How can I help someone who is depressed?

Understanding how to help someone experiencing depression

- CHESHIRE QUE, RND, RN, RD

When we are struck with unprecedented difficult situations in life, it is normal to feel sad or even grieve over the loss of someone or something. In fact, it is healthy to allow ourselves to feel bad or grieve as part of the process.

Depression is another issue. It may be a common mental health condition that is characterized by mood disorders causing sadness, loss of interest in things and activities that one used to enjoy, difficulty in thinking and making decisions, memory loss, changes in appetite, and sleep problems. These symptoms of depression are not merely sadness or grief. They affect one's daily life, including productivity at work or studies, and even relationships. Symptoms of depression are present every single day for at least two weeks or more.

Depression can affect anyone at any age. There are several types of depression, and the American Psychiatric Association's "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition" classified depressive disorders into five types.

The first one is clinical depression, also known as major depressive disorder. This is one of the most common yet also considered the most severe forms of depression. Someone with clinical depression shows signs of sadness, feelings of worthlessness, sleep problems, changes in appetite, and loss of interest in activities for at least two weeks.

Specific forms of major depressive disorders include seasonal affective disorder or seasonal depression that usually occurs during the fall and winter seasons, prenatal and postpartum depression that happens during pregnancy and after giving birth, respectively, and atypical depression, which shows a temporary improvement in mood, as well as other symptoms such as appetite in response to something positive.