Japanese diet for weight loss

Far from being a little blues, depression can become a real obstacle to everyday life. How do I detect it? What differentiates it from a simple vacuum ? 

Definition: What is a nervous breakdown?

Nervous depression, more simply called "depression", is a mood disorder characterized by deep sadness, irritability, withdrawal, loss of interest in habitual activities, great guilt. When this depressive episode has lasted for more than two weeks and negative emotions have consequences on daily, social, professional and personal functioning, then we can really talk about depression. 

What are the causes?

"You can't talk about the cause of depression: it's multifactorial: depression is about decreasing the ability to feel pleasure or positive emotions. It is the result of a decrease in certain neuromediators in the brain such as serotonin and norepinephrine," explains Prof. Benedicte Gohier. Often, depression does not happen overnight. Exhaustion intensifies as you go because you don't have enough emotional energy to overcome the difficulties you're going through. It is a bit like the gas tank is gradually shrinking and at some point you do not have the capacity to supply it. It may also be related to a number of life events that have occurred. 

What are the symptoms?

Depression affects sleep, leading to insomnia, difficulty falling asleep or early awakenings. In addition to the loss of envy, ruminations, fatigue, weariness, pessimism, decreased food intake and consequently weight loss, anxiety, concentration and memory problems, as well as general slowing and suicidal thoughts. 

Diagnosis and testing

"Diagnosis is essentially through patient interviews. We evaluate the quality of their emotions, their reactions, the events they went through and we try to determine if this depression can be related to other diseases, says the psychiatrist. For example, thyroid dysfunction can lead to depression, as can some neurological diseases. Cancer can also reduce our ability to overcome our emotional states. After developing a clinical picture, the psychiatrist will put in place an appropriate treatment."

What to do and how to treat it?

If it is a mild form of depression that causes difficulties but can be overcome on a daily basis, psychotherapy will suffice. "If we can still regulate the emotional areas, it means that depression is not too important and that we will, through psychotherapy, be able to learn to better understand and control our emotions," says the specialist. When you have a depression, you have a very pejorative vision of yourself, the world and others, it's like looking at the world with dark glasses. Psychotherapy will allow us to reinterpret all this: it is not the world that will change but the way of looking at it. "On the other hand, if it is a severe depression accompanied by a significant weight loss, major sleep disorders, a deep sadness that prevents us from going to work and makes us take no pleasure in anything and that we have suicidal thoughts, we will have to put in place a treatment based on antidepressants in addition to psychotherapy," warns Prof. Gohier.