Your place is a mess; laundry and dishes are piled up, mail is unopened, etc. (Assuming you usually stay on top of these things). - You've been making excuses to friends why you can't get together with them, or you're telling them you're "just too tired."
- You've really let yourself go - you're wearing clothes that make you look dumpy, you've stopped exercising, you're not shaving unless it's absolutely necessary.
- You're wearing mostly dark colors.
- You're putting off things that need to be done: your car registration, taking that book back to the library, buying a birthday present for someone.
- You can't remember the last time you laughed a real laugh.
- You don't feel like you can handle your job anymore, even though nothing has changed so far as increased workload or responsibility.
- You're drinking or using drugs to escape the pain.
- You've been to the doctor a lot recently, for things like headaches, stomach aches, fatigue, but the doctor can't find anything wrong. Or you have convinced yourself you have a life-threatening illness - AIDS or cancer or a tumor.
- You wake up in the middle of the night, and can't go back to sleep. During the day you sleep a lot to escape from your life.
- It takes you a whole weekend to do chores that used to only occupy a morning.
- Since you've lost interest in things you used to enjoy doing, you try a lot of different activities in the hopes that you can find something to occupy your time.
- You have no ability to imagine or conceive of your life even a few days ahead - no plans, no hopes. You can't even be sure you'll still be here.
- You wear the same clothes a few days in a row - choosing new ones is too much effort.
- You lose things, you lose track of things and can't always remember what day it is.
- You've pretty much stopped eating, or caring what you eat and whether it tastes good.
- On the flip side, you may be eating all the time because you're bored and hope that food will somehow satisfy the vacant feeling you have.
- You've lost interest in sex or even physical affection. Hugging someone doesn't feel any different from leaning against a wall.
- You're reading escapist books (fantasy, sci-fi, romance, mystery) with little effort, but anything more demanding mentally (the classics, reading for school) is too much effort.
- You're avoiding talking to anyone to whom you have an obligation (your boss, friends who you're ignoring).
- You're watching TV constantly - lying on the couch or on/in your bed flicking the remote seems to be the most effort you can deal with.
- You hope you don't run into anyone you know while you're out. Not only is maintaining a normal conversation difficult, but you are sure they'll notice something is wrong with you.
I hope these examples help to clarify things. Also see Reflections on Depression.
Posted: Feb 05, 2009
People who haven’t suffered from depression don’t understand it. It isn’t just about feeling sad; it changes how you handle everything in your life. It affects everybody , and the above shows how depression can affect you without even noticing.
— Anwyn
These criteria in general suits me. I don’t know that I am already in this situation. I am running to grasp sth that is impossible…
— rabi
I’m only fourteen, and I have a few of these symptoms. This has been going on for quite some time now, and I hope it’s just from anxiety. I know I don’t have the guts to commit suicide. But i’d do almost anything to feel normal again, and for this pain to go away.
— Marissa
Im on week 3 of meds and no feeling of change so far, all the signs are there. No one should ever have to feel this pain that we suffer from. The ones that you care about the most get it just as bad having to deal with it.
— Kris
Some of these things matched to the point and others did not. I am horribly depressed but I don’t know if it’s “depression” but it will probably still kill me just the same. The hopelessness and the pain for months has become so unbearable and more and more keeps adding to it. Unfortunately, I am not avoiding friends, they are avoiding me. They are uncomfortable. I have tried over and over to say, I just need company sometimes or someone to vent to.
What do I have if it’s not depression? D:
— susan
All of these are so true for me. I feel trapped in my life and guilty for seeking help. I have a son with special needs and others have to fulfill my responsibilities when I’m hospitalized. I get on meds,do okay for awhile and go downhill again. One day I’m cleaning my house from top to bottom, two days later I’m crying out a suicidal depression. I feel like it’s too inconvenient for others if I’m sick so I trudge on. But I can’t help thinking about suicide constantly.I don’t know what will happen to me.I’m on the outside looking in now.
— Judi B.
I WENT THROUGH DEPRESSION 30YEARS AGO FOR THREE YEARS.VERY TOUGH LIFE TRYING TO RAISE YOUR KIDS AND PUTTING UP WITH AN ALCOHOLIC SPOUSE.I HAD ALL THE SYMPTOMS OF DEPRESSION.I DONT KNOW IF IT IS HEREDITARY,MY MOTHER ALSO GOES THROUGH DEPRESSIONS.I MADE A MOVE TO ANOTHER STATE,LEFT SOME OF MY SIBLINGS BEHIND AND WAS STRUCK WITH DEPRESSION AGAIN.RITE NOW IM OK ,BUT I STILL GET WAVES OF DEPRESSION.
— rachel
This has really hit it home for me, I checked almost everything on the list, I now know I have a problem and need help.
Thank you.
