Highly functional depression (HFD) is not among the major psychiatric conditions. However, this condition can be classified as conditionally borderline violations. Without treatment and correction, the disorder can lead to the development of clinical depression, which can be extremely severe, and HFD can also cause the formation of sluggish / background depression.
Literally not a single person is immune from the development of WFD. One of the dangers of this disorder is that it can begin to develop slowly in early childhood, gradually progressing, then appear and poison a person's life within one and a half to two years, then subside and seem to pass by itself, although this is not at all. If a person with signs of highly functional depression ignores his condition, tries to cope with it on his own, this can lead to complete "burnout" and to the development of more severe pathologies.
Features of WFD
The problem with WFD is that the disorder is very difficult to diagnose. Many people for years live in a state of such continually aggravated depression, without seeking help from specialists. In addition, doctors are of the opinion that the difficulty of making a diagnosis also lies in the fact that, in terms of symptoms, highly functional depression can be disguised as other disorders or some personality traits. For example, WFD is often confused with burnout, mental burnout, or even masked depression.
One of the differences from other types of depression for WFD is that the disorder can be transmitted at the gene level. If a person among his relatives - not necessarily parents or older sisters / brothers - had personalities who were once diagnosed with a similar diagnosis or who suffered from bipolar disorder (bipolar disorder), then the risk of developing high-functioning depression reaches almost one hundred percent.
Among the features of this disorder, it is also customary to include the fact that WFD is not always accompanied by typical signs of depression. Or they are not so pronounced as to cause specific concern in a person or his environment. However, WFD is also typically characterized by a low mood, gloom, concentration on the negative, refusal of pleasures, a feeling of apathy and complete loss of energy, and so on.
Experts note that people with HFD are more prone to different types of creativity than others. Music, drawing or writing are much easier for them. In addition, studies have shown that people with a tendency to high-functioning depression have an increased level of intelligence. But against this background, there is another strange feature of this disorder: as a rule, people with HFD do not get pleasure, do not feel satisfaction from the process of creativity or from scientific research. Everything they do is dull and mundane for them. At the same time, a person with HFD is unlikely to go beyond the framework of his usual existence.
Such people are not inclined to take risks, to change, to spontaneity and to leave their personal comfort zone. Any activities, household chores are perceived by them exclusively as a duty, as something forced. Typically, a person with high functioning depression has no hobbies or additional hobbies.
Signs of highly functional depression
The above features of WFD can be attributed to the number of signs of this condition, and to the reasons why this violation poses a certain danger. However, a number of other important manifestations can be added to the symptoms.
The symptoms of HFD often include:
- the so-called impostor syndrome and excellent student syndrome;
- an increased tendency towards painful perfectionism and inadequate maximalism;
- refusal to help and not being able to ask for help, for support;
- impoverishment of emotions, a desire to distance themselves from the world and people around;
- constant lack of satisfaction: in moments of success, a person with HFD feels sad, disappointed, anxious and anxious;
- obsessive thoughts of a gloomy nature;
- a constant feeling of shame / guilt regarding the physical state, emotional state, life in general;
- the tendency to denial, refusal to accept one's state of mind, the desire to "score" the symptoms of high-functioning depression with the help of excessive employment, immersion in work;
- a feeling of constant depression, which does not depend on the degree of activity, on the results achieved, on awards and approval from other people;
- in some cases, against the background of progressive WFD, suicidal thoughts and a feeling of total doom, uselessness and meaninglessness of existence develop;
- high-functioning depression also manifests itself through eating disorders, through insomnia or a constant desire to sleep, through somatic diseases for which there is no reason.
