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Overview
Depression is far more than just a bad case of the blues. Although depression can lead to suicide, not everybody who is depressed even considers suicide, and not everybody who commits suicide is clinically depressed. It is important to know the signs of depression in yourself or another person, however, as a precaution against potentially suicidal tendencies.
Depression Definition
Clinical depression is defined as being in an emotional state dominated by a morbid state of dejection with accompanying symptoms that include sadness, chronic discouragement and despair. Although individual symptoms can vary wildly, the overriding phenomenon associated with depression is an inability to experience joy, even if a person's life to outsiders looks like the realization of the average person's dream.
Suicide Definition
Suicide is defined as the taking of one's own life. However, it is important to distinguish between suicide related to depression and other types. Some people choose to commit to suicide in order to escape a more gruesome or prolonged death or even a prolonged life. For instance, a person who has been diagnosed with a terminal disease may choose to take her own life because she doesn't want to live in pain for several years or become a financial burden to her family.
Types of Depression
Not all cases of depression are the same; they can range from mild to severe. A mild depression is characterized by occasional bouts of morbid dejection and discouragement, punctuated by the ability to feel pleasure. The more intense the depression becomes on its way to severe depression, the less likely these occurrences of experiencing pleasure and joy become. A deep depression can often lead to a physical rejection of all social activity to the point of total isolation.
Suicide Reasons
In addition to depression and terminal illness, studies of the dynamic behind the decision to commit suicide have revealed that people attempt suicide, sometimes seriously and sometimes just to get attention, for a number of reasons. Some of the reasons that a person may attempt suicide despite not suffering depression or a terminal illness include the desire to enact revenge upon someone simply to spite them or just to make another person feel guilty for allegedly having caused another person to attempt or even successfully commit suicide.
Treatment of Depression
The treatment for depression used to revolve around therapy, but most research now indicates that the cause is an imbalance in the chemistry of the brain. Unfortunately, doctors have not been able to accurately locate the cause of depression and so today's anti-depressant medications generally attempt to correct the imbalance with the purpose of treating specific symptoms.
Link Between Depression and Suicide
The link between depression and suicide has been firmly established. The onset of an episode of deep depression is a quite common condition among suicides. Estimates have placed the number of people who commit suicide who were also suffering clinical depression at anywhere from 50 to 70 percent.
Suicidal Thoughts
Depression will in most cases eventually lead to thoughts of suicide, but it is important to understand that suicidal thoughts by themselves are by no means an indicator of depression. Nearly everyone will at one time or another get so down that they think, however briefly, of killing themselves. With depression, however, suicidal thoughts tend to become much more intense and frequent.
