Its long-term effects limit an individual's ability to function fully or feel good. People with dysthymia can also have experiences with major depression. Bipolar depression, or manic depressive illness, differs from the other depressive conditions because it involves extreme mood swings. In the manic cycle, the sufferer might talk a lot more, have a great deal more energy, start acting socially inappropriate, have random and rapid thoughts, and have a feeling of great elation and irritability. The depressed cycle shares the same symptoms as major depression.
Depression can have any number of singular causes, but causes are more often combined.
Stress, strained relationships, a genetic predisposition, sudden tragedy, insecurity, and other environmental and inner psychological factors can all contribute to chronic depression, though they do not affect people the same way. He said students often have a difficult time adjusting to being away from home and going from high school to college. She found ways to cope with her feelings, one of them being communication. Some students use destructive means of escaping depressed feelings, Peterson said. People who carry around emotional hurt want to numb that hurt.