| Depression |
| Medical Conditions |
| *What is provided here is a basic summary, if you want to know more try www.mentalhealth.com* |
| Bipolar Affective Disorder This is a mood disorder, where basically you switch between being manic and severe depression. When you're being manic you'll feel energetic, and confident. You'll will babble, and your thoughts will probably feel like their racing. School/College work might get done quickly and creatively, but it will be done disorganisedly. While in the manic state you might become over confident about your abilities, and become extrodinarily open. You will start lots of projects that you won't finish, and will probably do reckless things like unsafe sex. Also you will become obsessed with sex (isn't everyone?), and so might start to sleep around (but now you'll have a condition to blame it on!). |
| Major depressive disorder The main feature attraction of this condition is one or more major depressive episodes. For us teens a typical episode lasts on average for about 7-9 months. During this time you'll will feel sad, you'll lose interest in things that used to fascinate you. You'll critise youself constantly and feel like everyone else is doing the same. You'll feel unloved, pessimistic, and the future will seem bleak, and maybe not even worth living anymore (if this is true of you go to the suicide section immediately!). Other symptoms are feeling irritable, and so you might become aggressive. You will also understandably have trouble concentrating, have a lack of energy, motivation, and your sleeping pattern may get messed up. (Doesn't that cheer you up!) |
| Dysthymic disorder This is similar to major depressive disorder, but it has fewer symptoms and it is more chronic. You will be depressed constantly most of the time, and this will last for several years, on average about 4. Sometimes you've been depressed for so long that you won't have even recogised that how you feel is in anyway out of the ordinary (especially in today's society when it is gradually becoming the norm!). About 70% will experience one major depressive episode (it just keeps getting better! |
| This is a summary of the three main medical conditioins more will gradually be added with time, and knowlege. As always we are not doctors, we just write stuff we've found out, so its not actually our knowlege, it's someone elses which we've nicked *he he*!! |
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| Roughly about two-thirds of teens with major depressive disorder also have another mental condition. The most common are; *dysthymia *anxiety disorder *a disruptive or anti-social disorder *substance abuse disorder The cause of the second condition is usually because of the major depressive disorder (sod's law), apart from with substance abuse, when it's the other way round. |