Symptoms Of Severe Depression - Know The Signs

Symptoms of severe depression

how to spot the signs and get help before it spirals out of control.

Life has many up and down moments. Depression is different from just having a bad day every now and then. Depression effects many of us and some people find that it's hard to ask for help when they suffer from depression too.

What is depression?

People who are depressed feel empty, unenthusiastic about life and at times can also feel apathetic. They are generally withdrawn from society and constantly are thinking about bad thoughts (which may also include self-harm thoughts) depressed people also feel like they're alone in this world (even if they have many loving family and friends) they can feel helpless and hopeless.

Signs of depression

Here are some of the classical signs of clinical depression that can help you to identify the symptoms.

• feeling hopeless, guilty, helpless or useless most of the time.
• consistantly worrying about events (whether real or imagined)
• the inability to control negative thoughts and emotions
• feeling trapped or suffocating with no logical reasons as to why
• loss of apetite (including self-starvation)
• loss of will to survive (can include self-harm and suicidal thoughts)
• the inability to control your temper and have sudden outrages
• thoughts of wanting to hurt yourself or others around you
• major sleeping difficulties
• lack of energy (severe lethargy)
• difficulties in accepting positive events/changes
• socially withdrawn
• overeating

Some of these symptoms will manifest themselves if you're depressed. It's important to seek medical help if you feel the negative impacts that depression have on yourself is getting out of control (especially if you have thoughts about self-harm and suicide)


Here are some important points to consider when diagnosing depression states.

1) Adolescence and teenagers going through rapid hormonal changes can result in mood swings and natural chemical imbalances. This is entirely normal.
2) Depression is a constant thing (having a bad day every now and then does not mean you're depressed; it just means you where stressed on that day)
3) Depression and severe depression. Certain symptoms are indicative of having depression - severe depression is where the symptoms are consistant and the individual is actually attempting self-harm.
4) Woman also tend to suffer from depression more so then men. This is due to hormonal fluctuations such as premenstrual syndrome (PMS), premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD), postpartum depression, perimenopausal depression and seasonal affective disorder (SAD).

Different types of depression

Major depression

Major depression is mainly characterized by having an inability to enjoy life and experience natural pleasure. Symptoms may be current or reoccur with regularity. There may also be a certain time frame for the amount of time you experience major depression (eg. 3-6 month periods).

Atypical Depression

Atypical depression is another subtype of major depression. Featuring temporary positive mood lifts in response to stimuli. An example of this would be after hearing something good from your friends or family. The positive feeling seldom sticks around and the individual goes back to feeling depressed after a short time.

Dysthymia (classic mild depression)

Dysthmia is a more mild form of depression. This type of depression is moderate and alternates between a mild feeling of depression and normal mood levels. Classical symptoms of dysthymia are not nearly as strong as symptoms of major depression - but tend to last longer periods (2+ years).
Dysthymia sufferes have problems 'living life to the max' and tend to forget positive events that occur in life easily. If you have dysthymia you may have always just felt depressed (and this would be 'normal' to you) it's a relatively easy form of depression to treat.

Seasonal affective disorder (SAD)

Stormy and rainy days can cause seasonal affective disorder. This is due to people getting easily depressed in seasons like autumn and winter. Where there are many frequent overcast days and natural sun light is quite scarce. This depression is called seasonal affective disorder or otherwise known as SAD. Researchers believe that this type of depression is due to the functioning of the pineal gland. The pineal gland is photosensitive (is affected by light) and because the pineal gland helps convert melatonin to serotonin, with the use of light. SAD can effectively be treated with light therapy (using artificial lights that mimics the sun to boost your mood)

Natural Depression Treatment And Remedies

Depression is a very serious issue. It's a mental condition that effects millions of people around the world.

Depression causes us to feel extremely down and pessimistic with life's outlook. With severe cases often leading to suicidal thoughts or self-harm. Most mental health therapists would generally prescribe SSRI and anti-depressent drugs to help with the symptoms of depression. This is a practice that I would generally advise against because a lot of those medications have extremely bad side effects.

There has been quite a lot of studies and research performed on natural remedies for beating off a bout of the blues.

Today, we'll be focusing on two powerful and natural depression remedies.

First, we'll focus our attention on L-Tryptophan, this important amino acid is required in our bodies for the synthesis of Serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine / 5-HT) which is the neurochemical involved in the regulation of mood, muscle contractions, appetite and sleep.
It's understood that low levels of serotonin has many debilitating effects on the body (such as mood swings, aggression, psychotic episodes, seizures, anxiety and insomnia) Tryptophan can help with these symptoms and reduce depression because it converts into serotonin in the body and has a great uptake profile. The secret is to have adequate levels of serotonin - this will allow you to feel good and help you to maintain a positive attitude in life.
 
By supplementing your diet with adequate levels of L-Tryptophan you can give your body a natural positive boost (provided you should also have a well balanced diet). Reason why is because your body will be able to produce adequate levels of serotonin and this in turn will brighten up your mood, naturally without the use of any drugs.

Another supplement that's good for treating depression is 5-HTP. Some people who are already taking this supplement, don't feel that it's quite as effective as L-Tryptophan. The reason why is because 5-HTP can get converted into serotonin within the liver (before it reaches the brain) if this happens then it will not effectively pass the blood-brain barrier, rendering it only semi-effective. Not only that but 5-HTP has the tendency to accumulate in areas (such as the stomach's GI tract and heart - which can lead to other serious health complications) doses should range from 50-100mg of 5-HTP per day. No more is neccessary for even the most severest cases of depression. You should also cycle the intake of 5-HTP (i.e 3 weeks daily use / 1 week off or taken for a few days and given a rest for a few days etc.)

L-Tryptophan is the usually preffered supplement because it allows serotonin synthesis to occur naturally (and all of it passes through the blood-brain barrier making it more effective than 5-HTP). If you are thinking of taking 5-HTP I would advise you try supplementing with Tryptophan first as it's much gentler and safer on the body. If you have no results with tryptophan then try using 5-HTP.


If you're on anti-depressants or MAOIs already I would consult your GP/Doctor before taking these supplements just in case they interact with your meds. It's always better to be safe, than sorry.

At night time the excess serotonin in your brain gets converted to melatonin through the pineal gland. This is what allows us to fall asleep at night (because the darkness triggers your pineal gland to secrete melatonin which then causes us to fall asleep).

It's also important to note that it is possible to overdose on too much serotonin (it's not hard to OD on serotonin when you use 5-HTP as there's no regulation to control how much 5-HTP will get converted into serotonin). Serotonin syndrome causes negative autonomic, cognitive and somatic effects. This can be the result of improper supplementation, drug abuse, natural genetics and abnormal diets can also contribute to this.

If you have depression; these 2 supplements can have you feeling much better in a short amount of time (I'd say about 1 week to feel some positive results). I would advise against taking both supplements together as this can likely cause serotonin syndrome (only take one or the other and my recommendation is to start with L-Tryptophan first)

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