Before getting awareness about the management of depression with Ayurveda let us have a brief knowledge about depression.

Depression is a mood disorder that causes a persistent feeling of sadness and loss of interest. It affects how you feel, think and behave and can lead to variety of emotional and physical problems. There may be trouble doing normal day to day activities and sometimes there may be a feel that life isn’t worth living.

Depression may occur once in lifetime or in multiple episodes and it may have the following symptoms.

• Feeling of sadness, tearfulness, emptiness or hopelessness.
• Angry outburst, irritability and frustration even on small matters.
• Loss of interest in most of the normal activities.
• Sleep disturbances such as insomnia or excessive sleep.
• Tiredness lack of energy that even a small task needs extra effort.
• Reduced appetite and weight loss, increased craving for food and weight gain.
• Anxiety, agitation or restlessness.
• Slowed thinking, speaking and body movements.
• Difficulty in thinking, concentrating, making decisions and remembering things.
• Frequent or recurrent thought of death, suicide and suicidal attempts.
• Unexplained physical problems like aches and pains.
• Some people may generally feel miserable and unhappy without knowing the reason.

The causes of depression are Brain chemistry, Genetics, Life events, medical conditions and personality. Depression is nearly twice more common in females than in males. It is a leading cause of disability worldwide.

TYPES OF DEPRESSION:

Symptoms caused by major depression may vary from person to Person as follows

• Anxious Distress – worry about possible events and loss of control
• Mixed features – simultaneous depression and mania, elevated self esteem, talking too much, increased energy.
• Melancholic features – lack of response to something that brings pleasure, early morning awakening, worsened mood in the morning, major changes in appetite, feeling of guilt, agitation or sluggishness.
• Atypical Feature – it includes the ability to temporarily be cheered by happy events, increased appetite, excessive need for sleep, sensitivity to rejection, and a heavy feeling in the arms and legs.
• Psychotic Features – depression accompanied by delusion and hallucinations, which may involve personal inadequacy, or other negative themes.
• Catatonia- depression that includes motor activity that involves either uncontrollable and purposeless movement or fixed and inflexible feature.
• Peripartum Onset – depression that occurs during pregnancy or in the weeks or months after delivery
• Seasonal Pattern – depression related to changes in season and reduced exposure to sunlight.

RISK FACTORS :

Factors that increase the risk of developing or triggering depression are

• Certain personality traits such as low self-esteem, being too dependent, self-critical and pessimistic.
• Traumatic or stressful events such as physical or sexual abuse, the death or loss of loved one, a difficult relationship and financial problem.
• Blood relatives with the history of depression, bipolar disorder, alcoholism or suicide.
• History of other mental health disorder such as anxiety disorder, eating disorder and Post traumatic stress disorder.
• Abuse of alcohol or recreational drugs.
• Serious or chronic illness including cancer stroke etc.
• Certain medications such as high blood pressure medications or sleeping pills.

COMPLICATIONS

Depression if left untreated takes a serious toll on physical health, emotional imbalance, behavioural problem and lead to problems in every area of your life.

• Obesity which in turn leads to heart disease and diabetes
• Pain or physical illness
• Alcohol or Drug misuse
• Anxiety, Panic disorder, Social phobia
• Family conflicts, relationship difficulties, and work or school problems
• Social isolation
• Suicidal feeling, Suicidal attempts and Suicide
• Self-mutilation such as cutting.

We can learn about in detail Ayurveda management in next blog.