It is important to identify one’s own mental state so to treat it efficiently, and accordingly. If you have an doubts of whether you are depressed or not, the following signs may help you confirm or refute them:
1. You Have a Short Fuse
You’ve been awfully irritated lately. Your roommate asks about your morning, and you answer back with a grunt, your co-worker tells you about what he did last night, and you scorn at his attempt converse, giving everyone the impression that you’re a moody nerve bomb. And all that while you ask yourself, deeply, why did you have to react that way? Well, all of this could actually be the result of depression, rather than a bad mood. It can make a person, rather than feel sad and hopeless, feel irritated and angry. If you feel like you’re easily ticked off, it could be a sign of depression.
2. Changes in Your Sleeping Pattern
You get into bed, tired, exhausted really, trying to get into a comfortable position. You turn from side to side, cover yourself with the blanket only to remove it half way a few moments later. In short, you are already aware that this will be one of those practically sleepless nights. Or rather, you do fall asleep, instantly like a baby, only to find that when the wrenched alarm clock rings devilishly, you cannot seem to be able and wake up. Still exhausted, even after your nine hours sleep. And even if you do manage to somehow persuade yourself away from bed, you quickly find that there’s not much else you’d like to do more than going back to bed again. While these two extreme phenomenons can be confused with simply having a night, if they consist more than a day or two, you may be suffering from depression, which can also be the cause of a sleep problem.
3. You’re Experiencing Physical Pain
Your head aches? Your back is in pain? And all that without no apparent reason? Well, before you start googling your symptoms and end up diagnosing yourself with cancer, the simple answer may just be that you are suffering from… you know it, depression. Pain and mood are both influenced by the same neurotransmitters, and so it is not out of the question that being in the state of grave depression, will actually affect you physically. Even your body is not spared from the painful clutches of depression.
4. You Are Lacking Energy
Another common symptom includes physical fatigue. Lack of energy doesn’t only mean that you don’t feel like going to the gym today, it even affects your minor activities, from going up the stairs to bending down to pick up that pencil you dropped. This exhaustion should not be dismissed for lack of sleep or simply being moody. Depression is a burden, and a lasting toll on your body, while a bad mood hardly affects you physically.
5. You Are Beating Yourself Down
People with depression can actually feel their self worth diminishing, and when that happens, they will practically blame themselves for anything. It can be that fight you had with a friend a day ago, all the way to that argument you had with your brother back in the 90’s. It doesn’t matter if your logical side is telling you that you were on the right, you will still feel an overburdening guilt that will be hard to shake away. This one is actually very easy to differentiate from a bad mood, for a moody person would probably blame others, rather than himself.
6. You Are Reckless
Depression is a burden, and it constantly weighs on you mentally. It is only natural that one will try to mask that unpleasant feeling using exterior stimulation. And we all know that the best stimulates are also the riskiest. It could be ranged from gambling all the way to the substance abuse. Risky acts will provide momentary relief, but soon enough depression will hit back several times harder, and so this is why a depressed person may enter himself into a loop, all so to forget the turmoil that is inside of him. Being moody can make you sulky, but it definitely will not lead one to this circle of self consuming.
7. Depression Fogs Concentration
Another symptom that can be easily confused with lack of sleep, but as you probably already guessed, it can also be a sign of depression. Concentration takes self peace and silence, two things that people with depression will find hard to face. Silence only makes it easier to feel the burden in one’s chest. This lack of concentration can make you either forget or misplace things around the house, or hinder your general productivity. A bad mood, unlike depression, does not affect your mental functions to such extent. Featured photo credit: Viktor Hanacek via picjumbo.com
