When do you have a depression?
It is not easy to recognize a depression. On top of that, depression is difficult to differentiate from some 'normal' phases in life, where you do not always feel sure of yourself. An experienced healthcare provider can often quickly determine if you do or do not suffer from a depression. It is also useful for you to learn to recognize the alarm signals yourself. In this article we sum up the most common alarm signals of depression.
How do you recognize a depression?
Depression is often difficult to recognize because it can show itself in different ways. It furthermore also often occurs that different symptoms of different expressions of depression can be found in one and the same person. While we do consider there to be different expressions of depression, we do not consider these to be different illnesses. Depression should first of all be seen as a main illness, which contains a range of different expressions. Depression often expresses itself in 3 ways: in the psychological way, the physical way, and the social way.
Depression? How does depression express itself psychologically?
When we speak of psychological symptoms of depression, we consider both a disturbance of the thinking processes as well as of the emotional processes. In a depression you will thus notice that you:
- Become less happy
- Are somber about the future
- Do not take any initiative anymore
- Prefer to stay in bed all day
These are thus the feeling-wise aspects of depression. Also, depression has an influence on cognitive processes such as memory, concentration, and stress. You will notice that you will start to experience issues with your memory and concentration. Furthermore, people with depression suffer more from stress, which exhausts your brain even further.
Depression? How does depression express itself physically?
Depression can have an influence on your body. Many people with depression start to experience all sorts of issues. Stress can namely make it so that muscles start to tense up, which can cause muscle ache. Because of the constant tiredness you also are more vulnerable to diseases. Your immune system weakens and you generally also feel weaker.
Depression? How does depression express itself socially?
If you do not feel like getting out of bed, you will of course not be the first to want to go do something with friends, either. People with depression often suffer from isolation, which possibly leads to more depressed feelings. Often, people with depression also do not feel understood, so they prefer not to make any effort to explain one's feeling, out of fear of rejection. This, too, causes isolation.
The solution for depression?
There are different ways of treating a depression. What we should note, is that it is useful to treat depression in an active way. It is a problem which does not just disappear. Depression often is a deep-rooted problem and thus requires a more active treatment. 15 Minutes 4 Me developed an online self-help program, which treats people with depression from home. The program was developed by doctors and psychologists and is based on therapeutic techniques. According to recent research, the average participant feels 40% happier after 3 weeks.
Test your depression symptoms!
Would you like to know to what stage your depression has come? Then take the free depression test here!
