Depression is a depressive disorder that involves a person's body, mood, and thoughts.
Treatment is often necessary and many times crucial to recovery.
These disabling episodes of depression can occur once, twice, or several times in a lifetime. Sometimes people with dysthymia also experience major depressive episodes. Within these types there are variations in the number of symptoms, their severity, and persistence. Without treatment, symptoms can last for weeks, months, or years. Appropriate treatment, however, can help most people who suffer from depression.