Essay On Dysthymia

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What is Dysthymia and Major Depressive Disorder. Depression is general apathy towards daily activities and towards oneself. This disorder can cause a feeling of sadness and hopelessness. Activities that once brought happiness loses meaning. A person may overeat or oversleep or under eat and under sleep. This disorder is disruptive enough to be debilitating. Dysthymia is erratic while major depressive disorder is chronic. Depressive disorder is more commonly found in woman than in men, and elders and teenagers are more susceptible. How is Major Depressive Disorder and Dysthymia Diagnosed. Diagnosing depression is a two-week process. If the patient exhibits at least five of the following symptoms and is also generally sad or has lost interest. The symptoms, according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (1995), that are looked for are “depressed mood, loss of interest or …show more content…

Studies show that social, environmental, and biological interaction all contribute to depression. Good (1997) observes: anthropological and cross-cultural studies have found that cultural interpretations of mental illness held by members of a society or social group (including mental health professionals) strongly influence their response to persons who are ill and both directly and indirectly influence the course of illness. [233] What Good is saying is that if the media, your church, your job, your school, or even family says about the disease effects your perception of it and influences the patient suffering from depression feels about it. If the general overview was negative towards it, it could cause the patient to feel worse about it themselves and may lead to extreme measures such as suicide. If the general perception was positive and motivational it may be able to help the patient learn how to cope and try for a normal life. Another study showed conducted by Karasz (2005) as an ethnographic study of middle-aged

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