Everything feels hopeless: Depression may make people feel that there is no way to feel good or happy again. Self-esteem is often absent: People with depression may feel like they are worthless or a failure at everything. They may dwell on negative events and experiences and cannot see positive qualities in themselves.
Feelings of sadness, tearfulness, emptiness or hopelessness. Angry outbursts, irritability or frustration, even over small matters. Loss of interest or pleasure in most or all normal activities, such as sex, hobbies or sports. Sleep disturbances, including insomnia or sleeping too much.
Everything seems meaningless, including previous accomplishments and what had given life meaning. Anything that had given the person a sense of value or self-esteem vanishes. These assets or accomplishments no longer matter, no longer seem genuine, or are overshadowed by negative self-images.
Everyone experiences cognitive distortions at some point or another, but these automatic thoughts and beliefs — which are often negative — are typically related to depressed mood. If you're being bombarded with thoughts like “I'm no good” or “I'll never be loved,” it will be hard to focus on the positive.
Depression is a constant feeling of sadness and loss of interest, which stops you doing your normal activities. Different types of depression exist, with symptoms ranging from relatively minor to severe. Generally, depression does not result from a single event, but from a mix of events and factors.
Shrinkage Of Several Brain Regions
One of the most common changes seen in a depressed patient's brain is shrinkage, especially in the hippocampus, thalamus, frontal cortex, and prefrontal cortex. How much these brain areas shrink depends on the length and severity of your depression.
Depression doesn't just get in the way of being happy. It can also interrupt your ability to think. It hampers your attention, memory and decision-making abilities.
It can impair your attention and memory, as well as your information processing and decision-making skills. It can also lower your cognitive flexibility (the ability to adapt your goals and strategies to changing situations) and executive functioning (the ability to take all the steps to get something done).
Depression affects more than just emotion and mood. It can also change the way your brain functions. The potential cognitive changes from depression include executive dysfunction, impaired learning and memory, reduced attention and concentration, and lower processing speed.
Depression is a disorder of the brain. It is a serious mental illness that is more than just a feeling of being "down in the dumps" or "blue" for a few days. For more than 20 million people in the United States who have depression, the feelings persist and can interfere with everyday life.
Common cognitive distortions include thinking yourself unworthy of love or success, believing everyone hates you, blaming yourself for your parents' divorce, and other self-destructive beliefs.
However, depression can also cause confusion and forgetfulness, which can easily be mistaken for dementia. This is why it's important to have a doctor perform a complete evaluation to try to ascertain which condition, if either, is affecting the person, and then arrange for the appropriate treatment.
Constantly stressing and overthinking may lead to frowning of brow which over a period of time may become a permanent wrinkle. Chances are high that a depressed person may not drink enough water. This makes their skin dehydrated and dull. Low mood and high-stress flare acne issues.
Other common symptoms often associated with depression are feelings of hopelessness or complete loss of interest in activities you once loved. Depression severely interferes with concentration, making it harder and harder until you no longer see the point in trying.
People who are depressed tend to use the pronoun “I” more, indicating a greater focus on self. They also use “absolute” words like “must,” “completely,” “should” or “always,” reflecting an overly black-or-white outlook.
Mania. Feeling manic is the opposite of feeling depressed. In a period of mania you might: feel great.
happy-go-lucky.
Although depression can affect the structure and functions of your brain, these changes aren't necessarily brain damage per se, and they can be reversed by treating depression symptoms.
There's no single cause of depression. It can occur for a variety of reasons and it has many different triggers. For some people, an upsetting or stressful life event, such as bereavement, divorce, illness, redundancy and job or money worries, can be the cause. Different causes can often combine to trigger depression.
Another large study by a different research group looked at more than 500 people who had been diagnosed with major depression. It found that more than half showed "overt irritability/anger," and that this anger and irritability appeared to be associated with more severe, chronic depression.
No two people with bipolar disorder share the same thoughts or experiences, but there are some common thought patterns among most folks who have it. This includes cyclical thinking, manic and/or depressive episodes, suicidal ideation, and psychosis.