Depression Talk

Are you depressed? Or are you not sure? Or perhaps you are worried that your friend or family member has depression. And, again, I’m not talking about feeling sad — I’m talking about clinical depression, which is a disease and needs prompt medical treatment. It doesn’t go away on it’s own.

These symptoms are not the only symptoms of depression, but are the most common.

Physical Symptoms

• Lots of aches and pains, including headaches
• Sleeping all of the time or not being able to sleep at all
• Constant fatigue (not suprisingly)
• Lack of appetite or uncontrollable appetite
• Sudden weight gain or loss
• Lack of attention to personal hygene or becomes obsessively clean

Emotional Symptoms

Sometimes, doctors and therapists will list these symptoms along with physical symptoms, but other doctors and therapists will prefer keeping them seperate.

• No interest in things that used to get the person exicited
• Difficulty making decisions, even the smallest decisions like what to eat for lunch
• Mood swings
• Thinks about committing suicide or even, “Wouldn’t the world be better off if I were dead?” Thinking this once in your life isn;t alarming, but dwelling on it for weeks on end is a little unhealthy
• Sees no point in doing anything — even having a good time
• Refuses all minor suggestions for how to make their life better or easier, such as suggesting what they could eat for lunch

Which leads to another problem, refusing to realize or admit that they are depressed. There is something really insidious with clinical depression as you are convinced that you are the only person in the universe that has ever suffered like you are suffering. Either that, or you’re convinced that God made you in order to use you as His/Her/Its practical joke. (Or, like me, I had both feelings). I was also afraid of being thrown into a looney bin and having all of my freedoms taken away.

And, quite frankly, I was absolutely terrified at how much getting help would cost. I had to become homeless in order to finally accept help. Hopefully, you won’t have to go through a similarly hard lesson in order to get help.