Female Care » Depression

Menopause Signs

lisitsa — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 14:54:29 +0000

Climax is not a disease or disorder of the organism. Menopause is a transient state between two life stages of women when menstrual bleeding terminates. Various symptoms testify about hormonal changes during menopause. If consider menopause signs, the first is the age. Menopause occurs in certain age, therefore knowing approximate period we can compare to other signs and realize that menopause has come. The exact age of climax is impossible to define, because the processes responsible for ovaries activity have not been studied yet. Also we can say that this process occurs individually, but certain average time frames of menopause coming can be defined. It is the age of 45-56 years. However, as it was told above, it can be observed individually, earlier or later. The shorter time intervals between menstrual periods can be the first sign of menopause approaching. During menopause, menstrual periods come unexpectedly.

Before climax bone density and cholesterol level are decreased leading to cardiovascular diseases. The following first signs can testify about menopause: mood swings, depression, chronic weakness, headaches, change of menstrual cycle, pain, spasms, blood sugar fluctuations, body water retention, sleep disorder, low libido, painful urination and skin ageing.

Besides, during premenopausal period an estrogen level is sharply decreased in woman. However, the reason of estrogen level decrease should be revealed. It may not be associated with menopause. The doctor will define menopause after checking gonadotropin level in blood or urine. If hormones level is high, the hypophysis releases them for extra stimulation of ovaries activity. It means that the process begins.

Generally, it is impossible to say that menopause came, even if the said signs are observed. Any modern and advanced analysis cannot define when a woman experiences climax. So, ask your mother when she experienced this process in order to be ready because it depends very much on hereditary.

Menopause is the beginning of a new life for a woman. In the beginning of this process there is nothing bad and you can feel many positive effects. As this process is inevitable you will have to adapt. Knowing when you can expect the beginning of this process will help you to prepare.

Menopause and Depression

lisitsa — Fri, 19 Feb 2010 14:32:42 +0000

Every woman experiences the specific period called menopause or climax. Menopause is a period in women characterized by disorder of estrogen hormones release. These hormones define activity of ovaries and hypophysis. Usually this process starts in the female organism after the age of 45 to 55 years, and its average duration is from 4 to 8 years.

Menopause does not come in one moment, this process is complicated physically and psychologically. Generally the female organism has enough time to prepare for a new stage of the life because the process lasts for long and categorized by certain stages which help to manage with these changes.

Menopause is divided into three stages: pre-menopause (from the beginning of lowering ovaries function to menopause), menopause (the last menstrual periods), and post-menopause (from the end of the last menstrual periods to the end of the life cycle). The process occurs gradually and woman is getting used to changes without serious affecting. But very often women feel menopause depression.

The scientists have been trying for over the century to find correlation between menopause and depression. The physiological and psychological changes observed during menopause depression have not been studied yet. Many mood swings are caused by estrogen deficiency, however it is not always like this, so it cannot be explained by the specific factors. Menopause was always associated with the period when women are especially sensitive to mental disorders. However, psychological disorders depend on various factors. Very often these disorders are related to early menopause. Early menopause may arise due to many reasons, for example: surgeries, ovaries functionality lowering, diseases, and many other disorders.

The beginning of the early menopause for many women signifies the end of life, but it is not like this. They cannot have children, they are getting older after menopause and these factors cause depression. After deep reflections, they may experience mood disorder hard to be treated.

This female menopause depression problem has been studied for a long time by the doctors, and the clinical researches conducted to reveal menopause depression reasons define various results.

It is difficult to make a specific conclusion on the basis of available analysis. Probably, we can say that menopause depression is not observed in all women, but many women experience these symptoms, especially in perimenopausal period.

Personal Properties Affecting Depression

Martin — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 18:15:41 +0000

The mislead of hate and rage to one’s self instead of people around in belief of causing loss of people around. (A character in that kind of a structure has not had regular and sufficient mother- child relation in one’s early 1-2 years. The depression the person goes through is related to a real or assumed loss.)

- As a person, one’s surroundings and expectations from future, ideals and one’s real situation could be so very different from the real world, so distracted and so inappropriate that being not able to reach these high standards may lead to weakness and loneliness thoughts and depression.

