Depression is a serious mental illness and can be overlooked by friends and family because the depressed person expends precious energy just to camouflage the problem. 
Depression is like a chameleon for therapists as it has different manifestations for different individuals based on their age, gender and a cocktail of other emotional issues that form a unique package.

The Invisible Illness Called Depression

Health

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<li>Women under depression usually exhibit sadness, guilt, hormonal changes, among other seemingly unrelated symptoms. </li>
<li>Men can get irritable, exhausted and start having sleep issues. They then get into drugs and alcohol, or start to overwork in order to distract themselves.</li>
<li>Kids under depression usually start to sulk, feel lonely and misunderstood, or have long periods of irritability.</li>
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The Manifestations Of Depression

The common treatments of depression are antidepressant medications and therapy, which has a large relapse rate. However, if mindfulness is part of the treatment, the relapse rate declines. What is being pointed out is that mindfulness is effective when it is part of a treatment, and not so much on its own.

Mindfulness As Part Of Treatment

This is a therapeutic treatment combining cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) and mindfulness practices. MBCT helps the depressed person understand that 1) Thoughts are not facts; and 2) Depression is not to be identified with.
MBCT takes care of our behavioural patterns as well as our thought patterns, making the treatment a thorough approach towards depression, taking care of the mind and body.

Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT)

Learning what type of depression you have is the key to successful treatment. Here's when mindfulness can help and when it can't.