Main categories of depression
Just as any other illnesses, the depressive disorders come in different forms. This work will only describe three of the most popular categories of depressive disorders. In these types that we describe, we will notice differences in the number of symptoms, their severity and persistence.
Major depression
This manifests in a combination of symptoms – affecting one's ability to work, study, eat, sleep and enjoy activities that once were pleasant – and appears once or several times in a lifetime.
The second type of depression is dysthymia, a less severe form of depression involving long term chronic symptoms that have mild effect on well functioning or feeling good in a person. People suffering from this type of depression will some time encounter major depressive episodes in their life.
The third type of depression presented in this work is bipolar disorder, also known as maniac – depressive illness. This type of depression is not as common as those other forms and manifests through cycling mood changes, from severe highs (mania) to lows (depression). Usually, those changes appear gradually, but in some particular cases, they are sudden and dramatic. If the individual enters a depressed cycle, he can meet any or all the depressive symptoms. If he enters the maniac cycle, he will be characterized as hyperactive, over talkative and very energetic. This cycle can affect one's thinking, judgement and social behavior thus creating a bad image of himself.