Understanding Atypical Depression

Atypical depression is a major form of depression that affects millions of people even though many have never heard the name before. Atypical depression is a crippling disease but it affects people differently than regular depression does. One of the main symptoms of Atypical depression is hypersomnia which is sleeping too much. Even after hours of sleep a person with this condition stills feels tired and sleepy. They can describe the way they feel as being numb or having a paralyzing feeling. Usually they will gain weight because they feel hungry often and tend to overeat. The combination of sleeping to much and overeating causes them to gain weight.

Other symptoms include feeling like your arms and legs weigh too much for the rest of your body making it hard to move around and mood reactivity is a good sign of this condition. This means that a persons mood can change from being depressed to happy and cheerful when something good is happening to them. However, later they will become completely depressed again. These drastic mood swings make it hard to diagnose atypical depression in young people because it is so similar to normal emotions they go through at this age. For this reason if you have a child that seems more moody than they should be you may want to let them see a doctor.

If atypical depression is left untreated it can cause even more problems in a person’s life than any of the other type of depression. It is a serious condition that needs to be treated as such. It can lead to other conditions such as social phobias, panic attacks and avoidant personality disorders. People with atypical depression tend to avoid social gatherings as much as possible. This is because they are so afraid of being laughed at or insulted and hurt in some way. They would rather be alone that take that chance. They feel insignificant and useless all the time. It’s not very surprising to learn that seventy percent of the people diagnosed with atypical depression are women.

It is very important that you tell your doctor exactly how you feel. It is the only way that he can diagnose you correctly. If you leave out anything such as wanting to sleep a lot, then you may be diagnosed with the typical type of depression instead of atypical depression. Even though the same treatment can be used for both types of depression it is important to know for sure which type you have to get the right combination of medications. If you think you may be suffering from atypical depression see your doctor as soon as possible. You can live a happy normal life once you realize why you feel the way you do and you get the right kind of help for this condition.