It affects the way you eat and sleep, the way you feel about yourself, and the way you think about things. It is not the same as feeling blue. It is not a sign of weakness of personality or a condition that can be willed or wished away. Without treatment, symptoms can last for weeks, months, or a lifetime. Appropriate treatment, however, can help most people who suffer from depression.
Depressive disorders come in different forms, just like other illnesses.
Major depression is has a combination of symptoms that interfere with the ability to work, sleep, eat, and enjoy once pleasurable activities. Sometimes people with dysthymia also have times with major depressive episodes. It involves cycles of depression and elation or mania. Sometimes the mood switches are dramatic and rapid, but most often they are gradual. When in the depressed cycle , you can have any or all of the symptoms of a depressive disorder.