he himself begins to see a worthless weak loser in himself and goes into self-blame, which does not improve his mood . Such depression is considered endogenous, that is, caused by internal, biochemical causes. According to the most popular theory, these causes are a deficiency of biogenic amines (serotonin, dopamine, norepinephrine), a predisposition to which can be inherited genetically. Mention of these substances is also important because their deficiency may arise due to external influences, for example, such an effect often occurs when psychostimulants are used (for example, amphetamine and cocaine). Also, the long-term use of alcohol can lead to a deficiency of biogenic amines.
What are the signs of depression? Almost everyone knows about lowering moods. A less well-known fact is that a person in depression seems to be slowing down; such a phenomenon is called psychomotor retardation. Slow down as a person's consciousness (a feeling of dullness, it is difficult to formulate thoughts, make decisions), and movement. Often, a depressed person stays in bed, not only because there is no need to get up / do not feel like / everything is meaningless, but it is also just hard for him to do it physically. There is a constant fatigue, lack of energy, the ability to enjoy something is lost, self-esteem is reduced, conviction in one’s being unnecessary, feeling like a loser and a burden. Sleep is often disturbed (early awakenings or, on the contrary, inability to rise in the morning), appetite (someone stops eating altogether, someone, on the contrary, “stunts” melancholy), decreased sexual desire, often there are constipation, perhaps a physical sensation of pain chest Sometimes, in general, depression is more likely to be expressed by general poor health and all sorts of pain in various organs, rather than a decrease in mood.
So, the blues and depression - this is not the same thing. Distemper does not soak every moment of your condition like depression. Distemper is transient, depression is constant. With the blues, you can laugh at a sudden joke - with depression you will not be amused even by Louis C. Kay. Distemper will not make you think about suicide. It can prevent you from enjoying life, but it does not smash your whole life as such into smithereens. Khandra, of course, unpleasant and painful, but she will pass by herself. Depression is often beyond pain, beyond tolerance, when thoughts of death come to mind, not because I want to die, but because it is unbearable to live like that. But at the same time, no matter how you think that everyone has the right to decide for himself whether he should live or die, in this state it is not a person who decides, but depression. And if it seems to you that antidepressants make a person a “vegetable” from a person, they take away his emotions - an illness that makes you unable to resist and think soberly makes you a vegetable. A disease that makes you hide under a blanket, hating yourself. And this disease, by the way, is treated.