EXCERCISES Listen to a young woman talking about her depression and decide if the following statements are true (T) or false (F). | ☐ | ☐ 1. Being bored requires energy. ☐ | ☐ 2. Depressed people think that everything is temporary. ☐ | ☐ 3. Becoming depressed is a slow phenomenon. ☐ | ☐ 4. All the symptoms are easily interpreted as an illness. ☐ | ☐ 5. The speaker is at work at the moment. ☐ | ☐ 6. She cannot stay in bed for long. ☐ | ☐ 7. The most serious symptom is hyperactivity. ☐ | ☐ 8. Getting up is very hard. ☐ | ☐ 9. Depressed people don’t care about personal hygiene. ☐ | ☐ 10. For many days during the last month, she didn’t have a shower. T F 2. Answer the following questions. What happens during a depressive episode? What are the symptoms of clinical depression? Is clinical depression transmitted from parents to children? What are the symptoms of bipolar disorder? What happens during a manic episode? What is the difference between a panic attack and panic disorder? What do people with panic disorder worry about? What are the symptoms of panic disorder? 3. Decide if the following symptoms refer to bipolar disorder (BD), clinical depression (CD) or panic disorder (PD). Symptoms BD CD PD Dizziness 1. ☐ ☐ ☐ Faintness 2. ☐ ☐ ☐ Helplessness 3. ☐ ☐ ☐ Hopelessness 4. ☐ ☐ ☐ Hyperactivity 5. ☐ ☐ ☐ Irritability 6. ☐ ☐ ☐ Sadness 7. ☐ ☐ ☐ Terror 8. ☐ ☐ ☐ Weakness 9. ☐ ☐ ☐ Insomnia 10. ☐ ☐ ☐ FAMOUS PEOPLE WITH CLINICAL DEPRESSION Abraham Lincoln, 16th President of the United States, suffered from severe and debilitating moments of depression, described in his biography. Charles Dickens had an unbelievably difficult childhood, which saw the author working in a boot factory and living on his own when his father was thrown in prison. He used to fall into depressions with the start of each new novel. Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of Great Britain was one of the (Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin) to lead the world in the defeat of Hitler in WW2. In some of his letters, he wrote he suffered from , Churchill’s term for severe and serious depression. Big Three black dog GLOSSARY : : : : : : : : : : : : to experience provare, passare attraverso heart attack infarto helplessness senso d’impotenza hopelessness disperazione mood swing balzo d’umore to occur verificarsi, accadere pounding che palpita to predict prevedere to strike colpire stroke ictus sweatiness sudorazione warning preavviso, avvertimento