This list of depression symptoms come from Quora by way of Forbes, and we thought it was worth sharing. If you click the link below the excerpt, you’ll see the full list. If you’re in the greater Cleveland area, and you recognize yourself or someone you love, we hope you’ll reach out for an evaluation.
Many people know of depression from experiencing it themselves or seeing friends or coworkers struggle with lethargy, trouble concentrating, and chronic fatigue. It’s this low mood over a long period of time most people identify as depression. Persistent depressive disorder is the professional label and generally includes changes in sleep habits and/or appetite. Commercials for antidepressants usually show a disheveled, tearful person huddled in their bathrobe or hunched over the kitchen table staring into space unable to work or face the day. The CDC says 6.7% of the US adult population, approximately 14.8 million, are depressed in a given year.
But depression comes in many forms and displays a wide range of symptoms depending on the type, the duration, severity, and the precipitating cause. If your behavior and mood match the stereotypical idea, you may self-diagnose or seek relief from a physician or therapist. But what if your most prevalent change is a loss of libido or being short-tempered or doubting your memory and problem solving abilities? Or you have times when paradoxically you think you have to conquer everything perfectly? All of these may occur as identifiers of depression to a trained clinician. They tend to masked depression for people who normalize what they are observing.
1. Anger: It may be harder for most people to recognize anger as a depressed state. When people are at the end of their rope, the phrase: “I have one nerve left and you’re standing on it” becomes more understandable. They become touchy about one more perceived loss. At that point, any little injustice can set them off. They definitely are not to be reasoned with. Sometimes, they “cash in” their mental “guilt-free” retribution, because after all, they’ve earned it with all the collected misery. Then they can do something drastic even to the point of killing themselves or others and sometimes both.