Do you know what is clinical depression? Many have gone through this irrespective of our age & gender. Adults are most likely to be stuck in the valley of depression but In today’s world, children are also affected by this disease.

When a kid of 8th or 9th standard says that he/she is depressed; the very first question people ask is how can a child get depressed? What could go wrong with them even? At that age no one has stress.

Yes, you are right. We all were a child and yes life was pretty good. But there is no right time for disease. It can come to you at any time. Having mental issues does not mean that one is weak. It is the same as having the physical disease. We as a society need to understand this.

So here we are going to discuss depression, if correctly pronounced; ‘Clinical Depression’ or ‘Major Depressive Disorder’.

What is clinical depression and how it is different from sadness?

Human life is a mixture of emotions. Emotions like happiness, love, excitement, guilt, and sadness extra. All of these play a very important role in our life. They make our life beautiful. But what if one stays for a long time period.

Feeling depressed and having depression are two different things. You can say that you are sad or not in the mood to talk to anyone or participate in any activity. This is completely normal. But if you are feeling it for a very long time (mostly about 2 weeks); you are probably in depression.

According to your condition, you can have mild, severe, or major depression. It is here noticeable that depression is the most common mental disorder in India. Almost 43% of the Indian population suffers from it. Due to more stressful life, hormonal changes, and environment females face depression twice than males.

Generally in India, clinical depression is completely ignored. Parents don’t understand what it is, kids bully each other, give shitty advice, and eventually until a person is totally destroyed; no one cares.

The main reasons for this kind of scenario are:

• Generation gap where we are not able to share anything with our parents.
• A competitive and ignoring society that does not care for your personal life but wants to take out everything from you.
• The overprotective culture keeps the distance between family in the name of culture & shame.

What is the reason behind depression?

There is still no complete answer for why depression happens. This is still unknown. But as doctors say there are two major reasons for this:

Psychological: the human brain is full of neurotic circuits and hormones. These hormones release in such a balance such so that the brain & body must work properly. In the case of clinical depression, it is the imbalance of serotonin, dopamine & norepinephrine. Serotonin is the hormone that regulates moods, happiness, and anxiety. Dopamine is the major hormone for happiness. Norepinephrine is responsible for the modulation of vigilance, motivation, and learning.

Environmental: the second most reason for depression is the environment you live in. From work culture and relationships to the color of your walls; everything affects your mind and mood. Remember our mind works like a computer. If the input is good; output would be good.
You need to take care of your environment. Check if you are working on what you really want to do; whether you have healthy and warm relationships; whether you are living in an uncleaned home and if you are eating the right food.

I feel that above all, the cyclic process of the above two reasons is has a major role. When you feel bad, you don’t take care of anything, you cut off and when you cut off, you feel worse. And this process goes on.

Rather than these, there are some other reasons like having other mental disorders, postpartum (time after giving birth), premenstrual dysphoric disorder, dysthymia, etc.

What are the symptoms of clinical depression?

Depression isn’t something that suddenly pops out & says hello. It takes some days, slightly and slowly creating its’ own space in your life. There would be a high chance if we observe ourselves and recognize the symptoms before it is too late.

• You always feel tired and hopeless.
• Your self-esteem has hit rock bottom.
• You’re facing concentration and memory problems.
• You have trouble sleeping.
• You are facing changes in weight.
• Nothing brings you pleasure.
• You experience mood swings.
• Your health deteriorates.
• You regularly have suicidal thoughts.

How can you treat it?

There are several ways doctors deal with depression. This includes proper medication, family or couple therapy, counseling, and self-help strategies. On the other hand in some major cases, doctors use ‘Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT)’.

Apart from that, there are several anti-depressant medicines that you can use but only with the permission of a certified and reliable doctor. This is for your own safety because anti-depression medicines may have side effects on your body like weight gain, gastrointestinal side effects, and sexual side effects.

You can also read our article on anxiety disorder if you’re facing that problem.