Exogenous depression can also be defined as situational depression or reaction-based depression. While many understand that when a person goes through a traumatic experience, there are consequences, we do not necessarily understand exactly what those consequences can entail. This form of depression is considered to be one of the potential consequences of experiencing an event that is emotionally traumatic, physically traumatic, or a combination of the two. From this term, there are a few other things about exogenous depression that are important to understand.
What Is Exogenous Depression?
The first thing about this form of depression that needs to be understood is how it differs from other forms of depression. For example, the exogenous form of depression is quite different from the endogenous form of depression, which refers to being predisposed towards depression for genetic or physiological reasons. However, the exogenous branch of depression can have roots in biochemical origins in an individual. In many cases, exogenous depression is a combination of actual trauma and biochemical origins.
In the end, exogenous is firmly rooted in trauma. The biochemical component comes from a person’s physiology, their support system, and whether or not that person has had issues with depression in the past. When the physical component that causes exogenous depression occurs, how a person responds to the consequences after the fact will depend on all of the components mentioned above.
As one can probably imagine, exogenous symptoms are fairly similar to endogenous symptoms. A saddened mood, feelings of hopelessness/despair, disinterest in typical activities, clear detachments from friends and family, irritability, poor sleep patterns, and diminished self-esteem are all potential symptoms with this form of depression. Exogenous differs from endogenous in the sense that exogenous involves a stressor that can be easily identified. A good example of such a stressor would be ongoing, severe crying jags.
Treating exogenous forms of depression is more or less the same as treating endogenous depression. A diagnosis will be made, and then a course of treatment will be recommended. In most cases, this treatment will be in the form of talk therapies and meds. The therapy will likely include talking with someone who has experience in counseling specific to the aftermath of traumatic events. It used to be that a course of treatment for depression was dependent upon whether the depression itself was exogenous or endogenous. However, in recent years, the treatment courses for exogenous and endogenous depression generally involve the same general approach to the problem.