- One’s super ego could be so powerful and dominant that it restricts, blames, takes away from comforting and pleasure-giving activities, as if torturing.

- People around one may expect so many things that it’s impossible to establish. This may lead to some thoughts of weakness and misery and turn them into depression.

- There exists no one that one could love, respect, be proud of, get support and company, follow the footprints, idealize as a father, mother, teacher, relative etc. in a certain level. This affects the development of character in a negative way and may lead to loss of self- confidence and eventually depression.

- Separation or loss of parents in childhood may lead to build wrong or insufficient mechanisms to get over stressed circumstances lacking of support and this may prepare some base to depression.

- The characteristics are important in depression progress. The tendency to depression is higher in people who are obsessive- compulsive, addictive, hysterionic and in borderline having personal disorders.

Depression in Children

Martin — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 20:13:42 +0000

Depression is not only observed in adults. Children and adolescents could get depressed as well. It’s known that 5% of the children, 5-10% of the adolescents are exposed to depression.

Depression is defined as a disease that prevents the child or the adolescent from establishing various functions whereas depression feelings remains stable.

The risk of getting depressed is higher in children under stress, going through loss, having disorder of attention, comprehension, behaviour or anxiety. Family related tendency is important in depression progress as well.

SYMPTOMS

The symptoms of children and adolescents getting depressed may be different from those of adults. It’s recommended that you take an expert’s advice if there exists one or more of the depression symptoms in your children for a long time.

· Frequently crying and being sorry

· Hopelessness

· Reducing attention in activities or getting no pleasure from activities that were done before with pleasure

· Constant boredom, lack of energy

· Social isolation, lack of communication

· Lack of self- respect and feeling of guilt

· Oversensation in failure or rejection issues

· Increase in anger, hostility, resentment

· Having problems in relationships

· Frequent physical complaints like headache, stomachache

· Decrease in success in school and attendance at school

· Lack of concentration

· Great changes in habits like sleeping and eating

· Claims or attempts to run away from home

· Expressions or thoughts of suicide or hurting one’s self

A child who used to play with friends may come to spend time alone and have interest in nothing at all. The things once used to enjoy one’s self may become less interesting or have no meaning at all for a child in depression. They may say that they’re mean, not loved and blame themselves frequently. With self- respect, they may be lack of self- confidence and be conservative. Children and adolescents in depression may want to die or mention suicide. The risk of suicide increases in children and adolescents in depression. They may apply to smoking, alcohol or drugs to make themselves feel fine.

Children and adolescents causing troubles at home or school may be going through depression. For the reason the little children would not seem sorry all the time, parents and teachers may not understand that the troublesome behaviours are symptoms of depression. Hyper-activity, harshness, frequent crying may be symptoms of depression in little children. When asked directly, some children may express that they are unhappy or sorry. In little children and girls in adolescence, the symptoms of depression are seen as mostly physical complaints like stomachache or headache. Physical symptoms are frequently seen in children who are lack of self- confidence about school, insufficience in establishing relationships and having problems in getting independant from parents. Symptoms like headache or stomachache may get condensed while going to school in the morning.

EARLY DIAGNOSIS AND TREATMENT IS IMPORTANT

Early diagnosis and treatment is quite important in children going through depression. Depression is a real disease that really requires professional help. A developed treatment usually involves application of therapy both to the person and the family. For example, cognitive behaviour therapy and personal psychotherapy especially are important as personal therapy methods in depression treatment in children.

Treatment may require usage of antidepressing medication. Recently produced new antidepressing medications could be used with little children in safety and do not have properties like addictivity. For help, it’s essential to apply to a expert in children and adolescents’ mental health to diagnose and treat the depression in children and adolescents.

10 Factors That Increase The Risk of Depression

Martin — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 18:11:52 +0000

There is no easy answer to the question why people get depressed. It’s certain what causes the flu, because the virus can be detected. It’s uncertain what causes depression, however there are some important issues known about depression. Probably it depends on the following components: Genetic tendency, factors that affected you essentially while growing up. Now you can get further information about the causes of depression here.

Genetics

Depression may show transition between family members. If your mother, father, children or siblings go through repeating depression attacks, unfortunately the risk of having once or more depression episodes of yours is 20%.

