After understanding depression, it’s symptoms, causes, and effects, a deeper perspective gives more clarity to handle the condition. The symptoms and effects of depression depend on the type of depression and its severity on the life of the individual. Depression severely affects the way a person thinks, feels, and behaves, interfering with the ability to perform daily activities. Different types of depression show through early warning signs of depression, some unique and some similar.
Types of depression and their warning signs include the following:
1. Major depressive disorder
It’s a severe form of depression commonly called clinical depression that affects for most days of the week. It is considered serious if the person experiences any of these symptoms for over two weeks:
- Loss of interest in activities you usually enjoy
- Unexplained fluctuations in weight
- Difficulty sleeping or sleeping through the day
- Being tired constantly without any energy
- Difficulty concentrating or making decisions
- Feeling worthless and guilty
- Feeling restless and very sluggish
- Feeling lethargic physically and mentally
- Thoughts of suicide
2. Persistent depressive disorder (PDD)
This condition called dysthymia is a chronic depression that lasts for over two years. It’s usually a severe mental condition that needs treatment from psychotherapy, medication, or both. Among the early warning signs of depression, symptoms of PDD are pervasive and long-lasting. They include:
- Drastic changes in your appetite
- Feeling hopeless and worthless
- Experiencing fatigue with lack of energy
- Experiencing anger and irritability
- Sleeping too much or too little
- Feelings of guilt and low self-esteem
- Trouble concentrating
- Bipolar Disorder
3. Mood Disorder
It involves a mood disorder with episodes ranging from extreme high energy to extremely low and depressive periods. This extreme mood fluctuation is called mania and causes serious impairment in a person’s life. It can affect an individual’s sense of reality and requires hospitalization. Symptoms experienced include:
- Extreme fatigue, insomnia and lethargic feeling
- Unexplained pains and aches
- Extreme feelings of hopelessness and lack of self-esteem
- Very anxious and irritable
- Extreme disorganization and an inability to make decisions
4. Seasonal affective disorder (SAD)
This is a unique mental disorder that occurs only during the winter season. The person experiences low mood and low energy levels in winter and it goes away during summer or spring. Taking antidepressants and light therapy can work.
5. Psychotic Depression
The individual experiences symptoms of major depression with psychotic symptoms too. The early warning signs of depression for psychotic depression are:
- Experiencing hallucinations like seeing or hearing things/people that aren’t there
- Delusions like false beliefs
- Paranoia where you wrongly feel others are trying to harm you
The individual needs to take antidepressants and antipsychotic drugs to treat this type of depression.
There are a few other types of depression where the symptoms show through behavior and body language. In many cases, a series of treatments with electroconvulsive therapy and repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation helps get better control over depression. The specialized treatments help address the root causes and also assist in getting rid of the condition eventually.