Atypical depression, a subtype of major depression, is the most common form of depression today. People who suffer atypical depression exhibit all the normal symptoms of depression but they also react to external positive experiences in a positive way. Atypical depression sufferers respond to their environment, enjoying the company of friends but slipping back into deep depression when alone or faced with a stressful situation. It is this aspect of atypical depression that differentiates it from melancholic depression in which external positive experiences still result in depressed feelings.
People who suffer from atypical depression also exhibit other symptoms that aren’t normally associated with “normal” depression including:
Increase in appetite with a weight gain of ten or more pounds.
Hypersomnia -over sleeping of more than 10 hours per day.
Leaden paralysis of the arms and legs
Long term pattern of sensitivity to rejection in personal situations that causes social or work related withdrawal.
In 1998 Dr. Andrew A. Nierenberg, associate director of the depression clinical and research program at Massachusetts General...