Psychotic Depression Symptoms

Psychotic depression is actually a combination of two severe disorders - psychosis and depression. While many people are familiar with depression, wherein the individual expresses extreme sadness and other symptoms, the awareness of psychosis is relatively less. Psychosis is the condition where the individual loses contact with reality. In short, he/she is unable to grasp reality, and also has a much distorted vision of reality. When a person shows the symptoms of both psychosis and depression, then he/ she can be diagnosed with psychotic depression. Since a patient with psychotic depression has difficulty grasping reality along with suffering from intense sadness, this mental disorder tends to be the most lethal of all such disorders, as it has been found out that a majority of such patients attempt or commit suicide. There are a number of causes of psychotic disorder and it cannot be pin pointed to one single cause. The most common cause is attributed to the abnormal functioning of thyroid gland or the excessive production of cortical hormone during periods of stress. It is also believed that this disorder is hereditary. Whatever, may be the cause, psychotic depression must be treated immediately and with care, and to do so the symptoms must first be identified. Read below to know the various symptoms of psychotic depression.

Signs & Symptoms Of Psychotic Depression

The most common and obvious symptom that people with psychotic depression suffer from is anxiety. Indeed, anxiety is one symptom that is common in all the forms of depression. In psychotic depression, anxiety is all the more extreme. The patient shows a marked higher level of depression in almost everything. The level of nervousness is also extremely high.
The patient also suffers from agitation. Even small incidences can make him/her agitated. The person suffering from psychotic depression is always restless and this makes him/her work in haste.
Another major symptom of patients with psychotic depression is laziness. They get extremely lazy even when it involves doing all the day to day work. Such patients avoid work as much as they can. With time, they become so lazy that they even start avoiding proper hygiene like brushing, bathing etc. Patients start losing interest in any work and prefer to spend the day doing nothing.
The main symptom that helps in diagnosing psychotic depression is psychosis. A patient starts seeing unreal things. Some patients also complain of hearing voices. Apart from these, the patient may also suffer from hallucinations.
Insomnia is also prevalent in patients suffering from psychotic depression. As such, they may go sleepless for a long period of time. Because of insomnia, the patients also start getting delusional.
Mania is another symptom that is quite common in patients suffering from psychotic depression. Mania is manifested by patients in various forms such as displaying excessive amount of energy and speaking quickly. Sometimes, mania can also result in the patient withdrawing from normal activities and generally tending to be inactive.
The patient experiences extreme sadness. The sadness in case of psychotic depression persists for weeks at a stretch and sometimes even for months.
Constant suicidal thoughts engage the patients with psychotic depression. Thoughts of death and dying occupy the mind of the patients.
The patient loses interest in any activity. He/she also fails to find enjoyment in anything that earlier used to interest him/her. Avoiding family and friends and social ceremonies and staying isolated most of the times is rampant is people suffering from psychotic depression.
People with psychotic depression always feel that they are worthless, hopeless and helpless without any valid reasons. Generally, these feelings are the main cause of suicidal thoughts. In extreme cases, the patient may also attempt suicide.

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