The clinically depressed sophomore recounts oneSunday night when "things got really reallyawful."

"First there was this enormous anger that Ifelt and it was kind of ungovernable. I put on myboxing gloves and started punching the wall," shesays. "I didn't know what to do. It was suchcomplete emptiness."

The sophomore says minutes and hours felt"really heavy and long," and she began askingherself questions such as "How am I going to getthrough this hour?" and "What's the point?"

It was at this point that she consideredcommitting suicide for the first time.

"I couldn't imagine the night finishing andthought that all of the hours of the next daywould be awful," she says.

According to Dr. Steven E. Hyman, associateprofessor of psychiatry and neuroscience at theMedical School, about 15 percent of people withrecurrent mood disorders actually die of suicide.

Schildkraut says such suicides are especiallytragic since depression is so treatable.

"It's like someone dying of pneumonia todaybecause they weren't treated with the rightantibiotics," he says.

Types and Causes of Depression

There are tow major forms of depression:unipolar and bipolar.

People suffering from unipolar depression mayexperience symptoms such as feelings of sadness,irritability or guilt for no apparent reason;changes in weight and sleep patterns; and aninability to concentrate or make decisions(please see graphic above).

Bipolar, or manic, depression is characterizedby cyclic fluctations between depressed states andstates of mania, or hyperactivity.

Symptoms of mania include increased energy anddecreased need for sleep, inappropriate excitementor irritability and impulsive behavior and poorjudgment.

Manic depression occurs more rarely thanunipolar depression but is believed to have astronger genetic component. Thus, manicdepressives often have a family history of theailment.

When it comes to identifying the specificcauses of depression, researchers still have nodefinite answers.