What are the different types of depression?

If you find that you're experiencing significant fatigue and a loss of interest in activities that you once enjoyed, it may be that you’re suffering from severe depression.

Severe depression is the most serious type of depression that someone can have. It's also referred to as:

• Clinical depression
• Major depressive disorder
• Chronic depression

If you struggle with severe depression, it's likely to be having a profoundly damaging impact on your quality of life. It can cause intense and overwhelming feelings of sadness and hopelessness, which affect your ability to function effectively.

As with other types of depression, severe depression is characterised by low moods and a lack of joy in everyday life. However, the main difference between depression and clinical depression is that with clinical depression, these symptoms are likely to be much more debilitating, causing noticeable difficulties in all areas of your life. Severe depression can cause you to struggle to look after yourself on a daily basis, meaning that you’re unable to carry out your normal day-to-day activities and responsibilities. People with severe depression may also experience suicidal thoughts and impulses, or have frequent thoughts about dying. It is therefore a life threatening condition.

Severe depression with psychotic symptoms

Severe depression with psychotic symptoms, also sometimes referred to as ‘psychotic depression’, is a type of depression that causes all the symptoms of severe depression as well as psychotic episodes.

Psychotic depression can be an extremely difficult and frightening condition to deal with. Not only does it result in the intense feelings of sadness and hopelessness that come with severe depression, but it can also cause you to experience delusions (believing things that aren’t true) and hallucinations (seeing or hearing things that aren’t real). This can affect your reality and negatively influence how you see the world.

Mild depression and moderate depression tend to cause symptoms that are similar to severe depression, except these are less extreme.

This doesn’t mean that these types of depression are insignificant. Mild and moderate depression can still affect you on a daily basis, although you’re more likely to experience small improvements in your symptoms from day-to-day.

People who have a diagnosis of bipolar disorder, formerly known as ‘manic depression’, experience extreme mood swings. These range from energetic ‘highs’, known as mania, right through to the extreme lows of depression. Episodes of mania and depression can last anywhere between several weeks and several months.

Bipolar depression is different to other forms of depression because it is followed by episodes of mania and forms part of a cycle. It can be difficult to diagnose at first because, at face value, bipolar disorder depression can appear to be very similar to severe depression. It is only when a manic episode occurs that it becomes apparent the person has bipolar disorder. This is the point at which they are cycling between the two extremes.

Bipolar disorder depression can be intense. It usually consists of the same symptoms as severe depression, except these can be even more extreme. Bipolar depression is also sometimes accompanied by psychotic episodes, including delusions and hallucinations.

Because people with bipolar disorder swing between the opposite extremes of mania and depression, the condition can make dealing with your everyday life very challenging. It can put a huge strain on your relationships and can make holding down a job difficult. These problems can be magnified and cause intense feelings of guilt and shame when you’re going through a depressive episode.

Find out more about bipolar depression.

Dysthymia, also known as ‘persistent depressive disorder (PDD)’, is a chronic type of depression that can endure for years at a time.

It’s completely normal to feel upset or ‘down’ every now and then. However, if you struggle with dysthymia, you will typically find that you feel sad and hopeless most of the time. This can have a significantly negative impact on your quality of life.

Like depression, PDD causes people to experience low moods, feelings of hopelessness, low self-esteem and a lack of enjoyment in daily life. However, dysthymia differs from other forms of depression in two key ways:

• Dysthymia symptoms don’t tend to be as debilitating as those experienced with other types of depression, especially severe depression. Instead, dysthymia symptoms are generally classed as ‘mild’. However, they can still impair your ability to function socially and at work
• Dysthymia is a chronic and enduring condition. People with dysthymia often experience low moods and sadness for years at a time, as opposed to having episodes that come and go

Because of how persistent and enduring dysthymia is, it can be extremely draining and have a negative impact on every area of your life. Constantly dealing with low mood can leave you unmotivated and struggling to function effectively.

Find out more about dysthymia.

Recurrent depressive disorder, also known as ‘recurrent depression’, is when you experience repeated episodes of depression that seem to come and go over a period of time. During the time in between these episodes, your mood may be relatively stable and you’ll typically feel well.

In some ways, recurrent depression is similar to bipolar depression in that it comes and goes. However, people with recurrent depression don’t experience the episodes of mania that are associated with bipolar depression.

Depression in the first year after giving birth (postnatal depression or postpartum depression) are specific forms of depressive illness, which are directly related to birth and becoming a parent.

This period of time in someone’s life (known as the perinatal period) is a huge step and brings with it many different challenges. While it’s normal to experience lots of different emotions during the perinatal period, some people may find that this develops into depression that needs specialist help.

Find out more about postnatal depression.

Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) is another specific form of depression that typically occurs during autumn and winter. It is also known as ‘winter depression’.

Many people find that their emotions are affected by the weather. For example, you may find that you feel happier and more positive on a bright sunny day. However, the lack of daylight and the generally bad weather that we get in autumn and winter can make people feel so low that their ability to function on a daily basis is compromised.

Find out more about SAD.