Let’s start with what is depression?
Depression is a bad mood that people experience in their lives. In recent years, depression is often referred to as the “flu” of psychiatry, and as you can imagine, depression is a very common disorder in psychiatry. Approximately 12% of people experience depression at some point in their lives that is quite severe and requires treatment.
There are three main symptoms of depression combined, which are
(i) depressed mood, (ii)
(ii) slowed thinking, and
(3) Motor inhibition.
The so-called depressed mood is not happy, always sad and sad, and even pessimistic and desperate. A typical example is Lin Daiyu, who frowned and sighed all day and wept at every turn in “Dream of the Red Chamber”. Delayed thinking means that you feel that your brain is not working well, that you cannot remember things, and that you have difficulty thinking. The patient feels that her brain is empty and dumb. Motor inhibition is a term that is less commonly mentioned, but simply means inactivity and laziness. The patient may walk slowly and speak little.
In severe cases, the patient may not eat or move and may not be able to take care of himself/herself. However, it is not common to see patients with these typical symptoms. Many patients have only one or two of these symptoms, and the severity varies from person to person. Depressed mood, anxiety, loss of interest, low energy, pessimism, somatic discomfort, and low self-esteem are all common symptoms of depression. Depression is diagnosed if you have a persistent low mood with the three symptoms mentioned above for more than two weeks, after excluding other diseases.
Depression mainly affects people’s mood, but there is no change in intelligence or other aspects. Therefore, people who suffer from depression can rest assured that you are only suffering from a psychological “cold” and can live, study and work normally as long as you receive active and appropriate treatment.
Of course, we also need to pay enough attention to depression because it is the psychiatric disease with the highest suicide rate and the second most important disease in the world that causes a serious burden on human beings. Information from the United States shows that two-thirds of depressed patients have had suicidal ideation, with 10-15% of them eventually committing suicide, and 70% of all suicides have depressive symptoms.
Are depressed mood and depression the same thing?
This is certainly not the same thing. Depression is simply “unhappiness” because in life, everyone encounters setbacks and failures, and even experiences very painful events, such as the loss of a loved one, the departure of a loved one, and so on. Whenever we encounter such situations, we definitely experience feelings of sadness, pain, and even despair.
Therefore, depression and sadness caused by these definite events is a normal emotional reaction that does not last too long and is a reasonable expression of our emotions as a person in society, which is depression.
However, there are some people whose depressive symptoms do not have a clear external trigger, without any life event. There are also people who have a bad life event in their lives, but this event can only be described as a trigger, and their depressive symptoms can last for a long time and get worse, causing a serious impact on their life, work and study. If this is the case, it is likely that you are suffering from depression and it is advisable to consult a professional institution and, if necessary, medication.
In addition, we can give you a trick to distinguish depressive mood from depression. In many depressed patients, although depression exists all day long, there are ups and downs during the day. The “golden hour” of the day.
Do I have to see a psychiatrist if I’m depressed?
Some people ask, these days I have encountered some things, very unhappy, also do not like to study, sleep is not good, all day can not be happy, need to see a psychiatrist? In real life, we often encounter some unsolvable difficulties and adverse life events, such as unemployment, divorce and death of relatives, which bring us great sorrow and pain, and we will certainly have a bad mood, depressed mood, and even can not eat or sleep.
However, these symptoms do not last very long, and usually will be relieved naturally in about a month’s time. If depression has a serious impact on your life, work and study, and if it lasts more than two weeks, you should visit a psychiatrist to receive professional treatment.
First, self-encouragement and self-affirmation. Second, recite comical and humorous stories. Third, go to entertainment places for a walk and stroll, preferably to participate in it. Third, attention from negative aspects to positive and meaningful aspects to think more happy things.
Fourth, the discharge and vent their emotions, should cry when the cry; upset when looking for a close friend to confide in; discontent when the whining, anger when appropriate out of anger. Otherwise, these negative emotions can not be properly ventilated, easy to affect the mind and body health. You can try these small methods, if this can improve your mood, then there is no need to go to the psychiatric department.
How to improve insomnia on the effectiveness of depression?
When we encounter troubles in life, it often causes insomnia, but insomnia for no reason should be taken seriously. In the normal population, about a quarter of people have sleep problems, and among those who have sleep problems, about 40% may have mental disorders, and long-term insomnia may be a precursor to mental illness. Sleep disorders are often seen in people with anxiety and depression, and people with depression may have difficulty falling asleep, wake up early, and have light sleep.
Those with sleep disorders can also in turn affect mood and exacerbate symptoms of depression or anxiety. Sleep disturbance is one of the common manifestations of depression, and depression with sleep disturbance is present in about 80% of people. Depressive insomnia has the following characteristics: difficulty falling asleep, very light sleep and early awakening, and difficulty falling back to sleep after waking up, with early awakening being its characteristic symptom. Effective sleep improvement can have a very beneficial effect in relieving the mood of depressed people.
Here are a few ways to improve sleep that you can try
(1) Choose a well-lit and bright room for study and activities during the day.
(2) Arrange your work and rest time reasonably and don’t overwork yourself.
(3) Lower your expectations of sleep and let nature take its course.
(4) Before sleep, lie in bed, relax your whole body and take deep breaths for about 15 minutes.
(5) before sleep to relax yourself, never and strong tea, cola and other stimulating drinks, refuse strenuous exercise, watch intense TV and movies, etc., you can listen to more soft music.
If the above methods do not have any effect, you are recommended to seek the help of a professional physician at a professional institution as soon as possible to improve your sleep using antidepressants or hypnotic drugs, etc.