What is Depression?
There are different types of depression but all come under the umbrella of mood disorders. For example – Major Depression is where a person’s mood has dropped below normal level over a significant period of time and shows no sign of lifting. Another type of depression is called Bi-polar where an individual’s mood moves from high to low and then high to low again.
Mood changes can be caused by many factors e.g. a childhood upbringing, attachment issues, and sometimes a genetic component. Another big factor to all kinds of a depressive illness can be a reaction to stress. Life situations experienced have a direct affect on our moods and can cause much of these depressive illnesses. Such situations can be a bereavement, workplace stress, disappointments in life, midlife crisis and many other life experience causing also a ‘reactive depression’. Clinical Depression can also be caused by overwhelm of stressors and negative experiences in a person’s life history. These different types of depression can be treated successfully and recovery achieved with the initial help of medication when necessary, along with talk therapy, using at times a Mindfulness Therapy approach, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT). and Existential Therapy.
