Depression is the one disease people know almost nothing about and don’t even wish to! It’s one of the disorders people are consciously ignorant of and don’t even consider it a disorder. Therefore, knowing the types of such neglected disorder is highly unexpected. More often than not depression is known as a single kind of disorder and many eyebrows would shoot up knowing it has types too!

Depression is a mental disorder and the following are the types of depression to shed some light on the disorder in darkness and create awareness. Though according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, there are two main categories of depression—major depressive disorder and dysthymia, these are some common types of depression out of the several different kinds of depression.

• Major depression: Also known as depressive disorder, clinical depression, unipolar depression or simply ‘depression’ is the commonly known kind of depression. It may occur only once but it occurs more commonly as frequent episodes in a lifetime. It is categorised with symptoms like the persistent low mood, loss of interest, hopelessness, weight loss or gain, feelings to commit suicide, lack of energy, and irritability among the others.
• Dysthymia: Dysthymia is considered a “milder” form of depression which is characterised as a milder, recurrent, and chronic depression exhibiting a depressed mood for as long as at least 2 years. The symptoms are the same as major depression, like, sleeping pattern disturbance, eating disorder, low self-esteem, helplessness, etc, but only for a longer duration but are less severe than the major depression.
• Atypical depression: It is also considered as an individual mental disorder but can also be termed as a kind of depression. The symptoms experienced are largely like MDD (major depression) however, it is accompanied by a heaviness in the arms and legs like a form of paralysis, and oversleeping and overeating are considered as the highlights of this kind of depression.
• Seasonal affective disorder (SAD): True to its name it is a kind of depression that arises due to the seasonal changes and is thus, seasonal. It is often thought to be provoked by the lack of sunshine in the winter season and makes the affected be a different version of them than that in the summertime. It is also known as a mood disorder, lack of energy, weight gain, eating disorders, etc, with seasonal patterns characterized by mood disturbances that begin and end in a particular season.
• Psychotic depression: As the name suggests a psychotic depression which is characterized with losing touch of reality. It is a severe depression with the symptoms of psychosis along with the other symptoms. The major symptoms include distortion of reality like hallucinations or delusions or paranoia and fear and it may make people catatonic.
• Bipolar disorder: It is a kind of depression which is categorized with changing moods of depression and elation. It is formerly known as manic depression it features periods of depression and mania with normal mood in between.

• Peripartum depression: It is a kind of major depression experienced by the women after childbirth.
• Antenatal and prenatal depression: The depression experienced by pregnant women, commonly known as pregnancy blues and commonly experienced during pregnancy.