Depression is much more than a feeling of sadness – it is a severe and terrible disease that can cause physical and mental symptoms capable of significantly disrupting a person’s life.
As such, depression is not something that should ever be ignored. In this article, we’ll look at five signs of depression that you or someone you love may be suffering from depression.
Lack of Energy
One of the first and most common signs of depression is a loss of energy and motivation. Depression saps a person’s mental and physical energy, leaving them both unable to be productive at work and unable to enjoy fun activities alike. A person suffering from depression often doesn’t feel up to anything aside from lying in bed.
While everyone deals with a lack of energy and motivation from time to time, a prolonged loss of energy that persists for long periods is a tell-tale sign that depression may be to blame. The lethargy that accompanies depression is one of the disease’s most obvious symptoms as well as one of its most debilitating.
If you’ve noticed that you or someone you love don’t seem to have the same energy or enthusiasm for life as before, it may be time to seek professional help.
Physical Symptoms
Depression is a mental illness. However, it is a mental illness that is also capable of triggering several uncomfortable physical symptoms. Common physical symptoms that are known to accompany depression include things such as muscle aches, headaches, and digestive troubles.
Of course, all of these physical symptoms can also be caused by physical triggers and are not inherently proof of depression in and of themselves.
However, if these symptoms persist without any apparent physical reason, depression may be to blame. Whatever the root cause might be, persistent physical symptoms such as ongoing headaches, muscle pains, and digestive issues should not be ignored.
Whether these symptoms are a sign of depression or a sign of an underlying physical ailment, it’s vital to seek a doctor’s diagnosis if you are suffering from physical symptoms that won’t go away on their own.
Your doctor will be able to tell you whether these symptoms have a physical cause that needs to be addressed or whether they must be cured by treating the depression that is triggering them.
The 5 Second Rule
by Mel Robbins
⏱ 12 minutes reading time
🎧 Audio version available
Changes in Appetite or Weight
Depression affects everyone differently, and while changes in appetite and weight is a common symptom of depression, this symptom can manifest itself in different ways.
For some people, depression may cause weight gain brought on by the act of turning to overeating as a means of dealing with stress and anxiety. For others, depression may cause weight loss that is brought on by a person’s loss of appetite and lack of interest in all things, food included.
In the latter cases, this change in appetite and weight is often mistaken by the outside world as a positive sign. People may view a person who has lost weight due to depression as someone getting in shape and making healthy lifestyle choices when the reality is that this couldn’t be further from the truth.
With that said, changes in weight and appetite – while one of the most physically noticeable signs of depression – often go misdiagnosed. If you notice that someone’s weight or appetite has changed dramatically in either direction, though, it is essential to keep a close eye on them and determine whether or not depression is to blame.
Disrupted Sleep Patterns
Like changes in weight or appetite, disrupted sleep patterns are symptoms of depression that can manifest in several different forms. For some, depression causes a loss of sleep, making it difficult to fall asleep or stay asleep the entire night.
For others, depression leads to excess sleep, causing those who suffer from the disease to turn to sleep as a means of escape.
In both cases, though, this symptom of depression can be debilitating, leading to either a lack of rest that can make combating the illness all the more difficult or an excess of sleep that causes a person to miss out on their life’s activities and likewise make the illness even more difficult to defeat.
If you notice that you or someone you know doesn’t seem to be getting enough sleep anymore or, inversely, seem to be sleeping much more than usual, depression may be to blame. Disrupted sleep patterns are considered one of the more common symptoms of depression, and it is one of the more noticeable symptoms as well, making it a symptom that should certainly not be ignored.
Persistent Thoughts of Death and Suicide
By far, the most troubling and severe symptom of depression is persistent thoughts of death and suicide. Depression is a disease that kills, making a person so miserable that they are willing to take their own life – a sobering fact that conveys just how terrible this illness is.
Unfortunately, this symptom of depression – while the most severe symptom of the disease – is one that can be incredibly difficult to notice in others. In some cases, a person suffering from depression will discuss death and suicide with others. In many other cases, though, someone suffering from depression will carefully conceal such thoughts so that they go undetected even by the people who are closest to them.
It’s important to point out, though, that occasional thoughts of death and suicide are not always a sign of an underlying mental illness. Everyone contemplates death and what it will be like from time to time, and even thoughts of suicide can sometimes casually cross the mind of someone who is in a stable mental condition and has zero intention or desire to follow through with such thoughts.
However, persistent and compelling thoughts of suicide and death is a dangerous symptom that should never be ignored.
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