If fighting anxiety attacks could be compared to planting a garden of relaxation, then fighting depression is about keeping weeds from choking the garden. One of the important tasks in learning how to fight depression is to learn how clinical depression operates. While there are many types and varieties of depression, they all fall into one of two large categories. The first kind of depression is what most people mean when they say something like, “I was so depressed yesterday…I got stopped for speeding.” Feeling sad or blue is a normal part of life. It is also normal to bounce back relatively quickly. The second type of depression is a medical condition because the brain actually undergoes a change in which it loses the ability to bounce back quickly. This is sometimes referred to as clinical depression or major depressive disorder. If you are reading this and wonder how to fight depression, you are most likely concerned about the second type. It’s important to be clear about which kind of depression you are targeting. In this article the word depression refers to the various types of depression that fall into the second large category.
This begins with learning to recognize the signs and symptoms of depression. There are two important questions to ask. First, what are the signs and symptoms of depression? Second, when do the signs and symptoms of depression become a clinical condition that needs medical treatment and/or therapy?
Another task in learning how to fight depression is to learn each of the signs and symptoms of depression and to understand what they mean. The official list (DSM-IV) identifies 9 symptoms. The first five are the obvious physical signs and symptoms of depression: (1) Significant change in weight not due to dieting (weight gain or loss of more than 5% of body weight in a month); (2) Sleep problems nearly every day (excessive sleeping or insomnia); (3) Agitation (irritable attitude and physical tension) or marked slowing of one’s thoughts and actions (e.g., much more difficulty getting started on something than usual); (4) Fatigue or loss of energy every day; (5) Diminished ability to think or concentrate or indecisiveness, nearly every day.
The 2nd group of signs and symptoms of depression have more to do with a person’s subjective experience. They are: (6) Feelings of worthlessness or excessive (or inappropriate) guilt nearly every day; (7) Sad mood most of the day, nearly every day; (8) Noticeable loss of interest or pleasure in nearly all activities most of every day. This set of symptoms poses the frustrating challenge of how to fight depression when it is something so vague as a mood and difficult to measure.
The third group is really just one symptom in a class of it’s own: frequent or recurring thoughts about suicide or death. If that symptom is present it should be evaluated by a professional. It takes special training to evaluate the level of risk that suicidal thoughts pose to a particular individual.
Additionally, it’s good to learn something about the severity level or intensity of depression. This can be a bit tricky because the severity level (mild, moderate, severe) doesn’t always follow the level of unhappiness that a person is or is not experiencing. In other words a “mild” clinical depression can have enough effect on a man to impact his marriage to the point of divorce, even though he never experiences the more debilitating signs and symptoms of depression. It requires a particular type of training to accurately assess a man or a woman’s depression as severe, moderate, or mild. Also, the options for treatment are often very different for each severity level.
While there is much to learn about how to fight depression, knowing these few basic facts can be a good start. It can help you know which questions to ask. It can help provide a framework for thinking about what to do next. When in doubt, it’s good to consult with someone who knows how to spot which species of depression are strong enough to sabotage your efforts at self help for panic attacks.
