I highly recommend that you take advantage of the sites below and the links on them to personally assess your own symptoms as to classification as Major Depressive Disorder or as a Major Depressive Episode for this disorder.

While you as a lay person are not in a position to diagnose the seriousness of your condition, the list of symptoms, treatments, drugs and interactive support sites can give you a good indication of what types of treatment to seek for relief of your symptoms.  In considering your evaluation, remember that many common drugs influence your mental and emotional outlook, mood, stability, and health.  A depressed mood caused by substances (such as drugs, alcohol, medications) is not considered a major depressive disorder, nor is one which is caused by a general medical condition or chronic pain.

As a Regression Therapist and Ericksonian Hypnotherapist, I am not an MD, and can not prescribe or recommend pharmaceutical drugs of any type. Often I recommend naturopathic supplements that offer relief and remedy.

What I do use for depressive states and symptomlogy are some Cognitive and Emotional Deletion Protocols, Reframes, Forgiveness and Releasement techniques I have formulated over the years that I have found to be very successful.  By locating and deleting underlying causalities, often the depression lifts and the negative energy dissipates.

I am an Integrative Holistic Therapist interested and committed to your body mind spirit healing.  Whole person integration and healing is the goal of my therapy practice. 

If you believe your condition is a Major Depressive Disorder or Clinical Depression, or if you have been diagnosed previously with either of these disorders, you may wish to continue or begin therapy and medication with a medical doctor or a psychiatrist. You can supplement your conventional care with alternative therapies offered by my center as many people do.  The tools used here are prompt, effective and permanent.

SYMPTOMS of DEPRESSION

A person who suffers from a major depressive disorder must either have a depressed mood or a loss of interest or pleasure in daily activities consistently for at least a two week period. This mood must represent a change from the person’s normal mood; social, occupational, educational or other important functioning must also be negatively impaired by the change in mood. Major depressive disorder cannot be diagnosed if a person has a history of manic, hypomanic, or mixed episodes (e.g., a bipolar disorder) or if the depressed mood is better accounted for by schizoaffective disorder and is not superimposed on schizophrenia, a delusion or psychotic disorder.

This disorder is characterized by the presence of the majority of these symptoms:

• depressed mood most of the day, nearly every day, as indicated by either subjective report (e.g., feels sad or empty) or observation made by others (e.g., appears tearful). (In children and adolescents, this may be characterized as an irritable mood.)

• markedly diminished interest or pleasure in all, or almost all, activities most of the day, nearly every day

• significant weight loss when not dieting or weight gain (e.g., a change of more than 5% of body weight in a month), or decrease or increase in appetite nearly every day.

• insomnia or hypersomnia nearly every day

• psychomotor agitation or retardation nearly every day

• fatigue or loss of energy nearly every day

• feelings of worthlessness or excessive or inappropriate guilt nearly every day

• diminished ability to think or concentrate, or indecisiveness, nearly every day

• recurrent thoughts of death (not fear of dying), recurrent suicidal ideation without a specific plan, or a suicide attempt or a specific plan for committing suicide

The symptoms are not better accounted for by bereavement, i.e., after the loss of a loved one, the symptoms persist for longer than two months or are characterized by marked functional impairment, morbid preoccupation with worthlessness, suicidal ideation, psychotic symptoms, or psychomotor retardation.

Criteria summarized from:
American Psychiatric Association. (1994). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders, fourth edition. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association.

 DEPRESSION SITES
FOR INFORMATION AND SUPPORT

http://depression.mentalhelp.net/

http://mentalhelp.net/psyhelp/chap6/

http://mentalhelp.net/depression/organiz.htm

http://mentalhelp.net/guide/depress.htm

http://www.suite101.com/welcome.cfm/depression

http://depression.com/

http://mentalhelp.net/depression/research/

http://mentalhelp.net/disorders/sx22t.htm#debate

http://mentalhelp.net/disorders/sx22t.htm