December 12

First of all I would like to thank so many of you who have been giving me feedback on the Foxblog. I appreciate all your emails and text messages and I'm glad that some of you have been helped or even inspired, if only in small ways, by some of the stuff they've read on Foxblog.

Let me mention a couple of things about depression. According to statistics published by the World Health Organization,

• Major depressive disorder is the leading cause of disability in the U.S. for ages 15-44.
• Clinical or major depression is the top cause of disability throughout the world for persons 5 and over.

Depression is a mood disorder and not just a normal reaction to when life is a pain in the rear. Life has its ups and downs and normally we successfully cope with that one way or the other, which may include feeling sad, down, blue, in the dumps and just plain like crap. But that's not depression. 

Mood disorders are much more than just feeling sad. They affect the entire body and cause changes in the body, especially in brain functioning, so that you can't change your mood by sheer willpower. As I've mentioned before, you can't just snap out of depression. Depression always affects our brain chemistry and therefore our thinking, eating, sleeping, concentrating, and just about every other area of our daily life.

There are basically two main flavors of mood disorders: unipolar and bipolar. Unipolar disorders are associated with feeling only sad and empty. Hence, they are called unipolar. Bipolar disorders usually alternate between mania and depression, hence they are called bipolar.

Today I'll describe unipolar depression. Common symptoms are:

* Persistently feeling sad, anxious, empty, worthless.
* Persistently feeling guilty.
* Feeling hopeless.
* You can't feel any joy or pleasure.
* You experience loss of energy and drive (and that would include your sex drive, folks).
* You find it hard to concentrate, remember stuff or make decisions.
* You're restless and irritable.
* You can't sleep well, wake up early in the morning, feel like shit, oversleep and find it hard to wake up.
* Your appetite changes (overeating, undereating).
* Other physical symptoms may include headaches, stomach aches, digestive disorders, or just feeling pain all over.
* You think about death or dying a lot, or even attempt to commit suicide.

In short: Sounds a lot like menopause, huh, girls??? Just kidding.

If you experience many of these symptoms for longer than a couple of weeks, you may be depressed (or menopausal, or both ;-D)

Go get help from a medical doctor or contact your Fox. *grin*

Tomorrow we'll talk about bipolar depression.