— Anon
I’m constantly on the computer every time I get the chance. It’s on the minute I wake up and I’m on it until 1am the following morning. Sleep loss isn’t a great issue but I don’t bother trying to sleep until then. Reading this list I can see how I’ve let things slip over the past few months. Getting up showered in dressed in the morning is a reall effort In every room in the flat there’s something that needs doing. My appetite’s been effected – I can’t be bothered with breakfast and it may be 2pm before I realise I haven’t eaten properly. There are various other things too, like the procrastination, lack of concentration watching the telly. It took four years to get this diagnosed but now I can see a dim light at the end of the tunnel.
— Stuart
Hi my names Chrystal i’m 18 years old, i have been living my life mostly with ‘mild depression’.
for a while i was finding the depression a really hard thing to deal with in my life seeing as my mom had just died, and cocaine was introduced to me by some people at a party and every since i tried it i feel like i’ve been ‘off’ and not normal and feeling EXTEREMELY depressed and suicidal and even sometimes crazy.
i’ve even gotten to the point in my life where music isn’t even helping to make me feel better, and my entire life feels like its falling down before my eyes.
lately i’ve been talking to my close friends about it and hoping for some kind of magical anser about whats wrong with me that i know isn’t going to come, but i really need some serious advice on this..and if not maybe even someone who can relate to what i’ve said , and who has any ideas on how to improve this problem in my life because recently i’ve even started sleeping all day as well just because i constantly feel tired.
Anyone have any helpful ideas??
— Chrystal
i feel so lost in my life i have a wonderful beautiful wife a wonderful daughter but thats really the only thing i have if i lose them im done i have nothing else in my life there the only things keeping me from killing myself as long as i can remember ive been lost with nothing to really hold on too ive tried everything to stablize my life i even joined the army which so far has been fuel for the fire im so stressed out i cant do anything right some of the most simplest tasks i cant get right its so stupid i have no freinds at least no one i can talk to and you i cant simply talk about this with my wife i have to put on an ilusion show that i can be strong for her and my daughter she cant find a job right now im all they have i cant fail them but i dont no how much longer i can hold out
— robin parker
Why can’t i get throught this?
— kelli
I relate to almost everything here, minus the dressing poorly. Even then, it takes an effort to try to convince myself not to put on the baggy pants and jacket. I’ve tried to talk to my family about how i feel, but they are convinced i’m simply trying to make excuses for being “lazy.” It’s painful knowing that when they say, “we will always be there for you”, they really don’t mean it. So far, the only person i’ve been able to talk to is my best friend, and even then, she cannot help me feel less numb. I’ve decided that if things don’t change, I’ll be ending my life in January. I’m only fearful that the people who say they care will twist my act into something focused on them, when all i really wanted was someone to pay attention to how i feel.
— Amanda
I relate to everything listed here. I try telling my boyfriend or my family or friends but no one ever seems to listen. I feel like most of this year I have been talking to a bunch of brick walls and im the only one who can see this problem. I seriously need help because i’m starting to slowly loose all the people I love. I just feel like dying would feel better sometimes and my boyfriend gets extreamly mad when i tell him these things. I just have no other choice but keep this all in.
— Kinsey
I see me in alot of those things listed…its terrible walking thru your life
numb.
— P.
Depression needs to be tackled on priority before it worsens. We need to take a grip on our lives. I too was depressive but timely treatment using therapies from Biogetica helped me overcome the ailment. These natural safe therapies alter mood and emotion on subtle spheres, they have homotoxologics that remind the body to secrete certain hormones, and have herbs that alter cellular chemistry. Their collective action helped in bringing me back to my natural self.
— Alice
A lot of these are true of me.
— Jamie
I am crying as I read it. Each part is so right, so so right.
— Julia Kerins
I didnt know that I was depressed. I thought depression was just feeling sad. I didn’t know all of the other symptoms that come along with it. I’m on meds now and I’m thinking alittle clearer but when I was in the deep depression I was so hopeless and I felt such a strong sense of guilt. I couldn’t stop thinking about suicide. I hated the whole world. I still feel this way but the medication makes me feel numb, enough so I don’t kill myself. I remember not even having enough energy to take a shower. I cried for days on end. I feelt like such a loser. I haven’t lived up to any of my expectations. I feel like no one understands. This disease has such a negative stigma. Other people just tell u to snap out of it. I hate that.
— Christine
There is comfort in nothing and nothing is found in comfort. My life has left me behind. Stranded in deep, unrelenting, black water. Taunted by would haves, could haves, and should haves. Leaving nothing but a trail of tattered and torn lives that joined me in calm waters, only to watch me be sucked out by the raging undertow of darkness. There are no answers for those who knock at my door or peer in my windows. They are better off not knowing because I have no capability of telling. The calm waters are deceptive…all trust lost. The search for innocence abandoned… Nothing left but to allow the currents to take me.
— Arrin
I know one thing for sure if i dont get help im going to end it all, i just cant carry on like this.
— Mariska Pelser
im not sure anymore about anything i can relate to some of them but i seem to have lost intrest in life it’s self
— matt
i can relate to almost ALL of them and im only 12. HELP MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!
— Leah
I read this above about how depression affects you. I feel this way about it all i can relate to each one.
— elizabeth parker