Lets Fight Depression

Perhaps the most important thing to realize when looking at the symptoms of depression is that depression is not your fault.  Although it is easy to take a look at these symptoms and say that it because you are a negative person or because of the way that you act, in most cases this is simply not true.  Take a look at causes of depression in conjunction with the symptoms of depression to get a better understanding of where these negative emotions are coming from.  As a note, the list of symptoms here is not meant to be all-inclusive.  You may be experiencing other symptoms than just these and they still might indicate depression symptoms.  However, these are some of the most prevalent among those suffering from depression.

Kris has suffered from essentially all of the symptoms covered on this web page so he sympathizes with all the depression suffers out there who experience the symptoms.  These depressive symptoms are real and extremely debilitating.

Sadness

Everyone gets sad, but people with depression get overwhelmed with sadness over things that seem menial to the average person.  Things like a compliment from a husband or wife can actually set off a person with depression into overwhelming sadness in feeling that they are just not good enough for their partner.  Signs of depression can also show themselves in terms of irritability which can also be classified under debilitating sadness.  Unexplained irritability over meaningless things to the point where that is the only thing that you can think about can also be a depression sign.  It’s important to understand that sadness in depression patients is not something that is just temporary and comes and goes.  Someone suffering from depression often experiences uncontrollable and overwhelming depression signs such as sadness and irritability over the course of weeks, months, or even years without any significant improvement.  Sadness is one of the core depression symptoms that family, friends, doctors, and even you can use to determine whether you have been suffering from depression.

Kris has literally had to pull his car over to the side of the road so that he could cry uncontrollably because he was so sad about the state of the world.  This was totally unjustified and he had no real reason to be this depressed and sad.

Losing the Will to Live

Although losing the will to live is a sign of depression that is very closely related to sadness, it makes sense to break it out into its own category since it shows even more extreme symptoms on the outside.  Losing the will to live is not as bad as being suicidal.  It is more along the lines of thinking things like the world would be better off without me.  It can also manifest itself in thinking that you are a horrible person and that the only thing in the world that you do is cause pain to others.  These thoughts lead into a black hole of self-hatred.

Kris spent years without realizing how much his family and friends loved him.  This lead to his strong belief that the world did not need him and that everyone would be happier if he was gone.

Physical Ailments without a Cause

Depression signs can actually show themselves as physical pain within a person when there is medically nothing wrong with them.  This psychological interpretation of depression through pain such as headaches only serves to decrease a person’s mood even further.  This can be much more pronounced in some suffering from depression than others.  Unexplained pain without the signs of another illness could be indicative of depression and may be a symptom to be further investigated.

Kris used to experience multiple headaches per week without any real cause.  After treatment for depression he gets a headache at most once a month.

Loss of Enjoyment

Another key indicator that a person may have depression is the loss of enjoyment from nearly ever activity if not all activities that a person performs.  This is not something that a normal person may experience where they get tired of a new toy.  Rather, this is a complete lack of enjoyment in all things that they have always found to be fun.  This leads to a person wanting to do absolutely nothing because there is nothing in their life that they want to do.  Losing enjoyment from things like intimacy or entertainment is a very good indicator that a person may have depression symptoms.  If you are unable to get yourself out of bed in the morning because you feel that the entire world is one big bummer than you may be suffering from a complete loss of pleasure as described here.

Kris has spent countless days on the couch staring at the ceiling doing nothing because he could not find enjoyment in anything at all.  Even TV, video games, and his love life seemed more depressing than doing nothing at all.

Changes in Weight

Extreme weight gain or weight loss can also be one of the signs of depression.  Someone who is depressed may eat significantly more or significantly less during their periods of depression.  Weight is also impacted during depression phases because the body clearly knows that there is something wrong.  Whether it has to do with the chemical imbalance during these times or whether the physical symptoms are manifesting themselves, the body will react to the depression.  This is generally not one or two pounds.  It is more likely to be 10+ pounds for no valid reason.

Kris constantly bounces between 175 pounds and 225 pounds depending on the various stages he is at in the depression and manic cycles.

Changes in Sleep

Another indicator of depression in addition to weight is a change in the amount of sleep a person gets.  This can be significantly more sleep or significantly less.  If a person were typically to get 8 hours of sleep when they are healthy, then this might be 3 hours of sleep or 13 hours of sleep when they are depressed.  This can have a major impact on a person’s lifestyle as they may feel tired all the time or they may sleep half their life away.  This may be a sign of many other disorders as well so it is important to weigh the other symptoms of depression in conjunction with this one before making a diagnosis.

Kris had trouble with getting more sleep to the point where he went from an average of 7 hours of sleep a night to closer to 12 hours of sleep per night.

