Many factors lead to depression. Depression can be brought on by biological, emotional, environmental and physical factors. The genetic link cannot be ignored as well. Family history plays a major role in many diseases that are passed on down the line. It is not just family history but family life in general. The stress of everyday life can be brutal. For some there is a constant struggle to survive from week to week. Even success and fitting into society can be the problem for others. Abuse such as sexual, physical or even emotional can overload people with anxiety. The list isn’t a short one. 

In the early stages depression is often hard to diagnose. It’s hard to see the symptoms even if a loved one suffers from this illness. Everyone fights some mild distress once in awhile. It’s not uncommon. The affects of depression go much deeper. It’s already too late for early detection when the symptoms interfere with life. Loneliness and general disgust with life are common for depression sufferers. That is why they must find depression help quickly before everything goes out of control. Signs of hope in their lives are gone. Simple daily enjoyments and even sleeping are affected. This is when treatment is critical. 

Depression treatment involves giving people back their hope and positive outlook on life. Psychotherapy often accomplishes this. This treatment can take months or years to bring about positive results but it is effective. The medical professional also has the option of prescribing anti-depressants like Prozac, Paxil, Zoloft, Lexapro, Celex, or Luvox. These drugs are effective but they are accompanied by many side effects as well. Fortunately, there are other safer ways to overcome depression. There are also natural herbs that have been proven clinically to bring about positive results in treating depression as well. There are also many depression support groups geared towards working with depressed individuals. If you or someone you love are feeling the affects of depression please consult a medical professional immediately.

Anxiety Depression can occur when a person engages in various multi-tasking activities and they also tend to over extend their brains, up to the point when it plainly needs some time for physical relaxation. A lot of busy people who cannot fathom the idea of relaxing and taking time off from work, as well as their worries, can actually start having nervous breakdowns, anxiety depression and all sorts of mental illnesses.

Anxiety depression is characterized by erratic behavior from the person who is suffering from it, this is usually due to certain stress triggers that may cause a person undue jitters and stress. Also, a lot of people who tend to get easily nervous over stressful activities are actually prone to having anxiety depression. Anxiety depression can be difficult to deal with, however, it is best to do so in the early stages and in order to do this a person should begin by calming down and breathing slowly, both of which will work to lesson any negative effects.

To successfully treat this type of mental illness, a person will need to be completely honest with themselves first and then find a highly recommended psychiatrist that is qualified to diagnose you correctly and then prescribe the best treatment that will improve your health. There are many different levels or categories of depression:

Bipolar or Manic depression is usually characterized by a person having sudden extreme mood changes or intense dramatic changes from and elated ’high’ to a depressing ’low’ mental state, in just a matter of a few minutes, days or weeks.

Postpartum depression – characterized by a prolonged sadness or a feeling of emptiness by a new mother after the physical stresses of having a newborn, and many new moms can feel happy one minute and sad the next.

Dysthimia is a mood disorder that falls within the depression spectrum, it is considered a chronic depression, but with less severity than a major depression and this disorder tends to be a chronic, long-lasting illness.

Cyclothemia – is a mental disorder consider to be like a milder form of bipolar II disorder consisting of recurrent mood disturbances between hypomania and Dysthimia mood.

SAD or Seasonal Affective Disorder, also known as ’winter depression’; which is a mood disorder whose sufferers experience normal mental health throughout most of the year, but experience depressive symptoms usually in the winter and often or less in the Summer.

However, the most common form of depression people experience is; Anxiety Depression, and it is exemplified by being in the mind set given to undue stress, fear or worry about situations. Anxiety, a supposedly normal behavior that will actually help a person adjust more to a certain stressful activity, like first date jitters or a grueling exam the following day. In this way, anxiety will help you get mentally prepared to face more challenging situations that are not usually a part of your daily routine. Anxiety depression is the opposite, and should not be easily dismissed as a “case of the nerves”; anxiety depression is in actuality an illness that can be caused from the biological makeup of an individual, or in other words, a hereditary illness.

