Do you feel tired and exhausted, both physically and mentally? Do you have the feeling that you never are rested anymore? Do certain thoughts keep spinning through your mind? Then it is possible that you are suffering from a depression. Read the symptoms of depression below and check if these apply to you or not:
- You feel down or unhappy
- You feel washed out
- You feel irritable/anxious without understanding why
- You do not take any initiative
- You find it difficult to focus at work or even on a normal conversation
- Your short-term memory no longer works so well
- You have the feeling that you are worthless and unable to do anything
- You have the impression that work becomes overwhelming and that you cannot do it anymore
- You do not feel like eating anymore or have constant bingeing modes
- You no longer are interested in sex or anything related to it
- You isolate yourself and no longer try to contact people
If most of the above depression symptoms are applicable to you, it might be so that you have a depression. Of course, you should not find this to be definitive on the basis of just these symptoms of depression. More needs to be at play for that. Yet, it is possible that more is going than just feeling unhappy. We might consider a depression to be at hand. Below, we shortly summed up some symptoms of depression. That way you can decide for yourself if you might be suffering from a depression or not. We have summed up the symptoms of depression in three categories: psychological, physical, and cognitive (thinking) symptoms of depression.
Psychological symptoms of depression
- Irritability in depression: In depression it more often occurs that you are annoyed and irritable. You can then get mad about anything. It need not be anything large. For example, you can get mad about a jacket that is hanging on a chair. These feelings are sometimes called feelings of displeasure. The irritation seems to become a habit. There is a deeper cause for the annoyance and irritability, namely a depression.
- Guilt and anxiety in depression: Everyone feels guilty sometimes. For example, if they forget their anniversary. If you have a depression, you will think that anything that goes wrong is your fault. You no longer see anything positive. People are also sometimes anxious. People with a depression experience anxieties, for which there is no clear reason. Others do not see any reason for fear in this. In a depression you can, for example, become anxious when you have to go out to buy groceries.
Physical symptoms of depression
- Tension in depression: Some can feel very tense when they have a depression. They can then experience a lot of stress. Even when you are alone, you can still feel like you are under pressure in a depression. You have sweaty palms, a rapid heart rate and you feel breathless. This feeling often gets worse when there are people around, especially when something must be presented. This tension can lead to complaints like headache, a feeling of pressure in the chest region, or stomach complaints.
- Issues sleeping in depression: People with a depression can have issues with falling asleep and waking up throughout the night. You lie away, worrying, which makes it more difficult to fall asleep. When you then finally do fall asleep, you sleep a shallow sleep which makes it easy for you to wake up many times throughout the night. It can also be so that you fall asleep easily, but wake up very early. This causes you to have short nights. This, too, will lead to a lack of sleep.
Cognitive symptoms of depression
- Negative self-reflection in depression: Nobody finds themselves perfect. Everyone knows something they want to change about themselves. Yet, most people are happy with themselves to some extent. With a depression, you have disproportional negative thoughts about yourself. You find yourself to be worthless and ugly. You can for example find yourself to be unattractive, stupid, non-interesting,...
- Insecurity in depression: Because you think so negatively about yourself, you become very insecure. If you find yourself ugly, it is difficult to enter a room full of people. You then feel like all eyes are on you, while this is not really the case. In other situations you prefer not to catch anyone's attention, either. For example, during a class you do not dare to ask questions. You are afraid of embarrassing yourself, and that others will laugh at you.
15 Minutes 4 Me
We developed the online self-help program 15 Minutes 4 Me to treat depression, burnout, and stress online. You are guided for 15 minutes daily with solution focused questions, which help you to think about what it is that helps you. In a series of video clips, our doctors explain to you how you can recognize depression, how you can treat it, and how to prevent it. Also, the program sends you a weekly report with your evolution. This is something you can talk about with your doctor, so that he/she is also aware of your improvements, if you want them to be. You can also invite family members. We teach them how they can support you. We also help them to understand you better. You are not obliged to invite them. You can also do this by yourself.
Are you depressed?
We have developed a free depression test, which measures if you are depressed. You get about twenty questions which you have to answer, and state to what extent the questions are applicable to you. After filling out the final question, your score is calculate right away!
