Signs of Depression

Depression is a mental health condition that can affect a person's thoughts, emotions, and behaviours. It can manifest in various ways, and individuals may experience different symptoms. Here are some common signs of depression:

1. Feeling persistent sadness or low mood no matter what you do, even if you're with friends.
2. Feeling lost, empty, confused
3. Feeling really hopeless most days. Hopelessness about feeling / getting better. Hopelessness about your future & about achieving your goals & dreams
4. Loss of interest or pleasure: Losing interest in activities that were once enjoyable, including hobbies, socialising, or sex.  These activities no longer bring you joy, therefore you stop engaging in the activities.  You used to enjoy being around your friends but you can't bring yourself to get out of the house and interact with your friends.  Its hard to motivate yourself when things that really got you out of bed no longer hold the same joy as they used to
5. Changes in sleep patterns - is a major sign of depression.  Can either experience insomnia (difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep) for first time in their life.  Lying awake with thoughts running through their head. Or experience hypersomnia (excessive sleepiness- more than you used to), having hard time getting out of bed.
6. Significant changes in eating habits: Food can act as coping mechanism for those hiding their depression.  Over eating can distract you from your emotional emptiness.  On the flip side, under eating can also a suggest a larger underlying problem.  There is a strong link between eating disorder & depression.
7. Become self critical and feel need to do to everything perfectly.  It perfection not met - leads to feelings of worthlessness or guilt: An overwhelming sense of self-blame, guilt, shame.
8. Difficulty concentrating or making decisions: Difficult to complete tasks whether at work or home as you ind it hard to concentrate.  Unable to make decisions that previously you used to easily make.
9. Extreme emotions:  As well as deep sadness, people with depression can express how they feel through feeling anger or irritability.  This can come from frustrating of needing to put up a good impression for others to see.  Or it can come from confusion. Feeling on edge, or easily annoyed by small things.
10. Struggle to express painful emotions.  They avoid or deny their deeper feelings and choose to divert their mind else where.  "People may actually find it difficult & struggle to express how they feel because they avoid their emotions so often" Dr Margaret Rutherford.
11. Some with depression start to ponder on Philosophy & life purpose.  They start to asking what is the meaning of life?  Depression can make you feel like you're living a life without direction and prompts them to ask Big Life questions such as Why am I here? What is my life purpose?  What am I meant to accomplish here on earth? Who am I? Surely there must be more to life than working, eating, sleep, repeat.  I know these where the questions I started asking at start of depression when I was feeling lost, confused, empty before I developed full blown depression and suffered most of the other symptoms mentioned in here.
12. Physical symptoms: Experiencing unexplained aches, pains, or digestive issues that don't have a clear medical cause.
13. Thoughts of death or suicide: Having recurrent thoughts about death, dying, or thoughts of harming oneself. This is a severe symptom that requires immediate attention.

If these signs persist for an extended period (usually two weeks or more -except for point 13) and significantly interfere with a person's daily life and functioning, it may indicate clinical depression.

If you or someone you know is showing signs of depression, it's crucial to seek professional help from a mental health provider or reach out to a support network for assistance. Depression is a treatable condition, and early intervention can make a significant difference in recovery.