Overwhelming Guilt

Guilt is an emotion that is very often paired with depression because so many people experience this depression symptom as compared to the other ones.  This can also be a very debilitating depression sign because a person has trouble letting go of the past.  Guilt and feeling like a terrible person can manifest itself in current actions or those actions that have taken place in the past.  Someone who is suffering from guilt over current actions means that everything that they do they feel guilty about.  For example, asking a friend to cover a work shift may make them feel so guilty that the only thing that they can think of is how bad of a person they are for making someone else take their shift.  A person with depression who focuses on past actions for guilt cannot get over bad things that they have done in the past.  For a person with depression, these may actually be very subtle and things that a normal person would feel as meaningless such as dumping an ex-boyfriend or ex-girlfriend after they cheated on you.  As a note, this is not guilt over something that a person should genuinely feel guilty about.  For example, a person who committed a serious crime such as murder will likely feel guilty about it for the rest of their life but this does not necessarily indicate depression.

Kris constantly felt guilty after every action he would take while suffering from depression.  It almost became an obsession to the point where every action was so overanalyzed that guilt could be found in nearly every action.

Feeling Tired

Most people feel tired after a long day at work or after not getting enough sleep and this is generally not a depression sign.  However, people with depression feel overwhelmingly tired to the point where they cannot even bring themselves to get out of bed or get off the couch.  Every action that a depressed person takes causes way more energy to be drained than an average person so this only gets worse when a person in a depression state starts doing things.  This is not affected by the amount of sleep or the amount of time that a person has to rest.

Every time that Kris performed an action while he was depressed he felt like it took 5 or 10 times as much energy as when he was feeling normal.  This lead to always being exhausted no matter how he tried to rest his body.

Anti-Social Behavior

Being social and getting along with others is something that takes a lot more energy for a depressed person than it does for a normal person.  Therefore, a sign of depression may be that a person who was once very social starts to become withdrawn from society and even from their family and friends.  When this is combined with feelings of worthlessness as well as some of the other depression symptoms, a person may choose to completely withdraw to the point where they are almost a hermit.  Anti-social behavior is linked to suicide so it is important for friends and family to continue to see a person who is slowly becoming anti-social to ensure that they are still in a proper mental state.  This is not a sign of depression that happens to all people who suffer from depression, but it can be a very dangerous sign in many cases if it does occur.

Kris is naturally introverted but became even more withdrawn from society after going into a depressive state.  He refused to pick up the phone because no matter who was calling he was certain that he did not want to talk to them.

Lack of Motivation

Another depression symptom is the lack of motivation to perform day to day activities.  This can easily lead to the loss of a job or poor performance in school as even completing tasks to sustain your livelihood can seem pointless.  Without this motivation, a person with depression may flunk out of school, lose their job, or may even become homeless in extreme cases.  Most treatments will help fight this lack of motivation, but it can be hard for a person to get back on their feet again after this symptom manifests itself.

Kris had several sub-par semesters in college comparatively speaking due to his lack of motivation to go to class and perform his school work.

Psychotic and Depressed Symptoms

The average person who has depression is not going to experience these psychotic depression symptoms, but it is important to get a person help immediately if they start to exhibit any of these symptoms.  Someone in the deepest stages of depression and with serious mental health problems may experience signs such as delusions or hallucinations.  These are typically overwhelmingly negative.  As psychotic implies, a depressed person may act on these hallucinations or delusions and may cause harm to themselves or others.  It is absolutely critical that if you are hearing things or seeing things that other people are telling you are not real that you seek medical help.  These may come in the form of voices talking to you or hearing things that are not there.  In some very extreme cases, you may even see things that are not there such as thinking shadows are real people.  This is the second worst possible state a person can be in because they may hurt themselves or others.

Kris’s wife had been telling him for years that he was hearing her say things that she never said.  Kris was getting angry at his wife for things that were in fact never happening.  Although Kris did not hear voices per se, sometimes he would hear his wife insult him when she was in the next room or upstairs even though she never said anything.

Suicidal

Out of all the symptoms of depression, being suicidal is the worst symptom.  This is less likely to occur in people with minor or mild forms of depression, but they must still constantly be on the lookout for these thoughts.  People who are suicidal are ready and willing to kill themselves at any point in time.  A worst case suicidal person is willing to take down other people with them into the grave, which is known as a murder-suicide.  Any time a person mentions killing them self, you can take that as a literal threat and call 911 or another emergency number.  Suicidal has a variety of degrees ranging from suicidal thoughts, to suicidal with a plan, to suicidal attempt, to suicide, and finally murder-suicide.  A non-psychiatrist is not going to be able to tell which stage a person is because the person is likely to lie once you figure out that they are on to them.  It only takes one comment to know that a person may be suicidal.  If you report the incident, you may very well be able to save that person’s life or even your own life.  Thinking about suicide is never normal and doctors can help if you ever reach this stage.

Kris has been suicidal for long periods of time in his life including drawing up suicide plans.  Kris has not been suicidal since he started taking medicine in 2005.  From his perspective, this is proof that treatment can help.