Sex

The possibility of progress in depression in women is as twice as much in men. What is more, it is claimed that recently in fact there are much men getting depressed in number than that are assumed in the first place, however they are much more in volunteer to get into a research of treatment. Depression affects men in different aspects so that most men don’t even realize that they’ve got depressed. That leads to existence of decreased per cents in researches.

Socio-economic situation

The relation between social situation and depression isn’t verified eventually, but it seems like the risk of progress in depression in lower socio-economic groups is higher.

Psychological trauma

Some people who have gone through psychological shocks and traumas react these issues by getting depressed. Some of them react in anxiety or alcoholism. In some of them, there hardly occurs a psychological damage. The reaction that you’ll give depends on mostly your genetics and personality.

Sexual abuse

The risk of depression stands higher in people who have been exposed to sexual abuse in childhood.

Divorce

It’s uncertain whether divorce increases the risk of depression or not. The possibility of having been divorced is higher in people depressed than other people, but it’s uncertain whether people get depressed due to divorce or get divorced due to depression.

Unemployment

The possibility of being unemployed is higher in depressed people. However it’s uncertain whether people get depressed due to unemployment or get unemployed due to depression.

Lamentation

It’ll probably surprise you to find out that there’s no relation between the death of a close friend or a relative and the risk of getting into depression. Lamentation is a different situation; however if lasts for too long or causes loss of sense, you may get depressed.

Illness

Physical illnesses increase the risk of depression. Any kind of illness may lead to depression. That is valid for serious problems like coroner thromboses and cancer as well as small problems like flu.

Pregnancy and birth

The risk of progress in depression is higher in weeks and months that follow giving birth. It’s essential that both of your body and mind to get into synchronization in the birth process. It requires harmony in functional systems to look after your baby. This is a most emotional period of life and every one of ten women gets into postnatal depression.

What is Depression? (major depression)

Martin — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 19:05:05 +0000

Most people suffer from depression in some part of their lives. Almost everyday you can hear someone complaining about feeling down and depressed and it is pretty normal in today’s fast paced and stressed life. Depression has certainly become the 21st century plague. However, there are lots of confusions about what depression really is, the differences between clinical depression and the common old blues, and many types of depression that people may experience.

Depression is a serious –but common- mental illness that affects directly the way you live. It is true and actually sad that we use the same term –depressed- for two different things – a bad mood and a diagnosable illness. However, depression is far more than a prolonged bad mood or just feeling sad and down, it is a serious mental illness which needs treatment by professionals.

Depression can be triggered by an event like loss of a loved one, or a job, a divorce, family problems etc., but it can also come on for no apparent reason at all. Grief after the death or the usual mood swings of teenagers are not considered depression in the usual sense. It generally strikes adults and twice as many women as men.

Finding and understanding the cause of the depression is not really matters, immediately getting effective and appropriate treatment is the important thing. However, first you should know that if it is just the common blues that you are going through, or something more..?

Everything is Fine, so Why Am I Depressed?

Martin — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 17:56:56 +0000

Sometimes, depression can be a very complicated feeling. Even if all the things in your life may seem to be in order, you may still fell unhappy and unsatisfied. If it is the depression that we are mentioning, internal conditions are more important than the external ones. You may have a good job, a caring family and supportive friend, still you can as yourself, everything seems fine, but why do I still feel bad about myself?

Whenever you succeed at something that is important for you, if you think that it was just your luck or anyone could have done that, you are missing a chance to be happy. This may seem like a little thing; however this kind of thinking is an obvious symptom of depression.

Everything in life changes, nothing ever stays the same, but human nature tends wishing things to continue the same way. In this case, the important and necessary thing is to adopt those changes. Unfortunately depressive thoughts and behavior make it hard to adopt these changes. You may have difficulties in changing your view of life making decisions and you may not know what to do when you face those changes. At these times life may seem not worth living for you, if this is the case you should immediately get help from trained professionals.

Depressed people often tend to live in the past and questions, where did all things went wrong? What have I done to make that happen? You may blame yourself all the time and feel not confident. All these thoughts trigger depression and if you can not enjoy your moment, even the things were currently alright, you should get help from professionals.

