Depression is a mood disorder where a person may feel sad all the time, so much that it may hinder them from carrying on with their daily activities. Depression can be mild, severe, temporary, or persistent. Clinical depression is the most severe form of depression. Doctors use the term clinical to distinguish it from other types of depression and highlight that the affected person needs immediate professional help without delay.

Triggers of clinical depression
Doctors and psychiatrists have not yet identified specific causes for depression but have identified multiple triggers that can lead to the development of the mental condition. People who have been through grief, divorce, relationship breakdown, failure of a business, loss of a job, or those diagnosed with a life-threatening illness can suffer from this severe depression. While some recover quickly and move to live normal lives after such incidents, some may isolate themselves, stop talking to others, or depend on addictive sources for comfort. These activities can trigger depression instead of making them feel better. Some triggers for clinical depression are:

• Stressful events
• Early life experiences like divorce
• Heredity
• Childbirth
• Loneliness
• Financial troubles
• Experiencing witness trauma, accidents, or violent incidents
• Life-threatening illness
• Diseases like hypothyroidism
• Bullying

Symptoms of clinical depression
People with clinical depression can exhibit various symptoms that differ from one person to another. While some may have the symptoms for a few days or weeks, they may last for many months for some, interfering with their ability to participate in family, school, professional or social events.

Some of the important psychological symptoms of clinical depression include the following:

• Persistent and continuous sadness
• Hopelessness
• Low self-esteem
• Unexplained bouts of tears or sobbing
• Guilt, irritability, and intolerance
• Lack of motivation
• Loss of ability to decide on anything
• Anxiety

Psychotic symptoms
A few people who have developed severe depression may develop psychotic symptoms, indicating that they need immediate attention. These symptoms include:

• Hallucinations – where they smell, see, and hear things that do not exist
• Delusions – where they believe in things that are not true
• Disturbed thoughts – where their thoughts and words are jumbled without a pattern. They may speak too fast, wander in the middle of a conversation or stop talking suddenly.

Clinical depression diagnosis
If your primary healthcare provider sees any clinical depression signs and symptoms, they do a physical examination and conduct a detailed interview. They may ask you to answer a standardized questionnaire. They use your responses to identify whether you are going through depression. They also conduct lab tests to check for chemical levels or hormone abnormalities. They may also prescribe an imaging test to check for abnormalities in brain activity causing depression.

Clinical depression treatment
Apart from qualified psychiatrists, treatment for clinical depression can also be provided by trained, certified, and licensed healthcare providers like mental-health therapists, family physicians, psychologists, nurses, and social workers. They usually use one or more approaches to treat clinical depression. If they feel you may harm or hurt others, they could treat you in the hospital or a mental health facility. A typical clinical depression treatment may continue for many months. The normal treatment procedure for clinical depression includes the following:

Psychotherapy
In psychotherapy, a trained therapist talks to you individually or in a group to help you talk freely about your thoughts, feelings, and experiences. They use these discussions to identify the triggers of your depression and design therapies that help you cope with it.

Brain stimulation
If doctors do not see any improvement in your symptoms after pharmaceutical therapy and psychotherapy, they may use electromagnetic currents to stimulate your brain, which can help improve the symptoms. Some methods of brain stimulation include:

• Vagus nerve stimulation
• Electroconvulsive therapy
• Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation
• Transcranial direct current stimulation

Clinical depression remedies
Besides therapy sessions and prescription treatment options, one can change the behavior by

• Setting goals
• Following a daily routine
• Exercising daily
• Eating healthy meals
• Getting sound sleep