Depression is a symptom of several different illnesses which affects people’s mood. People with depression feel sad, down, hopeless and/or without energy.

Depression symptoms differ from person to person. Some of the most common symptoms of depression include:

• Feeling sad or blue most of the time
• Fatigue or a lack of energy
• Changes in sleeping patterns – either trouble sleeping or sleeping all the time
• Changes in eating patterns – either loss of appetite or eating too much
• Feeling hopeless about the future
• Thinking of oneself as bad, damaged, inadequate or worthless
• Preoccupation with death, either one’s own or in general

In children, depression can look different. Kids with depression are often in disciplinary trouble. They don’t follow the rules because they think there’s no point. They feel so worthless that they assume they’re going to be in trouble anyway, or that they deserve to be punished for being bad people.

Everyone has hard times in their lives, and everyone gets sad. Depression is different than regular sadness. Depression is consuming and doesn’t go away. When you’re sad, you experience a period of intense sadness that slowly lifts. When you’re depressed, you stay at that deep depth.

We often think of depression as a single illness or phenomenon, but it is really a symptom. Just as a stuffy nose usually indicates a cold but can also come with flu, allergies or sinus infections, depression can also be caused by a number of illnesses.

Depression is most often associated with a group of mental illnesses called mood disorders. These include:

• Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) causes people to feel very depressed for at least two weeks at a time and often much longer. Some people have a single episode of MDD, and others have recurrent MDD. The more episodes a person has had in the past, the more likely they are to have another one. In MDD, some people who are severely depressed also become psychotic, most commonly hearing voices that tell them negative things about themselves or that they should kill themselves.
• Dysthymia is a low level depression that is chronic. People with dysthymia do not feel as severely depressed as those with MDD, but their symptoms also do not come and go – they are there all the time.

Bipolar Disorder is also sometimes called Manic Depression. People with bipolar disorder have major depressive episodes and also episodes of mania or hypomania, during which they have excessive energy and may feel like they can do anything. People with bipolar disorder who are having a manic episode may shop compulsively, stay up without sleeping for days or even weeks, be extremely angry or aggressive, or have odd beliefs about what they can do (such as cause the weather or rule the world).

In addition to psychiatric disorders, depression can be a symptom of a number of physical illnesses. Imbalance in the thyroid gland can cause depression. Depression is also a symptom of mononucleosis, a virus that causes extreme fatigue. Depression can also be a symptom of or worsened by celiac disease, lupus and a variety of endocrine disorders.

There are many factors that can go into developing depression. As noted above, physical illnesses can cause a depressed mood. Causes of mood disorders can be more difficult to pin down.

In many cases, there is a history of depression in the family. While depression is not directly hereditary the way blonde hair or brown eyes may be, children can inherit a tendency or susceptibility to develop depression. Everyone can develop depression. People with a genetic history may be more likely to become depressed than others.

The biological components of depression are still being studied and discovered. There appear to be a number of chemicals in the brain that affect depression. These include seratonin, norepinephrine and dopamine. Imbalances in these neurotransmitters are seen in people with depression, and medications that rebalance them are often effective treatments.

Depression can have a single event that triggers it, or it can come on over time. A depressed mood immediately following the death of a loved one, for example, is typical and considered normal. However, in some people this mood does not resolve itself over time. In these individuals, the chemistry of the brain may actually readjust to support the depressed mood, making it much harder to recover spontaneously.

Depression is not a weakness or a made up problem. Depression is not something the person can just “snap out of” or “buck up.” People with depression cannot “move on” or “get over it” without help, because their brains and/or bodies have physical changes that are causing and supporting the depression.

We are used to thinking of our mood as being directly related to our attitude. If we want to be happy and think positively, we believe we can. Unfortunately, this is often not the case. People with depression are not staying depressed on purpose. They would give anything to feel better. But simply “thinking positive” will not change the feelings inside them.