Depression Flashcards
(11 cards)
What is depression?
A mental disorder characterised by low mood and low energy levels
What are the behavioural characteristics of depression?
- Activity levels
- Disruption to sleeping/ eating behaviour
What are the emotional characteristics of depression?
- Lowered mood and self esteem
- Anger
What are the cognitive characteristics of depression?
- Poor concentration
- Dwelling on the negative
- Absolutist thinking
Describe what is meant in the behavioural characteristic ‘anxiety levels’
People with depression have reduced levels of energy making them lethargic
This tends to make people withdraw from work, education and social life
In some cases, the person cannot get out of bed
Depression can also lead to the opposite effect - psychomotor agitation
This is when individuals struggle to relax and can end up pacing up and down the room
Describe what is meant in the behavioural characteristic ‘disruption to sleeping and eating behaviour’
Depression is associated with changes in sleeping behaviour
A person may experience reduced sleep (insomnia) or a need for more sleep (hypersomnia)
Appetite and eating may either increase or decrease leading to weight gain or loss
Describe what is meant in the emotional characteristic ‘lowered mood and self-esteem’
A lowered mood is more pronounced than just feeling lethargic/ sad
Sufferers often describe themselves as ‘worthless’ and ‘empty’
People with depression tend to report reduced self-esteem (they like themselves less than usual)
They feel a sense of self-loathing (hating themselves)
Describe what is meant in the emotional characteristic ‘anger’
People with depression frequently experience anger, sometimes extreme anger
This can be directed at themselves or others
On occasions, such emotions lead to aggressive or self-harm behaviour (this is why anger can appear under both behavioural and emotional characteristics)
Describe what is meant in the cognitive characteristic ‘poor concentration’
Depression is associated with poor levels of concentration
The person may find themselves unable to stick with a task or they may find it hard to make decisions that they would normally find straightforward
Describe what is meant in the cognitive characteristic ‘dwelling on the negative’
During a depressive episode, people are more likely to pay attention to the negative aspects of a situation and ignore the positives
They tend to see the glass half-empty rather than half-full
People with depression also would rather recall unhappy events rather than happy ones - the opposite to most people that aren’t depressed
Describe what is meant in the cognitive characteristic ‘absolutist thinking’
Most situations are not all-good or all-bad but a depressed person will tend to think like this
This is sometimes referred to as as ‘black-and-white thinking’
This means that when a situation is unfortunate they tend to see it as an absolute disaster
