How to Live with Depression

The first thing to living with depression is understanding depression. If you are living with this at the moment it is necessary to understand that depression is a medical condition and anyone can get it. It most certainly is not a personality disorder and is not a sign of weakness. The way to deal with depression effecively is to understand just what it is ,how it can affect you and what causes it.

To some people depression feels like a black curtain of despair covering them, others feel irritable for no apparent reason and others just feel 'down'. It varies from person to person.Should a person feel 'down' for more than two weeks and their daily life is being intererfered with then there is a possiblity of clinical depression.

There are two common types of depression - major depression and dysthymia.

Major depression can severely disrupt a persons life and can affect the appetite,sleep patterns,work and relationships. There are many symptoms which characterize major depression. Here are just a few - frequent feelings of sadness lasting most of the day,no interest in once enjoyed interests and activities,feelings of hopelessness,worthlessness or guilt, loss of self esteem,sleep problems,difficulty in concentrating,irritability,changes in appetite,restlessness and in some thoughts of death or suicide.

Dysthymia is another form of depression where a person feels mildly depressed on most days over a period of two years. The sypmtoms of dysthymia are similar to those of major depression but are less severe.

Should you be wondering what has caused your depression you need to understand that depression is often a result of a combination of things. Among those things can be named family history,trauma and stress,pesimistic personality,physical conditions and other psychological disorders eg eating disorders,anxiety disorders etc.