Being often angry or irritable might be a sign of depression

Ebony Monroe from Houston, who is a registered nurse recently went through a time of quick anger about every little thing and she did not realize that it might mean for her health. Many people including the physicians have associated depression with feeling of sadness, hopelessness and lack of motivation or concentration but not anger.

Monroe joked, “If you had told me in the beginning that my irritability was related to depression, I would probably be livid. I did not think irritability aligned with depression.” On the other hand some of the researchers say that it is a problem that appears to have a strong link between depression and irritability. Even the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders which is also known as the bible of psychiatry has the list of core symptoms of major depression but does not include anger.

Dr. Maurizio Fava, a psychiatrist at Massachusetts General Hospital and a professor at Harvard Medical School says, “It’s not included at all in the adult classification of depression”. But he has also pointed out that irritability which is a reduced control over one’s temper results in angry outbursts. It is listed as the core symptom of depression for children as well as adolescents. Moreover, it has also never made sense to Dr. Fava that it does not include for adults. He asks, “Why would someone who happens to be irritable and angry when depressed as an adolescent suddenly stop being angry at age 18?”

Fava has added that a depressed adult who has a lot of anger is often assumed to have bipolar disorder or a personality disorder. Anger is an emotional and physical feeling that makes people want to warn, intimidate or attack a person who is perceived as threatening. The professor added that such anger attacks might be a phenomenon that is similar to panic attacks.

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