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You will find yourself feeling like you are an emotional rollercoaster at different points in your life. These ups and downs are a normal, healthy part of life as reactions to the many changes we go through in life; but when your downs last a significantly long time and begin to disrupt your life and work or study, it is possible that you are suffering from some form of depression.
Depression can be caused by myriad factors like loss, changes in life and drug treatments or illnesses. It can also occur for completely unknown reasons and leave doctors at a loss as to the cause or cure. Around 20 million adults in the US alone suffer from depression each year and that number may be even higher as people are becoming more accepting of depression as an illness and are seeking help formally.
Looking for Signs, Symptoms of Depression
Whether you are looking for symptoms within yourself or signs of depression in someone you know, there are specific groups of things to look for. If you are looking within yourself you may be feeling more than just a little down, more like you are in a black hole or living with inescapable despair. If you are looking for signs in someone else, they may be mentioning feeling terribly down or you may see that they withdraw from other people or activities they once loved.
They may also express a distorted view of reality by describing their future as being hopeless or bleak even when they have a promising career, education or life change in the immediate future. They will seem overly pessimistic about everything and express an odd view of reality (though they think what they are saying is true). Here is a list of signs, symptoms and their descriptions:
- Depressed mood (Loss of interest or pleasure) –you may be feeling hopeless, sad, discouraged, empty or unable to experience pleasure. Suddenly nothing is of interest, even things you loved to do like hobbies, social activities and even sex.
- Appetite/weight changes – there is a significant weight loss or gain (significant being defined as a change of more than 5% of body weight in a month).
- Sleep changes – you suffer from insomnia (inability to sleep) or hypersomnia (oversleeping).
- Psychomotor agitation/retardation – you feel like you are unable to sit still; you may be anxious, restless or sluggish OR you may suffer from slow speech and body movements, or a lack of responsiveness.
- Fatigue or loss of energy – you feel physically drained and find simple tasks exhausting. Sometimes you find that you are unable to do things as quickly as you used to.
- Self-loathing – you have feelings of worthlessness or guilt and harshly criticize your own perceived faults and mistakes.
- Concentration problems – you feel the absolute inability to focus, difficulty making decisions, foggy brain and memory problems.
- Irritability – you may be grouchy, irritable, and frustrated by the tiniest of things and may be prone to angry outbursts at innocent people.
- Aches and pains – you may feel including headaches, backaches, bowel problems (diarrhea or constipation), abdominal pain and aching joints.
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