Remember even if your life is financially secured, you still have human needs like having good relationships with other people, feeling connected and spiritually secured and having goals to achieve. If all these things sound meaningless and pointless to you that means you may have an illness which needs treatment.

Dysthymic Disorder (Dysthymia)

Martin — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 19:55:04 +0000

Dysthymia is simply chronic depression which lasts for years. It does not have to be as severe as the major depression; however people who suffer from dysthymia do not even remember a day that they did not felt depressed. The symptoms are similar to depression, overeating or poor appetite, low energy, sleeping disorders, low self esteem and difficulties in concentration and making decisions.

In order to be diagnosed with dysthymic disorder, no major depressive disorder has been diagnosed and the duration in children and adolescents must be at least a year, for adults this is more than two years. This means that the person needs to have a long termed, mild and not complicated depression to be diagnosed with dysthymia.

In adults, dysthymia has a big risk to turn into major depressive disorder. In children, there is a risk of having hyperactivity disorder, learning disorders and mental retardation. Adolescents have bad school performance low self esteem and poor social interaction.

Bipolar Disorder (Manic Depression)

Martin — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 17:53:26 +0000

Bipolar disorder – also known as manic depression is a serious mental illness which is defined as episodes of disturbances in mood. It causes mood swings between two extreme things; in one hand excessive elation, energy and self esteem, and on the other hand helplessness, hopelessness and a severe depression. The first one is called mania and the second is depression, however between these extremes there may be a phase called hypomania which is mild to moderate mania.

First symptom of manic depression could be hypomania. In this state the person has an increasing energy. The person may laugh so much at things that he did not find even funny earlier and tries to take all the attention. During the hypomania, the person feels good and will possibly deny that if anything is wrong, thus bipolar disorder is generally can not be recognized by patient’s relatives, friends or even physicians.

Types of Mood Episodes

Manic Episode (Mania): Mania is a serious clinical condition which can be defined as a severely elevated mood. The person who suffers from mania has decreased need for sleep, hyperactivity, irritability, delusions and excessive anger or rage. It may lead the person to act so hasty and spontaneous. They have difficulties in making decisions and concentrating. During the manic episode, one always denies that something is wrong; however experiencing the mania is quite disturbing and unpleasant. Manic episode lasts at least a week.

Hypomanic Episode (Hypomania): Hypomania is a milder type of mania. During this episode, one may feel very creative, coming up with new ideas, has a high self esteem and is more talkative than usual. Hypomanic episode lasts at least four days.

Major Depressive Episode (Depression): Major Depressive episode may last at least two weeks.

Mixed Episode: In mixed episode, the person experiences both manic and depressive episodes and it may last at least a week.

What Are The Symptoms of Depression? (Clinical Depression-Major Depression)

Martin — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 17:41:33 +0000

Depression alters the way you think, feel, behave and also affects your physical well-being.

Depression affects your thinking in a traumatic way. Negative thinking, pessimism, is the characteristic of the depression. You may suffer from problems in concentration and decision making. Suffering from short termed memory, forgetting things and immoderate guilt may be experienced during depression. Besides, it is not uncommon and unheard that depression causes self destructive and suicidal thoughts.

A person who is depressed often feels sad and empty for no reason at all. The things you enjoyed and interested before, may seem no longer enjoyable. This may include your hobbies, going out with your friends, even sex. You may feel apathetic and become more apathetic day by day. Feeling “slowed down” and being tired all the time may experienced and during a more serious depression feelings turn into helplessness and hopelessness.

Changes in your behaviour reflect the changes in your thinking and feelings. You may become really apathetic and ignore your daily activities. Actually depressed people do almost nothing; they even ignore their basic needs like eating and cleaning themselves. Sometimes just going out of the bed may seem impossible. You may have also problems controlling outbursts of anger. Excessive crying, being antisocial and feeling not comfortable with other people is common.

All of these negative changes may cause physical problems as well. Sleeping problems is another characteristic of the depression. While some people spend most of the day sleeping, some people can not sleep soundly and stay awake for hours. Chronic pains, such as headaches, eating disorders –usually losing the appetite- are experienced during depression. However, physical problems are usually persistent and will not respond to treatment.