Characteristics Of Depression Flashcards
Define Depression.
A mood disorder characterised by feelings of despondency and hopelessness.
Unipolar depression
A form of depression occurring without mania.
Bipolar depression
A form of depression characterised by periods of heightened moods and periods of despondency and hopelessness.
Behavioural characteristics
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. Agitated individuals struggle to relax and may end up pacing up and down a room.
Behavioural characteristics
Disruption to sleep and eating behaviour
Depression is associated with changes to sleeping behaviour.
A person may experience reduced sleep, particularly premature waking, or an increased need for sleep.
Similarly, appetite and eating may increase or decrease, leading to weight gain or loss.
Behavioural characteristics
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.
Emotional characteristics
Lowered mood
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.
Emotional characteristics
Anger
Although people with depression tend to experience more negative emotions 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.
Emotional characteristics
Lowered self-esteem
Self-esteem is the emotional experience of how much we like ourselves. People with depression tend to report reduced self-esteem. This can be quite extreme, with some people with depression describing a sense of self-loathing.
Cognitive characteristics
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
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.
People with depression also have a bias towards recalling unhappy events rather than happy ones.
Cognitive characteristics
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.
