Major Depressive Disorders: Chapter 14

What caught my attention in chapter 14 was topic on major depression. This is because of my experience growing up with major depression and never being diagnosed. I can never remember when I started feeling depressed, but by the age of 12 I knew something was not right. My parents sheltered me my whole life and didn’t believe in mental illnesses or at least they never understood them. The text book characterizes major depressive disorder by a depressed mood most of day, nearly every day, for a period of at least 2 weeks (APA, 2013 pg. 553.) I can say that by the age of 14 I could have been diagnosed with major depression. I felt sad, empty and often spent times crying for no particular reason. Not too long after, I started cutting myself and

Music always made me feel accepted by the fact that someone else felt the way I did and understood it (but not for long.) The book mentions that the physical symptoms of major depressive disorder are related to disturbances in autonomic functions typically found in the presents of high levels of stress mentioned in chapter 16 (pg. 553.) I grew up with night terrors and constant nightmares with sleepless nights. This could have been the cause of my depression or just one symptom. I never had much of an appetite, I normally would only eat once a day usually at night. Appetite and sleep may be disturbed by major depression (pg. 553). I was homeschooled but never learned a lot because I had no motivation to do anything. I often times felt unloved, worthless, ugly and mostly felt complete hopelessness. As I got older, around the age of 17, suicidal thoughts started to always go through my head. Whenever I got mad or someone yelled at me I would just say I wish I was dead. I was very pessimistic about the world and my life in general. The biggest cause of depression for me was learned