Clinical depression, most often termed major depressive disorder, is more than four times as prevalent as dementia. Latest estimates place the number of clinically depressed people in the USA at minimally 40 million. This number does not include patients with the related bipolar disorder or manic depression, who probably number another 5-10 million. Depression carries with it the burdens of despair and often also, an increased contemplation of ending one’s life.

Typically, depression is associated with changes in appetite and sleep patterns, fatigue, difficulty with concentration, poor self-image, and feelings of hopelessness, to the extent that productivity and social functioning are impaired. And all too often, depression is accompanied by cognitive impairment of a degree that can mimic dementia.

The drugs used for depression, while being heavily promoted, can have major and sometimes life-threatening side effects. Any intervention that is safe to use over the long-term is worthy of investigation. Everyone has felt depressed at one time or another. This equal-opportunity illness is so common, in fact, that clinical depression is often referred to as the “common cold of mental health.”
The good news is that depressed people need not suffer in painful silence.

But before you can begin beating depression, you need to learn how to recognize the difference between the “blues” that almost everyone experiences and more severe clinical depression that often requires professional counseling. It’s normal, experts say, for people to feel a certain amount of momentary anxiety over the minor inconveniences of daily living. Everyone has or will have occasional bad days–mornings when you could have stayed in bed rather than face the day.

It’s not uncommon to hear people say they are depressed when they feel sad, gloom your emotionally dejected. Sometimes an event triggers bad feelings–perhaps you were passed over for a promotion, had a fight with your spouse, or lost something of value. Sometimes it’s not clear exactly why you feel so down. In either case, the gloomy feelings eventually pass and life goes on.

However, each year more than 17 million Americans, twice as many women as men, experience clinical depression–a “whole-body illness” that is distinguished by its severity, intensity and the length of time it lasts. Clinical depression can last for weeks, months, and even years if ignored and affects how your body feels, determines the kind of mood you’re in, what you think, and how you act.

According to the National Institute of Mental Health, one out of 20 working people experience clinical depression every year and neither the young nor the elderly are immune to the disorder. It also affects children, teenagers and three out of 100 people over the age of 65. People between the ages of 24 and 44 experience clinical depression more often than those in other age groups.

Depression has its own set of symptoms and clinicians advise people to be alert to them in themselves, loved ones and friends. They include insomnia or oversleeping, unexplained fatigue, overeating or a loss of appetite, or a loss of interest in pleasurable activities. Feelings of emptiness, guilt, worthlessness or helplessness can also be present. And people suffering from depression sometimes experience unexplained periods of irritability, difficulty concentrating or remembering, persistent sad or anxious moods, or thoughts of death or suicide

Keith Bronson is a former panic disorder sufferer who supports the mental health community through his articles and web site http://www.severe-social-anxiety.com