DEPRESSED.? Here's Help

Lately it's been a colossal effort to drag yourself out of bed. it's impossible to concentrate on your work. your headaches and sleeplessness make it worse. weekends are no better. golf used to be fun, but it turned boring. even sex is a chore. an alarming thought flashes by "may be this misery would end if I never woke up...".

Warning signals: you've got more than a case of the blahs. these are signs of a common but serious illness: major depression. Because it may masquerade as different ailments -backache, stomach problems, anxiety- and because it often gets dismissed as the blues, true depression is far more prevalent than most people realize. goof-offs and bumblers aren't necessarily the ones who get clobbered, either.

While depression can be a dreadful disease, it is also easily treated. left untreated, a major depression typically lasts at least six months. but today most depressives can begin recovering within a few weeks, thanks to new therapies and better understanding of the disease.

A tendency to depression is not a weakness or a self-indulgence. scientist theorize that depression is caused by an imbalance of chemicals in the brain. it runs in families: the parents, siblings and children of a depressed person are at higher risk for depression than those who do not have a depressed person in the family; an identical twin is at even greater risk.

Still, depression can strike anybody. consider the man in this 50(s) who signed on as chief financial officer (CFO) at a company in the midst of a leveraged buyout. told to fire the controller, the CFO fought to keep him because of the older man's knowledge of the company. the two men became friends. then the controller died of cancer. to the CFO's amazement, his friend's death helped bring on a major depression.

"I'd never been sick a day in my life", he says. "Suddenly I couldn't eat or sleep". his weight dropped rapidly, and he became so anxious that he found himself screaming in the car on the way to work. he barricade himself at home on weekends and rarely emerged from his office at work. "I could barely think. I'd stare at six pairs of identical white underwear in the morning and not be able to decide which to put on".

After unsuccessful attempts at treatment, the executive attended a special program at a clinic, where he received proper medication and attended group therapy. eventually, he overcame the depression, and it has not been back.

Depression is often triggered by stressful life events, but it can also be touched off by positive news like a promotion, a baby or a new home. not surprisingly, feeling depressed is one of the is anhedonia, a markedly diminished interest in food, sex, hobbies -just about everything pleasurable.

If you, or people around you, observe either of these mind-sets for two weeks or more, watch out for seven other signals: a big increase or loss in weight, sleeplessness or over sleeping, fatigue, slowed body movements, feelings of concentrate or make decisions, and thought of death. if you display any four of these symptoms along with anhedonia or depressed mood, you've got a major depression.

Burnout or grief complicates the diagnosis of depression. "depression doesn't respond to common sense. a depressed person takes a vacation and doesn't feel better. or a friend tries to cheer him up and he feels worse". the biggest problem facing most new patients is waiting to see the effects of treatment. if the depression is mild to moderate, you will fare well with antidepressant medication or short-term psychotherapy.

If you decide to go to the family doctor for help, tell him or her explicitly that you think you're depressed. good-win says non-psychiatrist doctors sport major depression less frequently than mental-health professionals do. some primary-care etc drug or a sleeping pill, which may act as a depressant and make matters worse. if the treatment you embark on doesn't begin working within eight weeks, your doctor may start or change medication. if you do not feel therapy is helping find a more compatible therapist. for moderate to severe depression, get medicine right away. government guidelines say there is almost no evidence that psychotherapy alone is useful in eliminating severe depression. if the symptoms are relentless, if your thought feel as if they're pushing through molasses, nobody would question using medication.

Antidepressant seem to work by booting the levels of the two types of neurotransmitters in the brain that are thought to affect mood. older antidepressants -tricyclics and MAO inhibitors- boost transmitters but cause unwanted side effects, including dry mouth, lightheadedness when standing and weight gain. users of MAOinhibitors have to avoid certain foods, such as some cheeses, wines and pickled items. the newest class of antidepressants, by comparison, seems to affect only one transmitters, called serotonin. this class of drug is safer and has fewer side effects than older drugs.

One other depression treatment is widely misunderstood: electroshock or electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), in which a mild current passing through the scalp induces a seizure. ECT is used only in cases when other treatment have been unsuccessful. the process got a terrible reputation 30 years ago, when it caused memory loss and dangerous convulsions. but using muscle relaxants and new ways of positioning the electrodes has greatly reduced these problems.

The major classes of antidepressants are all equally effective, though sometimes one kind won't work on one person while another will. doctors usually try easing patients off medication after six months to a year. if symptom kick up again, the medicine is resumed. antidepressants are not mood elevators or tranquilizers. if you are depressed, they will probably make you well, but if you are not depressed, they won't make you extra happy. they are not known to be addictive and don't require steadily increasing doses. but don't dismiss psychotherapy. medicine may help a driven executive, for example who spent a lifetime pursuing his career, then was laid off and fell victim to depression. but if all that ambition snuffed out relationships with his wife, kids and community, pills won't help enough. therapy might.

What if you suspect that a spouse or loved one is depressed? don't be bashful. id you think the sufferer will deny the problem, call a doctor yourself.