Signs and Symptoms of Depression
Signs and Symptoms of Depression“I felt that I was at the end of my road.”“You feel it in your body. Your mind is just flooded with negativity.”“Sometimes it’s not even really feeling anything at all. It’s just an absence of feeling.”Depression is a serious mental health condition that affects about 16 million American adults. People withdepression suffer from emotional changes that can make it a challenge to perform day-to-day activities or feelhappy. It also raises the risk of serious disease or unhealthy behaviors, so recognizing depression and gettingit diagnosed is the first step to getting your life back on track.“The symptoms have to last for two weeks or more. It’s not just feeling down for a couple days, once amonth or couple days. It’s more of a persistent, two weeks at least, of feeling down consistently havingthose symptoms”Symptoms of depression can include: feelings of sadness, worthlessness and helplessness, loss of interest,very low energy, low motivation, difficulty concentrating, trouble remembering or making decisions, troublesleeping, and thoughts of death. It’s important to pay attention to your mind and body. Someone with majordepression may have trouble doing daily activities and may even feel as if life isn’t worth living.“You can’t work, you can’t do school, or you’re not functioning even if you don’t have suicidal thoughts,you should be getting treatment.”Depression is not the same as just being sad.“When I’m sad, I can still make decisions. When I’m depressed, I stop myself from making a lot ofdecisions because I don’t trust my perception of things.”Sarah Reed has suffered from depression along with an anxiety disorder since she was a teenager. It’s notuncommon for someone with one mental health issue to also be diagnosed with another. Eventually Sarahfound the right medications to help her cope with both. But even with treatment, her depression sometimesrears its ugly head.“I am overcome with feelings of hopelessness, despair. If I had my way and I didn’t haveresponsibilities, I would stay in bed all day.”Sarah now works as a mental health therapist, using her personal experience to help others.“When a person with depression such as myself hears things like ‘make lemons out of lemonade, whatdo you have to so upset over’ it’s so minimalizing.”Recognizing the symptoms of depression is the first step, and that means paying attention to changes in howyou can handle normal, day-to-day tasks. Alex Langosch knows this firsthand. As a busy college student, it’seasy for him to tell when he’s having a depressive episode.“I had to force myself out of bed or sometimes I’ll have to push myself to do something that I might notwant to do.”This program is for informational purposes only. Publisher disclaims all guarantees regarding the accuracy, completeness,or suitability of this video for medical decision making. For all health related issues please contact your healthcare provider.HCGN10077B EN SignsAndSymptomsOfDepression.pdf© The Wellness NetworkPage 1 of 2Signs and Symptoms of DepressionAlex has also found the right combination of medication and therapy to manage his depression. But he findschanges in his mood can still happen unexpectedly.“The feelings do come and go. Sometimes It’ll be like mood swings throughout the day where I’ll behappy one moment and then just down the next.”Claudine Jackson volunteers at a social club for people who have mental illness. Claudine suffers fromdepression, anxiety and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder from a childhood trauma. Her symptoms got worse asshe got older.“I was losing a lot of sleep and I was falling into a deep depression. I was isolating.”Claudine found that therapy, medication and supportive friends made all the difference for her.“I had no life, you know, because I felt, you know, I mean I'm depressed, and I don't want to go aroundpeople, and I don't want to do anything. But now I have the most amazing life ever.”If you are experiencing a persistent feeling of sadness and loss of interest and changes in your ability tocomplete everyday activities, talk to a mental health professional. They can determine if you have majordepression and help you find an effective treatment plan to manage it.“There will be days where you may not feel great and you just kind of have to get over those days and itdoes get better.”This program is for informational purposes only. Publisher disclaims all guarantees regarding the accuracy, completeness,or suitability of this video for medical decision making. For all health related issues please contact your healthcare provider.HCGN10077B EN SignsAndSymptomsOfDepression.pdf© The Wellness NetworkPage 2 of 2
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