Have you ever been “down” for a long period of time, or known anyone who moped around for an extended period of time, and wondered if you or they were depressed? Sometimes it can be very hard to tell if someone is reaching out for help, having a bad day, or just trying to get attention. Many people will act like they are sad or act like the world is caving in on them just to get you to pay more attention to them, and make their lives easier. Many people will do others work if someone is having a bad day, which just reinforces a person’s actions. The bad thing about this is it makes it hard to know if someone is actually depressed or just trying to get someone to help them do their work.
However a different type of depression exists, that is known as clinical depression. Clinical depression is defined as a state of depression so severe that is requires intervention by a trained professional. Usually the symptoms of clinical depression will last for a long period of time. The period of time can be as little as two weeks, but is more common for clinical depression symptoms to last for four to six months. Clinical depression does not disappear by itself, and it is usually not something that the person has any control over. However there are several treatment options available for clinical depression including psychotherapy, antidepressant medication, and electroconvulsive therapy.
All of these different treatment options are used by clinical professionals, but each treatment option has different effects on different people. Some people respond well to talking about what is making them feel depressed, which is usually the course of action in psychotherapy. Some people with clinical depression respond better to antidepressant medication, because they have a chemical imbalance in their bodies that is only remedied by medication. And some people will only respond to electroconvulsive therapy, because the short seizure that is caused by this treatment actually shocks their brain into behaving normally for a period of time. However many people relapse about six months after this type of therapy for clinical depression.