You should also know, that there are different types of anxiety depression and they each have different symptoms. Generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) is an anxiety disorder that is characterized by excessive, uncontrollable and often irrational worry about everyday things that is disproportionate; this excessive worry often interferes with daily functioning, as individuals suffering GAD typically anticipate disaster, and are overly concerned about everyday matters such as health issues, money, family problems, friend problems or work difficulties. They can even be anxious even when there’s no apparent reason that calls for them to behave in such a way. People suffering from Generalized Anxiety Disorder actually shows a lot of symptoms, from lack of sleep, to being unable to relax, getting tired easily, cannot concentrate on what they’re doing and even suffering from depression. Treatment involves a therapist working with the patient to understand how thoughts and feelings influence behavior and change negative thought patterns that lead to the patient’s anxiety, replacing them with positive, more realistic ones.

Consult a reputable cognitive behavior therapist who’ll help give the individual the therapy that he or she needs to help him or her loosen up, also prescribed medicines are sort of a must to help these individuals battle anxiety attacks, then help to calm them down and relax.

When a person has symptoms caused by the sympathetic nervous system (SNS); anxiety can occur. SNS is active on the sympathetic tone base level and stressful situations can increase it’s activity. The “flight or fight” response occurs from here. However, people can have anxiety that is not triggered by outer situations. Anxiety is often based on irrational or illogical fears.

Panic is related to the “fight or flight” mechanism. It’s a reaction brought on by outside stimulus and is a product of the sympathetic nervous system. It is generally a unexpected rise of fear, that dictates to the brain on how to react. This is a stronger defense response the body has in place to help protect itself from a perceivably life threatening or harmful situation. Panic can result from an anxiety state, that a person starts to think about.

Stress, on the other hand, is a psychosocial reaction by the body. It’s influenced by the way a person filters nonthreatening external events. It can develop based on a person’s expectations, assumptions and ideas. All these type of assumptions, ideas and expectations are referred to as: ’social constructivism’; and it may appear to be natural and obvious to those who accept it, but in reality is an invention or artifact of a particular culture or society.

Panic and stress both play important roles in the natural survival instinct. The body defense devices will engage every time the feeling of the need to ’fight or flight’, kicks in. Preparing for which ever course of action is decided upon to preserve life, health or whatever is in danger.

However, anxiety will not only occur when a person is fearful or has a defensive mindset regarding a situation. Escaping situations that make us feel anxious may bring relief, but these feelings are intensified when we face similar situations causing anxiety. This encourages us to escape the situation again instead of working through the anxiety.

One way to cope is to plan strategies to prevent or avoid those things that have caused stress in the past. Avoiding stress may include having the ability to say "no" to personal and professional added responsibilities over an above what is normally expected of us, and by avoiding those individuals who tend to stress us out and by taking control of the environment in which we live, work and if applicable go to school. We can avoid reading the newspapers or turn off the news on the TV if hearing about terrible news stresses u. In relationships we can avoid those topics that usually start arguments. We can also rearrange daily tasks or delegate responsibilities so that our “to-do list” doesn’t stress us out.

Incorporate fun and relaxation into your daily routine, practice saying “no” so that you don’t over-commit yourself of your time or abilities, of the tasks that you do accept make sure that you prioritize the tasks that you do accept, when possible break down these tasks into smaller projects and then reward yourself for completing each smaller segment and lastly, learn how to delegate responsibility and supervise so that you are not stressing over whether or not it was done right.

You can also learn how to accept things that you cannot change by trying not to control those things that are not in your control. You can find the positive in all things if you look for it. Share your feelings with others. Practice the art of forgiveness. Anger and resentment will only harden you and create negative energy that binds you to stress.

Taking a proactive stance combined with self reliance can help handle and overcome anxiety panic attacks

Anxiety panic attacks occur generally as a response to various undesirable and discomforting situations. Sudden occurrences of rapid heart rate, sweating and shortness of breath are typical in anxiety panic attacks and it can strike almost any person. Other symptoms such as trembling, chills, rapid heart rate, dizziness and faintness occur as a response to stress situations such as attending an interview or making public appearances/speeches. These attacks may also catch you unaware while driving, while in a mall or even when sleeping.

Going crazy or about to die?

Dangerous symptoms of anxiety panic attacks are heart pain and in some cases a sense of impending death. Anxiety panic attacks may push you to the point that you think you are going crazy or even about to die. These are characteristic symptoms of anxiety panic attacks. Intense anxiety panic attacks often lead to fear of an impending attack. This fear of fear leads further to panic attacks and a vicious cycle of fear ensues.

