“The symptoms of depression vary a great deal from person to person, and sometimes from day to day in the same person.”
For the last ten years, I have been running a successful ICT venture. Of late, I feel isolated and alone in business.
Making hard decisions is draining my energy while dealing with staff at the same time setting goals and strategic directions. Will bringing in a board of management help me out?
The second sentence in your detailed question holds the key to your problem.
The critical words therein are “of late”.
From this statement, it is my understanding that you have noticed a definite change in yourself and are able to recognise the fact that your feelings “of late” are not those of your “normal self”.
This recognition is by itself a sign of your strength and your sensitivity to the changes that are taking place in your psychological and emotional life.
That you now lead a life “with no blue sky” is a symptom of a depressive illness. You are suffering from a depressive illness of recent onset, and you are now ready to see a doctor to get it sorted out.
Before visiting your doctor, you may want to know what could have caused you to develop the condition in the first place, so that even as you approach the doctor, you already have some idea of what options exist.
Being in the ICT business, you might want to start off by doing a Google search for depression.
There, you will find many websites that explain in a simple language what causes depression and how to treat it.
The causes of depression are many and varied, and no single issue can be blamed for depression in a case such as yours.
For example, we know that in some cases depression runs in families.
In these cases, what we find is that careful evaluation of the family history will reveal the fact that you are not the first member of the family to have symptoms of depression.
Your father, mother, sister, brother or even grandparents may have suffered from symptoms of depression.
Unless one is careful, you could miss such symptoms as they may manifest in a “hidden form”, such as the abuse of alcohol.
Genetic causes Other causes of depression, (other than genetics) include what one would call “external factors”.
Loss is one such cause of depression. The common types of losses encountered and which could cause depression include bereavement, financial, health, or even broken relationships.
In clinical practice, we come across thousands of people with features of clinical depression arising from marital problems, which in turn are due to such things as changes in financial fortunes, infidelity, problems with in-laws and children, among others.
It is postulated that the stress resulting from these “life events” or even the vulnerability due from the genetic causes, leads to changes in some of the chemicals in the brain that keep the brain functioning in a orderly (non depressed) manner.
Serotonin and norepinephine are the most commonly recognised neuro-chemicals that are thought to be linked to depression.
The symptoms of depression vary a great deal from person to person, and sometimes from day to day in the same person, but in your case, the “no blue sky in sight” experience is strongly suggestive of this diagnosis.
If I were to see you, I would want to establish first of all if these symptoms have been with you for more than two weeks and also if they were interfering with your normal life.
Other symptoms that I would look for include the presence of sad, anxious, irritable or empty mood, which might be accompanied by pessimism.
Feelings of guilt, helplessness and worthlessness might accompany loss of pleasure in all activities including going to work, sex, one’s children and other normally enjoyable activities like sports.
Such people withdraw from social activities, stop playing golf, do not go to social functions and instead make all manner of excuses and simply stay at home, often drinking too much!
Early morning wake ups (3 a.m.) are a classical feature of depression.
For such people, the early part of the night is fine, but come 3 a.m., the sleep goes away, he turns and tosses until 6 a.m. when the sleep comes back.
Poor appetite leads to weight loss (sometimes eating too much does the opposite) often accompanied by tearfulness, tiredness and extreme irritability which causes millions of people to damage important relationships at work and at home.
Each day we see a man or woman on the brink of a divorce as a result of suffering from depression.
In severe forms, the patient feels suicidal and some people end their lives in states of depression.
Treatment options are many and varied and depend on many factors including the severity, duration, type, your age, your preferences, your doctor’s preferences etc.
Talking therapy At the end of the day, you and your doctor will agree on either talking therapy or medication or a combination of both talking and medication.
In this day and age, there is no need to fear medication because when used in experienced hands, it is both safe and effective.
What you must do is to ensure you go to a qualified doctor.
In mild forms of depression, talking therapies work fairly well while in the severe forms medication is required.
What is clear from your question is that you are depressed.
You must now get up and seek competent help.
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