To see a family member or loved one grappling with depression can be a deeply painful experience, but often people are uncertain about how to communicate with or support them. On this Depression Awareness Month, here are some insights on how to help your loved ones through their mental health journey.
To understand someone going through depression, it is important to know the difference between occasional sadness and various clinical manifestations of depression.
“Everyone feels sad occasionally, but the question is, when does sadness shift from a natural emotion, which has its beneficial aspects for our psyche, to a disorder that’s more harmful than helpful?” Dr. Jeffery C. Lawrence, attending psychiatrist at Interfaith Medical Center in Brooklyn, New York, told Medical Daily.
According to Dr. Lawrence, “not all sadness is unhealthy.” For example, if a person is going through grief, it is a natural and healthy process but needs professional help when the grieving person is at risk of self-harm, has thoughts of suicide, or when the sadness is directed toward their self-worth.
“While many use the term ‘depression’ to describe pathological sadness in everyday talk, the word itself is not a specific diagnosis. It’s a rather broad term describing a range of certain mood-related conditions,” Dr. Lawrence said.
There are three primary types of depression that need attention.
Major depressive disorder (MDD) – Also known as clinical depression, it is a chronic mental illness where a person feels extremely depressed or irritable for a period of two or more weeks. The symptoms of MDD are so severe that they interfere with the person’s job, social life or even safety and they may hardly have any “good days.”
Persistent depressive disorder (PDD) – It is less acute and severe than MDD but involves a sustained period of feeling down. According to DSM 5 (the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders – fifth edition), a person is considered to have comorbid diagnoses of…
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