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Depression is a chronic mood disorder characterized by persistent feelings of sadness, hopelessness, and irritability.

Many people do not realized that depression is a disease, it’s a real medical disorder where changes occur in the brain, and they have medicine that helps correct these imbalances. Depression has been described as a “whole-body illness” because it doesn’t only affect the person’s mood but can affect every aspect of a person’s life. Depression is an illness, not a state of mind or a weakness.

Depression is caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain, but there are also other factors that may play a role as well, such as:

environment - a significant loss, a difficult relationship or financial problems all produce stress. The body, by secreting extra amounts of certain hormones persisting for a long time, can produce changes in the brain actually killing some of the nerve cells.

psychological - peoples whose personalities involve pessimistic thinking, low self-esteem and excessive worrying are more likely to develop depression.

Genetics could also play a part - parents, siblings and children of depressed people are four times more likely to get depressed than a non-relative.

Depression can affect anyone, any age. Even infants can become depressed, and may even die when they receive only a limited amount of human contact.

Out of the estimated 17.6 million Americans suffering from depression each year, 1.5 million are children under eighteen.

In teens depression is sometimes masked, shown in different ways like drugs, alcohol use, trouble in school, at home or with the law, withdrawal from social activities and sulkiness, grouchiness, and over-sensitivity. Sadness may be shown by wearing black clothes, writing poetry with morbid themes or music with nihilistic themes. Sleep disturbances may be shown by watching television all night, difficulty in getting up for school, or sleeping during the day. Lack of motivation and lowered energy level is reflected by missed classes. Getting lower grades than usual can show loss of concentration and slowed thinking. Boredom could also be a sign of depression in teens, loss of appetite may become anorexia or bulimia.

Depression can appear to come out of nowhere, or it can be triggered by a life event such as the death of ones mother or the divorce of ones parents.

According to the American Psychiatric Association, someone is depressed when loss of interest or pleasure in almost all activities, or feelings of sadness last without relief for at least two weeks. Five of the following must also