Kathy O'Connor-Wray (Photo: Submitted)The month of October is National Depression Awareness Month. A person diagnosed with persistent depressive disorder may have episodes of major depression along with periods of less severe symptoms, but symptoms must last for two years to be considered persistent depressive disorder. Women with perinatal depression experience full-blown major depression during pregnancy or after delivery (postpartum depression). Psychotic depression occurs when a person has severe depression plus some form of psychosis, such as having disturbing false fixed beliefs (delusions) or hearing or seeing upsetting things that others cannot hear or see (hallucinations). Bipolar disorder is different from depression, but it is on this list is because someone with bipolar disorder experiences episodes of extremely low moods that meet the criteria for major depression (called bipolar depression).

Source: Daily Sun October 22, 2017 21:22 UTC