While we all feel sad, moody, or low from time to time, some people experience these feelings intensely, for long periods of time (weeks, months or even years) and sometimes without any apparent reason.
Depression is more than just a low mood – it’s a serious condition that affects your physical and mental health.
Some people can be very good at masking their depression.
One in seven Australians will experience depression in their lifetime and one in 16 Australians is currently experiencing depression.
Depression has wide variety of symptoms which can be grouped into four categories: feelings, thinking, behaviour and physical health.
Feelings: depression can bring sadness, sometimes for no apparent reason, low self-esteem with self-criticism and feelings of guilt, shame, worthlessness and helplessness, pessimism, hopelessness, irritability, the person is more prone to impatience and loss of tempter.
Thinking: depressed people typically have negative thoughts and tend to ruminate on their negative thoughts, sometimes to the point where they fully believe those negative thoughts. Concentration and memory can be affected.
Behaviour: apathy, low energy causes the person to have low motivation and find it hard to make decisions. This can lead to social withdrawal, frequent complaining an inability to be spontaneous. Work/personal productivity will go down and household responsibilities neglected. Personal hygiene and appearance can be neglected. Eating and drinking of unhealthy food is common and can be over or under consuming.
Physical Health: General fatigue is common, even though they might be sleeping more. Depression brings loss of energy, lack of interest in work, sex, religion, hobbies, friends, or other activities. An inability to concentrate, loss of appetite and sometimes complaining about aches and pains.
A lot of people especially men may present as angry but have depression and those who present with depression can have anger issues.
Remember
Everyone’s different and it’s often a combination of factors that can contribute to developing depression.
It’s important to remember that you can’t always identify the cause of depression or change difficult circumstances.
The most important thing is to recognise the signs and symptoms and seek support.
