Going through life’s ups and downs is a normal thing. There are disappointments, problems and traumatic events that mark just about everyone’s life but most people find ways to cope and get over these events and live happy, productive lives. People who suffer from severe depression are unable to pull themselves up out of the slump that a traumatic event or problem puts them into. These people are usually sufferers of chronic depression who have recurring depressive episodes or a major depressive event. Severe depression can easily be described as feeling the weight of the world on your shoulders.
Intense
Severe depression has all the earmarks of chronic depression but the symptoms are considerably more intense than in a chronic depression episode. Sometimes severe depression comes once in a lifetime but some people experience recurring severe depression. Recurring severe depression episodes are limited events and when they do happen they tend not to resurface for years and the individual may live those years without any symptoms of depression at all. Most recurrences come with a traumatic event and can be treated with medications.
Symptoms
The symptoms of severe depression are the same as melancholia or chronic depression. The combination of these symptoms and a traumatic event actually trigger severe depression. The symptoms absolutely must be treated or the patient risks life threatening troubles. The symptoms include:
Feelings of worthlessness, self reproach
Inappropriate guilt
Recurrent thoughts of suicide
Weariness and loss of energy and feelings
Diminished ability to think and concentrate
Loss of interest or pleasure in usual activities
Decrease in sex drive
Continuous state of worry and apprehension
Insomnia or hypersomnia
Poor appetite/weight loss or increased appetite/weight gain
Physical inactivity or hyper-activity
Pessimism
Hopelessness
There are also physical symptoms associated with severe depression. These include constipation, changes in the menstrual cycle, and feeling cold, weak and sluggish. This is due to the impairment of the body’s functions being unbalanced. Depression can also be physically painful which doctors have yet to explain. It should be noted that severe depression tends to have a lengthier period of episode than melancholia and sometimes longer than episodes of chronic depression.
Treatment
Antidepressants are the most common medication prescribed for severe depression. These drugs include tricyclic antidepressants, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), serotonin noradrenaline reuptake Inhibitors (SNRIs), noradrenergic and serotonergic anti-depressants, serotonin 5-HT (2) receptor antagonists, monoamine oxidase Inhibitors (MAOIs) and bupropion.
In addition to drug therapy, most doctors will prescribe talk therapy for the individual to work out problems related to behavior and seek the cause of the depression. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) works very well with psychotherapy (talk therapy) to treat severe depression. In most cases, the combination is necessary to live a normal life and work out problems that could inhibit a normal lifestyle. Severe depression is a physical and mental experience that affects the whole person which means treatment must be done for the whole person as well.
