Once you have found the right therapist, you must understand there are various types of depression and mental illnesses. There are various terms you might hear during treatment. These are listed below:

Acceptance: Take things the way they are rather than pretending they are how you want them to be.

Accidental suicide: When an individual attempts suicide in order to get attention or get others to listen to him/her but ends up dying due to miscalculations.

Adjustment disorder: Experiencing psychological difficulty in adapting to a different way of life, individuals or culture, causing depression and anxiety.

Anti-depressants: Drugs prescribed for terminating symptoms of depression.

Bipolar Depression: A mental illness where a person experiences abnormally high or low mood swings.

CFS: Chronic Fatigue Syndrome which often occurs after a viral infection. The patient becomes extremely tired and lethargic for no reason. It may last for months to years.

Clinical Depression: A low melancholic mood that is deeper than normal and continues for an abnormally long period of time.

Depressive Phase: Low mood periods experienced by someone suffering from bipolar disorder.

ECT: Electro Conclusive therapy involves sending electric current through a portion f the patient’s brain suffering from acute depression.

Endogenous depression: This is an old description of a depression maintained by chemical changes from within the body and cannot be changed by altering one’s thought pattern.

Endorphins: Chemicals released in the body that give a ‘high’. They are also known as happy hormones.

Euphoria: A feeling of being on a high and is commonly experienced during the manic phase of bipolar depression.

Genetic Influences: Hereditary tendencies that we are born with and are inherited in our genes.

Hopelessness: When one feels that there is no way out of a problem or situation.

Insomnia: The inability to follow a normal sleep pattern.

Manic: An individual in the ‘high phase’ of bipolar depression.

Masked Depression: A type of depression that is not immediately obvious because the main symptoms are of some other disorder.

Personality Trait: This is the permanent aspect of one’s personality that determines the way you interpret things and what goes on around you.

Reactive Depression: This is triggered by a traumatic, difficult or stressful event in one’s life. It is characterized by a low feeling, anxiety, irritability or anger.

Seasonal Effective Disorder: This type of depression generally corresponds with the approach of winter and is linked to the shortening of daylight hours and lack of sunlight.