Everyone gets depressed every now and again. A friend or family member passing in death, a job loss or financial setback, or a prolonged illness can make even the strongest and most resilient person to feel upset and sad. However, what is meant by the term clinical depression?
How is this different from just feeling sad and blue? And when does clinical depression become a problem so that it’s time to see a doctor? There are a few things to consider about this subject.
The term clinical depression actually refers to an emotional disorder that is not caused by external elements such as a job loss or death in the family, but by a defect in the brain’s ability to regulate certain chemicals in the brain. When these chemicals are not released at an appropriate time or in appropriate amounts, a person feels…
People often go through hard times in their lives, and most of us get depressed at one point in time or another. Some people stay depressed longer than others; some are depressed for a few days, while others stay pretty much constantly depressed for years.
What happens with depression is that the human brain releases and excess of melatonin, a depressive chemical natural in the brain. If something physical that happened in someone’s life triggered the release of this chemical, that person is only usually depressed for a fairly short period of time, lasting up to a year at the longest.
But, when something goes wrong in someone’s head to where their brain automatically releases this chemical for seemingly no reason, this person is more likely to be depressed a lot longer. The term for short-term depression triggered by something happening in someone’s life is known as dysthmic disorder. The term for long-term depression due to the chemical being released spontaneously is called long-term depression….