When You’ve Gone Too Far: Severe
Depression
Everyone gets the blues sometimes; however, there is a thin
line between being sad and being depressed. The danger of being
depressed at one point is that it can develop into a medical
condition that you can carry for a lifetime. At some cases,
mere depression can go overboard and become severe
depression.
As the cliché goes, too much of anything is not good for you.
The same goes with depression. It is bad enough that you are
depressed, and having severe depression is not just the worst
but also the most dangerous.
What Happens When You Have Reached the Bottom?
One question usually raised is what happens when you’ve already
developed severe depression? Is all hope lost for you? Of
course not; having severe depression does not mean that there
can’t be anything done for you. It is not a sign of having a
weak character. Instead, it is a medical condition of having
chemical imbalance in the brain that everyone is susceptible of
experiencing.
As the level of depression becomes severe, all the symptoms
from the lesser kind of depression are all intensified. It
reaches the extent that you can completely lose social and
occupational function with this condition. You can also become
inattentive to your nutrition and basic hygiene, which would
give even more rise to your fears of losing control of your
well-being. The distinctive feature of severe depression is
that in some cases hallucinations and delusions occur, that’s
why it is sometimes termed as psychotic depression.
Symptoms
If you get to the point of having severe depression, there is a
big probability that you won’t reliably function well. You will
also have significant agitation, distress and restlessness, but
you won’t do anything productive about it. There are also the
feelings of guilt and uselessness, leading to a huge feeling
failure and complete loss of self-esteem.
You may also get to the point where you lack any desire to
socialize and talk to other people or to even look after
yourself. You may start feeling unworthy and disgusted with
yourself, and this can lead eventually to 'hearing voices.' You
can also start believing that the devil and other dark forces
are visiting you. Then suicidal thoughts flood your mind.
Basically, if you reach this state, you are not capable of
living a normal life.
What to Do?
As soon as you have abnormally long periods of sadness, and
people around you are getting concerned because it is already
affecting your functionality, it would be best that you consult
a doctor as soon as possible. You wouldn’t want your condition
to develop into a severe form of depression, because most
people who fall into the abyss of depression usually don’t know
how to climb out.
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