Clinical depression is a state of sadness or melancholia that has advanced to the point of being disruptive to an individual's social functioning and/or the normal activities of daily living. Although a mood characterised by sadness is often colloquially referred to as depression, clinical depression is something more than just a temporary state of sadness. Symptoms lasting two weeks or longer, and of a severity that begins to interfere with typical social functioning and/or activities of daily living, is considered clinical depression.
Below is a list of the most common types of symptoms associated with Clinical Depression:
- You feel miserable and sad
- You feel exhausted much of the time with no energy
- You feel as if even the smallest tasks are sometimes impossible
- You seldom enjoy the things that you used to enjoy
- You feel very anxious at times
- You feel like a failure and/or feel guilty much of the time
- You feel a burden to others
- You sometimes feel that life isn't worth living
- You can see no future. There is a loss of hope
- You feel you have no confidence
- You spend a lot of time thinking about what has gone wrong, what will go wrong or what is wrong about yourself as a person
- You may also feel guilty at times about being critical of others (or even thinking critically about them)
- You have difficulty sleeping or wake up very early in the morning and can't sleep again
- You seem to dream all night long and sometimes have disturbing dreams
- You may have physical aches and pains which appear to have no physical cause, such as back pain
The Facts and Figures
- One in five people in Australia will experience severe depression at one time in their life
- At least six million working days are lost each year and another 12 million days of reduced productivity are attributable to depression
- Depression along with anxiety accounts for most of the economic, social and personal costs of mental disorders in Australia and internationally
- Worldwide, depression is predicted to be the second leading cause of all deaths and disabilities by 2020
- Depression disrupts physical health through a range of immune and nervous system responses and is a risk factor for heart disease of the same order as smoking, high blood pressure and cholesterol
- Each worker with depression costs their employer an estimated $10,000 per annum (Sydney Morning Herald, 12/10/2005)
