Everyone experiences sadness at some point in their lives, which is totally natural. The experience of sadness typically follows an arc, coming about for a specific reason and going away on its own eventually. The situation you’re talking about seems to be different in the sense that it’s a persisting mood that doesn’t lift even when your circumstances improve.
Most People Don’t know Sadness and depression aren’t the same thing
The World Health Organization makes a fairly clear distinction here. Depressive episodes entail depressed mood or loss of pleasure and interest in activities for most of the day, nearly every day, for at least two weeks. This is how it is distinguished from normal mood swings. WHO estimates that around 4% of the world’s population suffers from depression, and it can affect anyone.
Apart from depressed mood, there can be such symptoms as inability to concentrate, excessive guilt or low self-respect, feelings of hopelessness about the future, disturbances in sleep, appetite and weight changes, and an overwhelming feeling of fatigue which cannot be overcome with sleep.
The NHS also provides such symptoms as physical and social: slowness of movement or speech, inexplicable pain, avoiding people, and giving up interests. It does not matter if you experience all these symptoms, their number and intensity may vary greatly.
Why This Might Be Happening To You
The causes are hardly ever singular. As noted by NIMH, there is evidence pointing towards a complex interaction of genetic, biological, environmental, and psychological factors. While a family history is one of the factors increasing the likelihood of someone having the condition, having depression just because of genetics is rare.
As noted by WHO, those who went through traumatic experiences like abuse, major losses, and other kinds of stress are more susceptible to getting depression. Physical wellbeing is an important factor as well which as noted by NIMH, depression often occurs alongside chronic conditions like diabetes, heart disease, and chronic pain; the latter tends to exacerbate both problems.
A list of other factors may be considered as well. The US Department of Veterans Affairs mentions some conditions and habits like hypothyroidism, anaemia, chronic substance abuse, and the use of specific medication as possible risk factors for developing the disorder. There may also be cases without any clear triggers at all –and that happens often enough.
Tips to actually help you
NHS explains that treatment is normally a mixture of self-help, talking therapy and drugs, based on the degree of severity of depression.
Watchful waiting for two to four weeks along with guidance on self-help (six to eight therapy sessions based on working through a self-help book or online therapy programme with a therapist, with help of cognitive behavioural therapy as the base technique) and physical exercise are possible for mild depression, while NHS calls exercise one of the leading types of treatment for mild depression supported by research.
Talking therapy is considered the most preferable method of treating depression and it is possible to refer yourself to it without consulting a GP first. In the case of moderate or severe depressions the full range of treatments, including the use of medications, is explained by the NICE guidelines.
An NIH-funded study examined 106 factors in relation to their link with higher/lower risk of developing depression in 112,000 adult patients.
Eighteen factors were linked to lower risk of depression while 11 factors were connected to increased risk of depression. The key factors which were related to lower risk of developing depression were communication with other people, enough sleep, doing physical activity such as swimming, cycling, fast walking and belonging to a sport club or gym. Factors related to increased risks of depression were daytime naps and high level of time spent on using computer/TV.
It is important to remember that it is an association, not a causal effect. Therefore, start very small: one sleep time at night; one person to whom one can talk honestly; one walk. The thing is that when one is depressed, the motivation comes after the fact, not before it.
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