depression

Question 1

What is depression characterised by

Answer 1

Changes to mood

Question 2

What changes when we experience an episode of depression

Answer 2

Behaviour

Question 3

Behavioural characteristics of depression

Answer 3

1. Activity levels
2. Disruption to sleeping and eating
3. Aggression and self harm

Question 4

Activity levels

Answer 4

• people with depression have reduced levels of energy making them lethargic
• has knock on effect causing them to withdraw from work, education and social life
• in some cases depression can have opposite effect where individual is agitated and they struggle to relax

Question 5

Disruption to sleep and eating behaviour

Answer 5

• may experience insomnia or hypersomnia
• appetite and eating may increase or decrease leading to weight gain or loss

Question 6

Aggression and self harm

Answer 6

• people with depression are often irritable and in some cases can be verbally or physically abusive
• depression can lead to physical aggression directed against the self eg self harm

Question 7

Emotional characteristics of depression

Answer 7

1. Lowered mood
2. Anger
3. Lowered self - esteem

Question 9

Lowered mood

Answer 9

• people with depression often describe themselves as worthless
• it is more pronounced than the daily experience of felling letters gif and sad

Question 10

Anger

Answer 10

• can be directed to themselves or others
• can lead to aggressive behaviour

Question 11

Lowered self esteem

Answer 11

• emotional experience of how much we like ourselves
• depressed people like themselves less than usual (some even self loathing)

Question 12

Cognitive aspects of depression

Answer 12

• concerned with the ways in which people with depression process info because they tend to process info about several aspects of the world quite differently normal ways that people without depression think
  1. poor concentration
  2. attending to dwelling on the negative
  3. absolutist thinking

Question 13

Poor concentration

Answer 13

• unable to stick with tasks as they usually would
• find it hard to make decisions
• likely to interfere with individuals work

Question 14

Dwelling on negative

Answer 14

• more inclined to focus on negative aspects of situation ang ignore positives
• have bias to recalling unhappy events rather than happy ones

Question 15

Absolutist thinking

Answer 15

Most situations are not all bad but a depressed person will have black and white thinking