Dr LeCrone
03-24-2006, 03:03 PM
Larry dreads to start each day. Feeling more tired than he did when he went to bed the night before, getting out of bed signals a series of experiences which he feels will end in failure and disappointment.
According to Larry, “It is a monumental effort to get through each day. And there is no cloud with a silver lining.”
He does not sleep soundly; his appetite is poor. He has lost all interest in hobbies, friends and former pastimes.
If there is anything appealing to Larry at this time, it is a desire to become another person, to escape from his daily tedium, or even to cease living.
Margaret also gets up feeling tired each morning. Most of her time is spent preoccupied with her aches and pains. Although she still loves her husband, she has lost all interest in sex. Having gained a lot of weight during the past year, she really doesn’t care what she eats. She has avoided friends, quit attending church and social activities, and spends much of her time crying, feeling guilty and feeling worthless.
Larry and Margaret are suffering from depression, an illness estimated to affect at least one in 20 people in the U.S.
To understand depression, it must be separated from ordinary unhappiness, from sadness precipitated by the loss of a job or family member, fatigue from too much stress, or from the inability to cope with prolonged illness.
• Clinical depression, which is often accompanied by anxiety, frequently goes on after day after day. The individual suffering from depression may appear to very listless, or even restless.
• One form of depression, called Masked Depression, may go unnoticed by friends or family members. If left untreated, it can become a very serious problem.
• Many individuals experiencing physical difficulties such as headaches, muscular aches and pains or chronic fatigue have depression as the underlying problem. This should be properly diagnosed by a physician.
• Elderly people, diagnosed as senile because of memory problems, are often suffering from depression. When treated properly, the memory and senility improve.
• Depression in younger people, especially in adolescents, can be quite severe. Of significant note is the rise of adolescent suicide during the past several years.
• A growing body of medical evidence seems to point to the possibility that some types of depression can be genetically based, particularly the more severe forms of this illness.
• Other types of depression seem to correlate highly with a poor self-concept and may stem from a childhood filled with negative communication patterns within the family.
• Diseases such as alcoholism and substance abuse have depression as a chief component in the illness.
• People who never successfully cope with a death in the immediate family, and who don’t go through predictable and healthy stages of grieving, are prone to continue their depression long after the “normal” time required by most people to complete the bereavement process.
All these forms of depression should be treated. Next week, we will discuss some of the current treatments used with depressed patients.
Harold H. LeCrone, Jr., Ph.D. Copyright 1984
According to Larry, “It is a monumental effort to get through each day. And there is no cloud with a silver lining.”
He does not sleep soundly; his appetite is poor. He has lost all interest in hobbies, friends and former pastimes.
If there is anything appealing to Larry at this time, it is a desire to become another person, to escape from his daily tedium, or even to cease living.
Margaret also gets up feeling tired each morning. Most of her time is spent preoccupied with her aches and pains. Although she still loves her husband, she has lost all interest in sex. Having gained a lot of weight during the past year, she really doesn’t care what she eats. She has avoided friends, quit attending church and social activities, and spends much of her time crying, feeling guilty and feeling worthless.
Larry and Margaret are suffering from depression, an illness estimated to affect at least one in 20 people in the U.S.
To understand depression, it must be separated from ordinary unhappiness, from sadness precipitated by the loss of a job or family member, fatigue from too much stress, or from the inability to cope with prolonged illness.
• Clinical depression, which is often accompanied by anxiety, frequently goes on after day after day. The individual suffering from depression may appear to very listless, or even restless.
• One form of depression, called Masked Depression, may go unnoticed by friends or family members. If left untreated, it can become a very serious problem.
• Many individuals experiencing physical difficulties such as headaches, muscular aches and pains or chronic fatigue have depression as the underlying problem. This should be properly diagnosed by a physician.
• Elderly people, diagnosed as senile because of memory problems, are often suffering from depression. When treated properly, the memory and senility improve.
• Depression in younger people, especially in adolescents, can be quite severe. Of significant note is the rise of adolescent suicide during the past several years.
• A growing body of medical evidence seems to point to the possibility that some types of depression can be genetically based, particularly the more severe forms of this illness.
• Other types of depression seem to correlate highly with a poor self-concept and may stem from a childhood filled with negative communication patterns within the family.
• Diseases such as alcoholism and substance abuse have depression as a chief component in the illness.
• People who never successfully cope with a death in the immediate family, and who don’t go through predictable and healthy stages of grieving, are prone to continue their depression long after the “normal” time required by most people to complete the bereavement process.
All these forms of depression should be treated. Next week, we will discuss some of the current treatments used with depressed patients.
Harold H. LeCrone, Jr., Ph.D. Copyright 1984