2. Symptoms Symptoms are having a very low mood about all aspects of life, and an inability to experience pleasure in certain activities that were once enjoyed. People with severe cases of this disorder may have delusions and hallucinations. Insomnia is also very common for people with this disorder.
3. Symptoms(Continued) Some people with this disorder have poor concentration and memory, withdrawal from social activities and situations, reduced sex drive, and thoughts of death/suicide. Usually children to not suffer from this disorder, but if they have ADHD, this disorder can coincide with ADHD.
4. Causes-Biological The most popular theory is the Monoamine hypothesis. The Monoamine hypothesis predicts that the underlying pathophysiologic basis of depression is a depletion in the levels of serotonin, norepinephrine, and/or dopamine in the central nervous system.
5. Causes-Psychological One psychological theory is the Attachment Theory. The Attachment Theory predicts a relationship between depressive disorder in adulthood and the quality of the earlier bond between the infant and their adult caregiver.
6. Causes-Social One major cause is a child abuse. Abuse of the child is bound to distort the developing personality and create a much greater risk for depression and many other debilitating mental and emotional states. Other causes are divorce, death of a parent, or other disturbances in parenting.
7. Prevention One of the best ways to prevent this disorder is by attending behavioral interventions such as interpersonal therapy. Having a one-on-one or group therapy can really help one trying to not have Major Depressive Disorder.
8. Psychotherapy One diagnosed with this disorder, to manage one’s depression, it is good to go to individual or group psychotherapies. The most studied form of psychotherapy for this disorder is cognitive behavioral therapy. Another form of therapy used is psychoanalysis which helps the individual resolve unconscious mental conflicts.
9. Antidepressants Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors are the primary medications prescribed owing to their effectiveness, relatively mild side effects, and because they are less toxic in overdose than other antidepressants. Another well used antidepressant is Venlafaxine, an antidepressant with a different mechanism of action, which may be modestly more effective than SSRIs.
10. Electroconvulsive therapy ECT is really only used in severe cases of major depression. It is a treatment in which seizures are electrically induced in anesthetized patients for therapeutic effect.
11. Prevalence In most countries the number of people who would suffer from depression during their lives falls within an 8–12% range. For North America, the probability of having a major depressive episode within a year-long period is 3–5% for males and 8–10% for females.
12. My Symptoms……. I am never happy in any situation I am in I think of killing myself all the time and how it would be better if was dead. It is very hard me to concentrate in anything I do cause I think of how stupid whatever I’m doing is.
13. My cause…… I believe my cause for having Major Depressive Disorder is due to the Attachment theory. As a child, my parents abused me and didn’t care for me whatsoever. They never tried to do anything for me and basically hated my existence.
14. What I’ve done to try to treat it I have been to a couple of group therapies which I did not like because I didn’t like communicating with the other people because I did not like them at all. They seemed to no actually care about me and just wanted me to hurry up with my turn in talking so they could go.
15. What I’ve done to try to treat it (continued)….. I tried one individual psychotherapy, but I didn’t like the therapist because I could tell that he was secretly judging me. The way he looked as a person also bothered me. He just seemed like his life was better than mine and that he is a better person than me. Actually, he probably is…….
16. What I’m doing now…… Now I am using antidepressants as my new attempt to control my depression. It has been pretty helpful and some days I’m actually kind of happy. But my doctor says that I should also attend psychotherapy for a better affect but I don’t want to relive those nightmares.
