Depression

Depression can occur at any time throughout a person’s life. Depression affects both genders but is more common among females than males According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) more than 1 out of 20 Americans age 12 or older reported having moderate or severe depression in 2009-2012.

Depression poses a serious risk to a person’s health due to suicide and increased risk for heart disease, smoking, substance use disorders and other mental health disorders.

Do you have signs and symptoms of a major depressive disorder? Diagnosis for a major depressive disorder includes the following symptoms:

• Feel sad, hopeless or irritable most of the time
• Decreased interest in doing things you once enjoyed
• Significant increase or decrease in amount of food you eat
• Insomnia (difficulty sleeping enough) or hypersomnia (sleeping a lot)
• Difficulty focusing or paying attention
• Often tired or tense
• Feel worthless, guilty or useless
• Self injurious behaviors or other self destructive behaviors

If you said yes to some of these symptoms, you may have depression and we suggest you seek assessment from your doctor or a mental health professional.

Experiencing just one episode of a major depressive disorder puts a person at a 50% risk for experiencing another episode. It is important to know that depression is not just a bad day and there are effective treatments to help decrease the relapse potential for experiencing depression in the future. When depression is not treated it is likely to become a chronic disease so seek help now.

For more information on our counseling services and scheduling, please contact us to schedule today.