Depression

Depression Symptoms: What Are They? Am I Depressed? With depression, you might have trouble falling asleep, or you might find yourself going to bed right after dinner. You might skip meals, or you might overeat. You can lose interest in sex, or crave it addictively. You might get headaches or…

Intense feelings of despair. Anxiety. Hopelessness, Loss of interest. Mood swings. Irritability. Social isolation. What do all of these things have in common? They’re symptoms of depression—and well-known symptoms, at that. As we grow more comfortable talking about mental health and mental illness, depression is often a topic of interest…

New research suggests certain positions and longer careers increase an NFL player’s risk of developing cognitive and mental health issues.  Researchers analyzed career length, position history, head and neck injuries, concussion symptoms, depression and anxiety symptoms. They found that players with the longest careers were twice as likely to report…

A cardinal feature of depression, like other mental health conditions such as anxiety or trauma, is difficulty with memory: remembering, recalling, and—sometimes in severe cases—recognizing people, things, tasks, memories, events, and to-dos. Often, people with depression will have great difficulty remembering where things in the house or at work may…

Research supports that spirituality can help improve symptoms of depression and other mental health conditions. Engaging in spiritual practices changes the prefrontal region of the brain; additionally, it serves as a shield against stress. When we turn to our spiritual nature, or focus on a higher power, we become more…

Sometimes, symptoms of depression are accompanied by signs of aggression, which can signify agitated depression. Agitated depression isn’t a distinct depression type, but rather a clearer explanation for cases of depression that also include acts of aggression. Symptoms include your normal depression symptoms, like depressed mood and lack of interest…

While some of us simply despise the cold weather characteristic of winter, others actually suffer significantly from a form of depression called seasonal affective disorder or SAD. This particular type of depression is thought to be caused by a lack of sunlight; symptoms include feelings of despair, difficulty sleeping, and…

Depression is characterized by, well, a depressed state. Those who develop the condition present this state of despair as well as a loss of interest or pleasure in day to day life. The remaining characteristics can vary… and be mistaken for another illness entirely—the flu. This makes distinguishing the difference…

Teens and other young individuals overuse the term depression: they say they’re “depressed,” when they’re anything but perfectly happy. This is a problem, as it blurs the line between being experiencing normal emotions and being clinically depressed. The answer to this problem is to help young people understand that life…

Many of us enjoy a cold beer or a tall glass of wine every now and again. It helps to “take the edge off,” to calm us down after a long week. But what we often fail to realize is that alcohol affects each one of us differently—and as tempting…

Instead of setting New Year’s resolutions, I set New Month’s resolutions. So, rather than brainstorming a few different goals to tackle throughout the year, I set one main goal to tackle each month. In January, I set a fairly simple goal of journaling each night. In February, I (regrettably) challenged…

If you’re anything like me, you don’t take change or rejection well… which means you probably don’t take breakups so well. I mean, who does? Breakups—whether you’re the one who has initiated the split or not—aren’t fun. In fact, they’re the very opposite of fun: they’re emotionally, mentally, sometimes even…