Depression Flashcards
What does depression mean?
A mental disorder characterised by low mood and low energy level.
What does behavioural mean?
Way people act
What does emotional mean?
Way people feel
What does cognitive mean?
Refers to the process of thinking- knowing, thinking, perceiving
What happens to behaviour when a person has depression?
A person;s behaviour changes
How is activity levels linked to the behavioural characteristics of depression?
Typically sufferers of depression have reduced levels of energy, making them lethargic. This has a knock-on effect, with sufferers tending to withdraw from work, education and social life. In extreme cases this can be so severe that the sufferer 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.
How is disruption to sleep and eating behaviour linked to the behavioural characteristics of depression?
Depression is associated with changes to sleeping behaviour. Sufferers 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. Such behaviours are disrupted by depression.
How is aggression and self harm linked to the behavioural characteristics of depression?
Sufferers of depression are often irritable and in some cases 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.
What happens to the cognitive aspect when a person is depressed?
Thecognitve aspect of depression is concerned with the ways in which people process information. People suffering from depression or who have suffered depression tend to process information about several aspects of the world differently from the normal ways that people without depression think.
How is poor concentration part of the cognitive characteristics of depression?
-Depression is associated with poor levels of concentration. The sufferer may find themselves unable to stick with a task as they usually would, or they might find it hard to make decisions they would normally find straightforward. Poor concentration and poor decision making are likely to interfere with the individuals work.
How is attending to and dwelling on the negative part of cognitive characteristics of depression?
When suffering a depressive episode people are inclined to pay more attention to negative aspect of a situation and ignore the positives. In other words, they tend to see a glass as half empty rather full.
Sufferers also have a bias towards recalling unhappy events rather than happy ones- the opposite bias that most people have when not depressed.
How is absolutist thinking part of cognitive characteristics of depression?
Most situations are not all good/ bad, but when a suffer is depressed they tend to think in these term. They sometimes call this ‘black and white thinking’. This means that when a situation is unfortunate they tend to see it as an absolute disaster.
How is lowered mood part of the emotional characteristics of depression?
When we use the word ‘depressed’ in everyday life we are usually describing having a lowered mood, in other words feeling sad. As you can see from the rest of this spread there is more to clinical depression than this.
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. Patients often describe themselves as worthless and empty.
How is anger part of the emotional characteristics of depression?
Although sufferers tend to experience more negative emotions and fewer positive ones during episodes of depression, this experience of negative emotion is not limited to sadness. Sufferers of depression also frequently experience anger, sometimes extreme anger. This can be directed at the self or to others. On occasion such emotions lead to aggressive or self harming behaviour.
How is Lowered self esteem part of the emotional characteristics of depression?
Self esteem is the emotional experience of how much we like ourselves. Sufferers of depression tend to report reduced self esteem, in other words they like themselves less than usual. This can be quite extreme, with some sufferers of depression describing a sense of self loathing, i.e. hating themselves.
