Symptoms & Signs
What are the Signs of Depression?
The signs of depression are going to vary in each individual. There are several conditions that fall under the depression disorder umbrella. These disorders include the following:
- Major depressive disorder
- Postpartum depression
- Bipolar disorder
- Seasonal affective disorder
- Psychotic depression
While each disorder has unique characteristics, there are symptoms of depression that are common across all depressive disorders. These include:
- Trouble concentrating and making sound decisions
- Chronic fatigue
- Feeling guilty and worthless
- Pessimism
- Disturbances in sleep cycles
- Increased irritability
- Chronic aches, pains, headaches, or cramps
- Persistent anxiety or feelings of sadness
- Suicidal thoughts, ideation, or attempts at suicide
While a person suffering from a depressive disorder may not experience all of these symptoms, five of these symptoms need to present for at least two weeks to warrant a diagnosis of clinical depression. Additionally, depression can co-occur with conditions such as ADHD, heart disease, and anxiety disorders.
One of the biggest risks of a dual diagnosis is that either the mental illness or the substance abuse will be overlooked. Because of the situation, they find themselves in, they may not realize the problem they have is severe. Overlooking one or the other can be devastating. Without treatment one or both disorders can get out of control rather easily. The risk of having both a mental illness as well as a substance abuse problem is that neither of them will receive the treatment they need, leaving the patient in worse shape than ever before.
While parallel treatment seems like a logical solution, it is rather ineffective. It can be difficult to determine which symptoms are associated with which problem. Now doctors recommend taking an integrative approach. Instead of having a team develop a treatment plan for the mental illness and a different team develop a treatment plan for the substance abuse, one team will take care of both disorders at the same time. With this type of treatment, one team will be able to observe and make adjustments to the treatment plan, It allows for a more complete treatment program that is more effective and has a better success rate. Having one treatment team also eliminates any miscommunication between doctors that could disrupt the treatment plan.