True or False
True or False: Depression can make things you normally love feel less enjoyable.
True - This is called anhedonia, or a reduced ability to experience pleasure or interest.
What are the chemical messengers that allow nerve cells in the brain to communicate called?
Neurotransmitters
True or False: A coping skill has to make a bad feeling disappear to be useful.
False - Coping can mean making a feeling more manageable, getting through a difficult moment, or preventing things from escalating.
This common depressive disorder involves persistent sadness or loss of interest that interferes with daily life and lasts for at least two weeks.
Major Depressive Disorder
True or False: Depression looks the same across all ages
False - People may experience similar core symptoms, but age affects how they understand, communicate, and express those symptoms. Children may show more behavioral or physical signs, teens may show irritability, withdrawal, and changes in school/social functioning, while adults may more readily describe sadness, hopelessness, or difficulties with work and daily responsibilities.
True or False: If someone is still getting good grades, going to school, hanging out with friends, or accomplishing their goals, they can't have depression.
A person can continue to function on the outside while struggling with depression on the inside. You may hear this described as “high-functioning depression,” but that isn't a formal diagnosis. Someone can still go to school, work, socialize, or seem happy while experiencing symptoms such as low mood, exhaustion, hopelessness, loss of interest, or difficulty concentrating.
This neurotransmitter is associated with reward, motivation, learning, and movement.
Dopamine.
What are two types of therapy commonly used to treat depression?
Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and Dialectal behavioral therapy (DBT)
Grieving in response to a loss. Depending on the individual, this period can last weeks, months or even years
Bereavement
Is there more or less brain activity in the brain of a depressed person compared to a non-depressed brain?
There is less activity in the brain of a depressed person.
True or False: Someone can be depressed even if they don't cry.
True- Depression can involve numbness, irritability, exhaustion, withdrawal, difficulty concentrating, or loss of interest instead of crying.
Sometimes called the “bonding hormone,” this chemical messenger is involved in social bonding, trust, attachment, and other social behaviors. What is it?
Oxytocin is a hormone and neurochemical involved in social interaction, bonding, and stress regulation. Its effects are more complex than simply making someone “feel happy.”
The best treatment for depression includes these two professionals
Therapists and Psychiatrists
What type of depression can occur at a particular time of year, often during the fall and winter
Seasonal affective disorder (SAD). It is a type of depression in which depressive symptoms follow a recurring seasonal pattern. Most commonly, symptoms begin in late fall or winter and improve during spring and summer; less commonly, SAD follows a spring/summer pattern.
What is the easiest, natural way to boost your mood?
Research has demonstrated that exercise alleviates symptoms of depression in the short-term, but also that it has a protective factor against developing depressive episodes in the future. In fact, a recent study has found that for mild to moderate depression, exercise has the same effect on the brain as antidepressants. Walking 30 minutes a day is enough to make a difference.
True or False : Antidepressants change your personality
False- Medications are designed to alleviate symptoms of depression without changing one's core personality.
Antidepressants work by addressing chemical imbalances in the brain associated with depression. Their primary goal is to help individuals return to their natural state of mind, not to create a different persona.
True or False: Depression is caused by a chemical imbalance
False- Brain chemistry is part of the story, but depression is not explained by one simple chemical imbalance. The exact cause of depression is unknown, but it is thought to be a combination of biological, genetic and environmental factors.
What is one important difference between supporting someone with depression and treating depression?
Support can include listening, encouragement, and connection, while treatment involves trained professionals using evidence-based approaches to address the condition.
This isn't technically a separate depressive disorder, but depression can occur as part of this mood disorder, alternating with episodes of mania or hypomania.
Bipolar Disorder
True or False: Depression increases the perception of physical pain
True- depression is associated with physical pain such as headaches, backache, stomach ache, joint ache and muscle ache. Research has shown that depression and physical pain share a common chemical pathway in the brain and are influenced by the same neurotransmitters.
True or False: Antidepressants are addictive
False - Antidepressant medications are not addictive. This misconception often stems from confusion between addiction and physical dependence.
Addiction involves compulsive drug-seeking behavior and continued use despite harmful consequences. Antidepressants do not produce these effects or create cravings in users.
Physical dependence can occur with long-term antidepressant use, leading to withdrawal symptoms if stopped abruptly. This is why doctors recommend gradually tapering off these medications under medical supervision.
Antidepressants do not cause euphoria or a "high" like addictive substances. They work by gradually adjusting brain chemistry to alleviate depression symptoms over time.
What three neurotransmitters contribute to depression
serotonin, dopamine, and norepinephrine
Name Three medications commonly used to treat depression
Zoloft, Lexapro, Prozac
Also called dysthymia, this condition involves a depressed mood that persists for years, although symptoms may be less severe than in a major depressive episode.
Persistent Depressive Disorder
True or False: Your gut produces a large portion of the body's serotonin, a chemical messenger that helps regulate mood.
True- 90% of your body’s serotonin is produced in the gut.