Ever felt caught in an endless cycle of despair and passivity? Or been in the blues, like they say? Or felt your heart sinking too often? Scrutinize the following cases to know if you've been there.

• Swati, a 28 year- old housewife and mother of two, found herself getting upset over trivial matters and snapping at the children for petty reasons followed by a tearful outburst and regular fatigue.

• Kirti, 32 years old, a finance analyst with a multinational company felt herself becoming a recluse, refusing invitations for parties and office get-togethers. She also began to lose interest in her work and had to drag herself out of bed every morning. She experienced loss of sleep and 2 kgs in two weeks in spite of not being on a diet. Kirti also started consuming alcohol more often than she used to.

• Kavita's mother noticed signs of sadness and depression in her otherwise vivacious, full-of-life 19 yr. old daughter.. Kavita herself admitted to feeling low and had difficulty in concentrating in her studies and felt worthless, often stalked by thoughts of suicide and death.

All the women mentioned had symptoms that were very different, but were suffering from the same disorder-DEPRESSION.

Depression is a fairly common disorder affecting a large section of the population. It is estimated that for women the lifetime prevalence rate for depression ranges from 10 to 25% and the incidence in women is twice as common than that in men- because of the interaction of lower mastery (lower sense of control) over important areas of life and more chronic strain experienced by women.

Causes

Actually, a combination of chemical, biological, developmental, social and personality factors cause depression. Biologically itself various hormonal changes in the women's body make them more susceptible to depression especially the levels of oestrogen and progesteron. Therefore when a woman is in the premenstrual, postmenopausal or immediately after- childbirth stage, there are higher incidences of depression among women.

The changing social scenario wherein nuclear families are replacing the joint family structure has decreased the social support available to women to a large extent-especially working women, who have the pressure to be the perfect homemaker” and “the efficient office-goer . Add to this, the exhausting annoyances and burdens that come with women's lower social power. The truth is, women carry a greater load of the housework and child care and more of the strain of parenting than do men. Also, women feel less appreciated by their partners than men did.

Of course, the fact remains that these are issues none of us can shrug off, but what is important is to be aware whether you are taking more than what you can chew and whether your body and mind can cope with the strain you are putting on them. Often you do have the warning signs flashing but end up ignoring them till one find day the body just collapses under the stress.

Symptoms

So how do you know if you are heading for depression? Let's go through a quick checklist:

• Do you find yourself feeling tired most of the time?

• Are you having difficulty falling asleep or are you sleeping more than before?

• Are you either eating more than or less than before?

• Do you feel sad or low most of the time?

• Do you have difficulty in concentrating or remembering important things?

• Have you lost interest in doing things you used to enjoy previously?

• Do you get feelings of worthlessness?

• Do you feel pessimistic about the future?

• Do you get ideas of suicide or think about dying quite often?

• Do you suffer from frequent headaches, irregularity with your menses, stomach problems or various aches and pains?

If you find yourself answering "yes" to many of the questions and the symptoms have been there for more than two weeks then there is a possibility that you are heading for depression, which if not paid heed to can have fatal consequences.

Treatment

Often if diagnosed at an early stage you may not need medication at all but to get out of the depressed mood you need to really reevaluate your life situation.

• Talk about your problems: you could go to a friend, a priest, a counselor or a trusted elder in the family. Even maintaining a mood diary will help to understand your thoughts.

• Take out "me" time: have a special time out each day, maybe for as less as fifteen minutes in which you are being absolutely self indulgent and pampering yourself. Pay yourself one compliment each day. Why should you depend on someone else to give you a pat on the back each time, think of the your achievement and pat yourself for it

• Exercise: it is seen that exercise releases certain neurotransmitters that can pep up your mood. Exercising can vary from meditation to aerobics to breathing exercises or going for a walk.

• Delegate responsibility and learn to say no: it is neither practical nor sensible to take every possible task on yourself. So be assertive and say "no" if people either at home or at work are making unreasonable demands.

• Dejunk your life: get rid of the junk in your life which includes the mess in your cupboard, the pending mails as well as relationships which are pulling you down and giving more negative energy.

• Have healthy food habits: cut down on alcohol, smoking and drugs which are known to cause depression in the long run.

• Finally if the symptoms persist, seek advice from a mental health professional.

So if you are depressed, remind yourself that it is not a personal drawback or lack of willpower.

Depression is like any other disorder like high blood pressure or diabetes and can be given the red-signal! So beat the blues and not vice versa.