Coping with "the Blues"

The "blues", almost every one (or most of the people) today experience, can take many forms.Manic Depression, or bipolar disorder, is characterized by large mood swings from a highly elevated mood(including such symptoms as psychomotor agitation,pressured speech, elation and flight of ideas)down to deep depression.

Cyclothymia is a chronic mood disturbance lasting at least two years, during which the person is never without depressed or hypomanic symptoms for more than two months. Dysthymia , or depressive nuerosis, involves a depressed mood for most of the day on most days(rather than nearly every day) extending over a period of atleast two years.


Seasonal affective disorder is a form of depression that appears only at certain times of the year, usually in the fall or winter. Situational depression is a prolonged episode in reaction to a disappointment or loss.

The most important thing you can do is recognize the symptoms when they show up- in yourself or in your loved ones. Understand that depression is not a personal failing: It is a disorder that warrants attention and that can be successfully treated. Don't be victimized twice by attaching a stigma to your depression; look at this mental anguish as though it were an unexplained physical pain and seek professional help.