Major Depressive Disorder: The Category Of Mood Disorder

Part One

The chosen topic for this paper is called the Major Depressive Disorder. This is under the category of mood disorders. It deals with depression and how it impacts the productivity and wellness of a person. An individual who is experiencing this disorder, contains feelings of loneliness and lack of interest with almost anything (Truschel, 2019). The person or character that I decided to use as an example for this paper is Emily Taylor from the movie entitled Side Effects. This movie tells a story about Emily who fell into depression caused by her time spent waiting for her husband to come out of prison. The requirement that a person should have to be diagnosed with Major Depressive Disorder is under the criteria of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM). There are nine items in the criteria and only five of these must be present and should be on-going every day for two weeks. Some of the listed symptoms can be seen in the movie. Starting with Emily’s loss of interest or pleasure (Side Effects, 2013, 6:02), it is very unusual for a wife not to show affection towards her husband, especially when they have not been together for about four years. Intimacy is one of the significant keys to a long-lasting relationship. Due to her illness, she was unable to express affection. Another symptom is by showing signs of a depressed mood. Emily is at a party, out of the blue she walked out and started crying for no reason (Side Effects, 2013, 22:02). This kind of random occurrence is very common since depression is an illness that hinders a person’s life (Berry, 2018), affecting his or her career, social life, relationship with loved ones, and most importantly care for oneself. It is possible that almost anyone could tell that having suicide thoughts is one of the symptoms of depression. Emily showed this sign twice, when she crashed her car into the brick wall (Side Effects, 2013, 7:52), and when she thought to jump onto the subway tracks (Side Effects, 2013, 23:21). Both of these acts were called “failed attempts of suicide”. Decreased focus or concentration is another sign for this disorder. Sometimes it is considered normal for us to zone out or lose concentration due to other distractions in our surroundings. Excessiveness of this behavior is a different subject. In this one incident, Emily was taking the subway and missed her stop. In addition to that, she got distracted by a store she passed by wandered around, causing her to be hours late for work (Side Effects, 2013, 33:45). Similar to feeling a depressed mood, the tendency to feel fatigue happens regularly on a daily basis. From the movie, you can see multiple scenes of Emily just laying down or asleep in her bed (Side Effects, 2013, 37:29). According to the book Psychology: The Science of Who We Are, there are two cases when a person is depressed that is related to sleep. His or her sleep activity can be lacking and sometimes they will show excessive amount of sleep for this is one of their ways to escape reality. This can also be applied to their eating habits as well.

Part Two

One of the difficulties I have encountered in determining the person’s disorder is that, Major Depressive Disorder is significantly similar to Generalized Anxiety Disorder. Both of these cases involve lack of concentration. This also occurs in GAD due to their thoughts of being worried from time to time. The list on what both disorders have in common includes the impacts on relationships, social life and job. Other than that, the physical side of these disorders are similar when it comes to showing the person’s productivity, including their state of consciousness when they are feeling fatigue, and this could affect their sleep schedule. The book also mentions that “depression often comes along with GAD”. One obvious difference between these disorders is time related. When it comes to Major Depressive Disorder, the symptoms should last for two weeks daily, while for GAD, it requires the presence of the symptoms for at least six months. A specific example to be able to determine better, is that the Major Depressive Disorder mostly focuses on the person’s behavior about his or her inability to be productive with the daily tasks. On a scenario about going to school, a person who is diagnosed with depression will most likely to skip school and just stay at home because of the lack of energy. Meanwhile, a person with GAD will probably go to school but with random thoughts constantly appearing in that person’s mind. Having GAD will make the person worry from time to time or for short, to overthink. This excessive amount of worrying might possibly lead to high blood pressure (Sheps, 2019). The next disorder to be compared with depression is called Antisocial Personality Disorder (APD). This is hugely different from depression in a way that the person who is diagnosed with antisocial disorder mainly focuses on isolation, meaning, this tells how well they can get along with the people around them. Obviously, the answer would be poor. A person who has APD does not bother to analyze what other people’s feelings are. This person is struggling with building relationships due to his or her incapability to understand people’s feelings.