Struggling With Mood or Depression?
It’s common to experience occasional times of sad mood or lower enjoyment or energy. They may occur during normal but unfortunate life circumstances such as the death of someone close, job loss or the end of a relationship. However, if the feelings of sadness or lack of enjoyment persist and stop you from pursuing your usual activities, they may be a sign of depression. If you’re having difficulty with persistent low mood or lack of enjoyment, our clinical psychologists in Sydney are here to help you. We have expertise in assessing, diagnosing and helping people in the treatment of depression and other mood difficulties
DEPRESSION
Understanding Depression
Approximately 1 in 4 people experience an episode of depression in their lifetime. In addition to sadness, other signs of depression include not enjoying usually enjoyable activities, sleep problems, thoughts of suicide, low energy, changes in appetite and weight, reduced sex drive and reduced hopefulness.
Sometimes, in addition to periods of depressed mood, people can experience unusually high moods. If this lasts for several days and is accompanied by other changes, it might be a sign of mania and bipolar mood variation.
What is DEPRESSION
What is Depression?
Persistent sadness lasting over two weeks, along with low energy and loss of interest, may signal depression. It affects 1 in 4 people and can co-occur with manic episodes in bipolar disorder.
Depression affects 15% of Australians.
You’re not alone.
Symptoms
Depression is made up of responses in our body (physical), behaviours and thoughts.
Thoughts
- I’m useless
- Nothing will work out
- Things won’t improve
- I’ll never get better
- There’s nothing I can do
- What’s the point?
- I’m a burden
Bodily and Emotional
- Much lower energy
- Sleeping much more or less than usual, or disrupted sleep
- Much greater or lesser appetite
- Low motivation
- Difficulty enjoying or being interested in things that would usually be interesting or enjoyable
- Difficulty concentrating
- Irritability
- Restlessness
- Feeling anxious
Behaviour
- Teariness or crying
- Staying in bed much longer than usual
- Withdrawing or isolating from people e.g. not contacting or responding to contact from friends
- Doing much less of your usual activities
- Cancelling plans when you usually wouldn’t
If you have immediate concerns for your safety or are in crisis, call Lifeline on 13 11 14 or Emergency 000.
Types of Depression
Major Depressive Disorder (MDD).
This is a type of depression where people feel depressed mood and/or lack of enjoyment from their usually enjoyable activities, along with other features like low energy, disrupted sleep and concentration, suicidal thoughts and feelings of hopelessness.
Persistent Depressive Disorder (or dysthymia).
This is a type of depression that lasts for 2 years or more, but may have less symptoms than MDD.
Bipolar Disorder
This is a disorder made of both depressive episodes and episodes of mania. An episode of mania is a period of significantly elevated euphoric mood that last for several days.
Causes of Depression
Various factors influence whether someone develops depression. Genetics is one – people are more likely to develop depression if an immediate family member has had depression. Stressful life events in early childhood may make people more likely to experience depression in adulthood. Depression may also follow experience stressful life events. Having an anxiety disorder or a generally anxious or negative temperament may also contribute to developing depression.
Treatment
Treatment of Depression
Common treatments for depression include “talk-based” therapies and medication. One of the most widely studied and scientifically supported talk therapies for depression is cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT). This involves regular meetings with a professional, such as a clinical psychologist, to learn skills to better handle particular patterns of thinking and behaviour that occur in depression to help people improve how they feel. It also includes practicing skills in between meetings, similar to seeing a personal trainer. Complementing this with mindfulness-based skills can also be helpful.
Some people find medication helpful for managing depression. You should speak to your doctor about medication. Recent research evidence suggests that some people find combining medication with talk therapy (like CBT) can be more helpful than using just one of these approaches alone.