What is depression?

I want to you know that I know what it is like to be severely depressed. It is a horrible, terrifying experience. It is one thing to give a definition but it is another to live a diagnosis. Hope is driven away; your brain is not working right. You have no pleasure, your sex drive is gone and you don't want to eat and you do want to sleep but you cannot. You really can't  understand what it is like to have a mental illness unless you have experienced it. You belong to a club that you don't want to belong. One of the first steps to getting help is to be able understand what mental illness is all about. An excellent way to do this would be to visit the many blogs that are posted on Google blogger. If you join the blog then you will get reminders whenever a new one is posted.

You also should read some of our reviews on our book Broken Minds.

Below is a link to Amazon.com. If you want to a signed copy by Robyn and me, either use the contact us form on our website or email me at bloemsteve@yahoo.com. I will send you two copies for $20.00. This includes shipping and it is a saving of about eleven dollars. (I am sorry U.S.A. only.) Go to our web site and click the $20.00 donation and then go to the contact us form on our website and let me know your address where you want the books to be sent. http://www.heartfeltmin.org/#!donations/c1mb0

You can also go to http://www.amazon.com/Broken-Minds-Healing-Youre-Losing/dp/0825421187

Please read below for important news on depression.

This comes directly from the Depression/Bipolar Support Alliance

Depression is a treatable medical illness involving an imbalance of brain chemicals called neurotransmitters and neuropeptides. It's not a character flaw or a sign of personal weakness. Just like you can't "wish away" diabetes, heart disease, or any other physical illness, you can't make depression go away by trying to "snap out of it."

Episodes of depression often follow stressful events like marital problems or the death of a loved one. People who have recurrent episodes of major depression are sometimes said to have "unipolar depression" (or what used to be called "clinical depression"), because they only experience periods of low, or depressed mood (unlike someone with bipolar disorder who goes through periods of both low and high mood).

While depression sometimes runs in families, many people with the illness have no family history of depression. The exact causes of depression still are not clear. What we do know is that both genetics and a stressful environment, or life situation, contribute to its cause. Usually, it's not one or the other, but a combination of both.

Symptoms

· Prolonged sadness or unexplained crying spells

· Significant changes in appetite and sleep patterns

· Irritability, anger, worry, agitation, anxiety

· Pessimism, indifference

· Loss of energy, persistent lethargy

· Feelings of guilt, worthlessness

· In ability to concentrate, indecisiveness

· Inability to take pleasure in former interests, social withdrawal

· Unexplained aches and pains

· Recurring thoughts of death or suicide

Different Kinds of Depression

There are many names for the different kinds of depression. People with recurrent episodes of major depression are sometimes said to have unipolar depression (or what used to be called "clinical depression"), because they only experience periods of low, or depressed mood. Those living with chronic, low-grade depression have what is called dysthymia. When people experience both dysthymia and major depression, they are sometimes said to have double depression.

Mood disorder symptoms also can arise after a woman gives birth (postpartum depression). And they can sometimes be accompanied by psychosis (psychotic depression) or can occur during the winter season (seasonal affective disorder, SAD).

However, what most mood disorders have in common are major depressive episodes. This is also true of bipolar disorder, another type of mood disorder. People diagnosed with this illness have mood swings involving both lows (bipolar depression) and highs (called mania if severe or hypo -mania if mild). When people go through the lows of bipolar disorder (bipolar depression), their symptoms are very similar to those that someone with unipolar depression might have.

http://www.dbsalliance.org/site/PageServer?pagename=education_depression