Depression can hit at anytime and can affect anyone.  There is sometimes little warning of an episode and other times stress accumulates over weeks or months or even years leading to depression.

• Depression strikes one in five people sometime in their lifetime.
• Signs of depression include lack of energy, poor sleep, broken routines, problems with concentrating, family problems, work problems, tearfulness, lack of joy over things that were previously fun.

If you are unaware that you have depression it is quite common to attribute unhappiness to other people or situations. You may blame your job or your partner/family.  This sometimes leads people to make major life decisions and changes such as ending a relationship, moving house or changing job, that once implemented do not help the underlying feelings, often making them even worse. 

Depression can be helped through psychotherapy or medication and often a combination of both often depending on cause and circumstance.

There are a number of different conditions that are classified under depression, these include:

• Mild depression
• Major or clinical depression
• Post natal Depression
• Bipolar depression
• Cyclothymic disorder
• Dysthemic disorder
• Seasonal affective disorder

There is some debate as to the causes of depression though we do know that it is a problem of mood.  Some forms of depression such as bipolar disorder may be caused by problems of brain chemistry.  Other forms of depression may be more related to stress or life changes such as divorce, death of a loved one, unemployment, trauma or other major change.  Sometimes long term, untreated anxiety may also lead to depression.  This describes more depression. 

Other people be affected by feelings of chronic or low mood that doesn’t seem to be explained by anything particular in their lives.

Severe forms of depression may require medication and even hospitalisation.  For milder forms of depression regular exercise, relaxation, regular sleep and dietary patterns can have significant effect.  Psychotherapy may help in implementing these kind of lifestyle changes if you have difficulty doing this’

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and Interpersonal Therapy (IPT) can be very effective for depression.