You feel like you no longer enjoy doing things that used to make you happy; you don't want to socialize with anyone, you feel deeply distressed and have become pessimistic and hopeless in anything, so you find yourself wondering what is causing this terrible experience? The answer could be that perhaps you are depressed. From time to time we go through some periods of sadness and instability in our lives, however depression is different from these occasional feelings. Depression affects everything in your life and carrying out easy tasks and daily activities becomes difficult, you have difficulty looking for the positive things and you get stuck in the negative side. One question we might all ask ourselves is how do we know if we are depressed or just plain sad? To answer this question we must first understand the definition of depression, in medical news today depression is defined as “. A medical disease that causes a constant feeling of sadness and lack of interest” Depression is a critical condition that affects a person's body and mind, impacting every condition of our daily life, including sleeping, living, socializing, work, not to mention how each of us thinks of ourselves. It is not easy to stop depression: someone who is depressed simply cannot feel better, without any proper treatment the symptoms can last for long periods of time such as months and even years. Despite the treatments available to help depressed people, only about a third of them actually seek treatment, this is regrettable because about 80-90% of those who receive treatment feel better in less than a month. But why don't so many people seek help? There are many different factors that could likely... middle of paper ......any medical conditions like hypothyroidism. The sixth type of depression is Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), in this disorder people are affected by depression during different seasons or times of the year. Additionally, the seventh type of depression is postpartum depression, an unusual type of depression that occurs in women within about a week to six months after labor. The eighth form of depression is called substance-induced mood disorder. Depression can begin or precipitate from an overdose of substances such as medications, toxins, drugs, and alcohol. The ninth and final form of depression is premenstrual disorder, this is a bizarre variety of depression that affects a low percentage of menstruating women, it is a periodic condition in which women may feel down and exasperated for a week or two before their period menstrual. month.