The Road To Melancholic DepressionMelancholic depression is a severe mood disorder and it is one of the types of Major Depressive Disorder. It is usually recognized by several very noticeable symptoms. These include a loss of pleasure and positive feelings in most activities that would for most people evoke positive responses and feelings. They will feel an almost constant sense of unexplained or undeserved guilt. This type of depression is usually worse in the morning, and will cause many to wake up several hours earlier than is normal. Many people will experience a decrease in their appetite and will lose weight. Melancholic depression usually appears most frequently in women and middle aged men. You may be asking yourself why am I depressed? Most people suffering from depression have great lives. They have a home, family, jobs, great friends, so what do we have to be depressed about? What caused the depression in the first place? While there is no real answer to the question, there are several possibilities that may apply to your situation. The first possibility is related to your physiology. You may be experiencing depression because of some sort of chemical imbalance in your brain. The neurotransmitters in your brain are chemicals that help the different areas in your brain communicate with each other. If any of these chemicals are low, depression could be the result. If this chemical imbalance is indeed the cause of your depression, medication will be needed to help you in overcoming it. Another possibility is stress related. Usually we learn to adapt to the change and stress in our lives, but often times, our bodies just simply get worn out. The demands that are being placed on us are simply too much, stress will wear you out, and depression may be the result. There are many stress tests that your doctor can perform to see how your body and mind are handling your responsibilities. Melancholic depression can also be a learned behavior for some people. Many people as a child learned that if you play quietly, and were good, you were left alone, or ignored. If you were hurt, or upset people would rush to your side to see if you were ok. You may not even realize now that you are living a lifestyle of depression as a way of seeking attention from others. You may have also worried yourself into a state of depression without realizing what was happening. Many people experience a snowball effect when they are worrying about a particular problem. They worry about what is wrong, what could possibly go wrong, and snowball the problem into a really big problem. Developing a negative pattern of thinking can make you always imagine things worse than they really are, and cause depression. |