Key Signs To Watch Out For If You’re Becoming Depressed

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Depression is something a lot of people can experience in different instances of their lives. After all, there are a lot of things in life that can make someone feel miserable, powerless, or hopeless about their particular situation. However, just because it’s normal doesn’t mean depression is something to take lightly. Despite it being “common” among a lot of people, depression can actually have a huge impact to a person’s life – and as such it’s important to be wary of indicators of severe depression.

Depression: A Quick Refresher

Before exploring the key signs to watch out for if you’re becoming depressed, perhaps it’s important to understand just what depression is. Unlike grief and sadness, which usually occur in short periods of time (sadness) or as a result of a particular life event (grief as a result of loss), having major depression is a feeling of overwhelming sadness. This can become serious as it’s often accompanied by other physical and emotional symptoms which, when untreated, can put your life at risk. There are also different kinds of depression:

• Major depression often involves a single yet often huge bout of feelings of hopelessness and powerlessness.
• Persistent depressive disorder can be diagnosed if depression persists for more than two years.
• Manic-depressive illness or bipolar disorder is a less common kind of depression, which involves cycles of extreme manias or highs alternating with depression.

It’s estimated that 350-million people worldwide suffer from some kind of depression, which is almost 5-percent of the world’s population today. In the United States alone, 16-million adults had at least one major episode of depression in 2012. If you feel as though you need more insights about depression, click here to check a service that may be able to help you out.

Depression: What To Watch Out For

Given how serious depression can be, it’s important to watch out for particular symptoms in order to find out whether or not your sadness is becoming something severe or potentially life-threatening. Here are things that can indicate that your feelings of depression are becoming a bit overwhelming:

• Are your feelings of emptiness or sadness staying even after a two weeks? While two weeks is not necessarily a hard limit, feelings of sadness that last for this span of time should be something you should be wary of. This is because sadness that last for at least a few weeks can actually be depression.
• Are you experiencing extreme irritability or anger issues over little things? If even the littlest or minor things start irritating you for reasons you can’t explain, you might be repressing feelings of depression. This is especially if these things are normally things you don’t think about or even pay attention to.
• Are you experiencing restlessness and anxiety? If you’re experiencing some degree of restlessness and anxiety over a lot of things over the course of more than a few weeks, you might be depressed. This is especially if the things you’re anxious with are things you’re normally able to do without difficulty, or are things a person should be able to do normally. This is also if the kind of anxiety you’re experiencing is a kind of restlessness or fixation over things that have gone wrong.
• Are you losing interest in activities you normally like? Everyone has hobbies – especially if they need things to do in order to de-stress, declutter or unwind after a long day of work or school. If you start losing interest in these things, however, you may be showing signs of depression.
• Are you experiencing decreased or increased appetite, accompanied by weight loss or weight gain? Sometimes, people cope from feelings of sadness by eating or not eating, as well as radical diet changes. If you experience these things as well as other items in this list, you might be dealing with depression.
• Are you finding it hard to sleep, or are you sleeping too much? Feeling debilitating fatigue or insomnia that shouldn’t normally occur within your daily life might be signs of depression – especially if you easily become exhausted doing otherwise basic things.
• Are you having thoughts of suicide or death? If you’re having thoughts or fixations about death or suicide, you should seek help immediately as these are something that should be taken seriously.

Conclusion: Depression Isn’t A Thing To Take Lightly

Depression is no simple thing to take lightly, especially since being depressed can sometimes have quite a devastating effect to the way you function and work as an individual. Not only is your personal life at stake, but also your dreams, aspirations, livelihood, and even your relationships. If you’re starting to see the key signs to watch out for above if you’re becoming depressed, it’s best to seek professional help in order for you to be able to manage the impact of depression before it gets worse.

Philippa Page
Philippa is a warm and friendly therapist from Life Resolutions who prides herself on making clients feel welcome and comfortable in the therapeutic space. She believes it is important to take the time to really understand each client and treats the client as the expert in the room as they know themselves best. She uses a collaborative approach with clients to enable them to take an active role in therapy.