What Are the Symptoms of Unipolar Disorder?

Unipolar disorder is another term used for major depressive disorder. Statistics suggest that close to 14.8 billion adult American residents get diagnosed with unipolar disorder every year. The most defining characteristics of unipolar disorder are loss of interest and depression. Besides that patients with this condition can experience some secondary symptoms like appetite changes, weight changes, sleep changes, surfacing of suicidal thoughts etc. This article will inform you briefly about the most commonly occurring signs of unipolar disorder.

• To be diagnosed with unipolar disorder one needs to experience decreased interest or depressed mood for a minimum of 2 consecutive weeks. Most of the patients diagnosed with this condition withdraw themselves from all kinds of social interactions and normal activities, which makes them more prone to being depressed.
• Another common signs of unipolar disorder is loss of appetite, which often cause drastic weight loss in them. There are also instances when people with unipolar disorder have abnormal increase in their appetite; these people unlike the previous group undergo rapid weight gain.
• Changes in sleep patterns are frequently observed in people with unipolar depression. These changes might manifest in form of insomnia (a condition marked by difficulty in getting adequate sleep) or hypersomnia (a condition marked by too much sleeping).
• Feelings or guilt and worthlessness also indicate occurrence of unipolar disorder. These patients often suffer from lack of self-esteem; they might feel that they are not good human beings or do not possess the ability of performing well in school or office. They tend to spend time recalling the bad and depressing incidents of the past.
• If not treated a patient with unipolar disorder might have suicidal thoughts.
• Some other common signs of this mental disorder are: problems in concentrating or thinking, unexplained physical discomforts like pain and irritation, indecisiveness and chronic fatigue.

If you are experiencing one or more of the above discussed symptoms, get yourself checked by an experienced mental health practitioner immediately to avoid further complications.