5. characteristics of depression Flashcards
BEHAVIOURAL CHARACTERISTICS OF DEPRESSION
Behaviour changes when we experience an episode of depression.
CHANGE TO ACTIVITY LEVELS
DISRUPTION TO SLEEP AND EATING BEHAVIOUR
AGGRESSION AND SELF-HARM
CHANGE TO ACTIVITY LEVELS
Typically, people with depression have reduced levels of energy, making them lethargic.
This has a knock-on effect, with people tending to withdraw from work, education, and social life. In extreme cases this can be so severe that the person cannot get out of bed.
In some cases, depression can lead to the opposite effect - known as psychomotor agitation. These individuals struggle to relax and may end up pacing up and down.
AGGRESSION AND SELF-HARM
People with depression are often irritable, and in some cases, they can become verbally or physically aggressive. This can have serious knock-on effects on a number of aspects of their life. For example, someone experiencing depression might display verbal aggression by ending a relationship or quitting a job.
Depression can also lead to physical aggression directed against the self. This includes self-harm, often in the form of cutting, or suicide attempts.
DISRUPTION TO SLEEP AND EATING BEHAVIOUR
Depression is associated with changes to sleeping behaviour. A person may experience reduced sleep (insomnia), particularly premature waking, or an increased need for sleep (hypersomnia). Similarly, appetite and eating may increase or decrease, leading to weight gain or loss. The key point is that such behaviours are disrupted by depression.
EMOTIONAL CHARACTERISTICS OF DEPRESSION
LOWERED MOOD
ANGER
LOWERED SELF-ESTEEM
LOWERED MOOD
When we use the word ‘depressed in everyday life we are usually describing having a lowered mood, in other words feeling sad.
Lowered mood is still a defining emotional element of depression, but it is more pronounced than in the daily kind of experience of feeling lethargic and sad People with depression often describe themselves as worthless and ‘empty’.
ANGER
Although people with depression tend to experience more negative emotions and fewer positive ones during episodes of depression, this experience of negative emotion is not limited to sadness. People with depression also frequently experience anger, sometimes extreme anger. This can be directed at the self or others. On occasion such emotions lead to aggressive or self-harming behaviour - which is why this characteristic appears under behavioural characteristics as well.
LOWERED SELF-ESTEEM
Self-esteem is the emotional experience of how much we like ourselves. People with depression tend to report reduced self-esteem, in other words they like themselves less than usual. This can be quite extreme, with some people with depression describing a sense of self-loathing, - hating themselves.
POOR CONCENTRATION
Depression is associated with poor levels of concentration. The person may find themselves unable to stick with a task as they usually would, or they might find it hard to make decisions that they would normally find straightforward. Poor concentration and poor decision-making are likely to interfere with the individual’s work.
COGNITIVE CHARACTERISTICS OF DEPRESSION
The cognitive aspect of depression is concerned with the ways in which people process information. People experiencing depression or who have experienced depression tend to process information about several aspects of the world quite differently from the ‘normal’ ways that people without depression think.
POOR CONCENTRATION
ATTENDING TO AND DWELLING ON THE NEGATIVE
ABSOLUTIST THINKING
ATTENDING TO AND DWELLING ON THE NEGATIVE
When experiencing a depressive episode people are inclined to pay more attention to negative aspects of a situation and ignore the positives. In other words, they tend to see a glass as half-empty rather than half-full.
People with depression also have a bias towards recalling unhappy events rather than happy ones - the opposite bias that most people have when not depressed.
ABSOLUTIST THINKING
Most situations are not all-good or all-bad, but when a person is depressed, they tend to think in these terms. This is sometimes called black-and-white thinking: This means that when a situation is unfortunate, they tend to see it as an absolute disaster.