You are not alone in your quest

The symptoms of anxiety panic attacks are physical and anxiety sufferers often mistake their condition for a medical illness. A patient suffering from a panic attack therefore will not go crazy or die regardless of the symptoms. An unbelievably large percentage(about three fourths) of people have had at least one incidence of an anxiety panic attack

Fear of fear

When the anxiety panic attack is severe, it is an extremely distressing experience and greatly traumatizes the sufferer. All kinds of irrational fears and phobias arise and the fear of an attack in future looms large. Fear of an attack can hamper normal activity and is often as damaging as an attack itself. This fear born out of an earlier attack can by itself lead to a new attack.

Anxiety over dose

Anxiety is embedded in the human system as a normal reaction to stress. It helps one deal and cope with tense situations. But when anxiety becomes excessive and results in irrational fear of daily routines it becomes a disabling disorder. As a result of fear of a future attack or fear of a particular condition a person may find it difficult to pursue normal life. This leads to withdrawal syndrome which in turn may lead to another attack.

Types of anxiety disorders

Several types of anxiety attack disorders are present in everyday life. These are generalized anxiety disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, panic disorder, phobia, post-traumatic stress disorder, and social anxiety disorder. All of these can be overcome with medications, psychotherapy, counseling and other therapies.

Seeking effective solutions

Fear of an impending attack is the main dampener in the process of cure of panic attacks. It is extremely important to overcome this fear and confront anxiety panic attacks with a preplanned course of action rather than running away from it. This will effectively lead to cure. Proactive people are less prone to anxiety panic attacks. Seeking effective long term solutions rather than medications or other forms of treatment will truly help combat and overcome anxiety panic attacks and the related fears.

But just because one person is moping around and just generally hating the world around him or her, doesn’t mean that it’s already depression, but if this kind of behavior, the feeling of emptiness, loss of self-worth and absolutely no hope for happiness just goes on and on, then, yes, that individual is very much, indeed, depressed.

Still, there are various types of depression, from Manic or Bipolar depression – characterized by sudden and extreme changes in one’s mood wherein one minute he or she is in an elevated state of euphoria while the next minute (day or week) he or she is feeling to be in a personal hell, Postpartum depression – characterized by a prolonged sadness and a feeling of emptiness by a new mother wherein physical stress during child birth, an uncertain sense of responsibility towards the new born baby can be just some of the possible factors why some new mother go through this, Dysthimia – characterized by a slight similarity with depression, although this time, it’s been proven to be a lot less severe, but of course with any case, should be treated immediately, Cyclothemia – characterized by a slight similarity with Manic or Bipolar depression wherein the individual suffering from this mental illness may occasionally suffer from severe changes in one’s moods, Seasonal Affective Disorder – characterized by falling in a rut only during specific seasons (i.e. Winter, Spring, Summer or Fall) studies however, prove that more people actually fall in to a rut more during the WInter and Fall seasons and lastly, Mood swings, wherein a person’s mood may shift from happy to sad to angry in just a short time.  

Clinical depression however, or as some might call as ‘major’ depression, is actually the medical term for depression. As it basically covers only those who are suffering from symptoms related to depression clinical depression is more of a disorder rather than an illness. Clinical depression is how doctors usually refer to "depression" when giving a diagnose of their patient. It’s basically just a medical term. 

However, in spite of being an actual disorder, Clinical depression may well be treated. Doctors are actually highly optimistic that their patients who are suffering from Clinical disorder will be well on their way towards good mental health as long as they treated as soon as they have been diagnosed with Clinical depression. Patients who have been seeking for treatments for Clinical depression have proven to be quite successful in their quest, given that 80 percent of actual Clinical depression patients have been treated and has somewhat found relief from their disorder.

For those who may be seeking some answers for their Clinical depression related questions, the depression section of the health center is highly recommended, as well as books on psychiatry and the internet – which can offer a lot of helpful information with regards to Clinical depression although self-medication/treatment is highly disapproved of. Clinical depression may not pose as much as a threat as the other types of depression, but it is best to leave it to the hands of professionals who can safely attend to and cure this disorder.