What are the symptoms of depression?
What does depression feel like? Typical feelings include the following.
- The person may look and feel sad, and move and talk slowly.
- Motivation is lost.
- Previously enjoyable things no longer give pleasure.
- Energy is low. The person may feel lethargic or always tired.
- He or she (depression is twice as common in women) may be very down on themselves, and draw into themselves, away from people and activity.
- They may be tearful and anxious.
- The person may feel down all the time, or have happy periods, or be up and down in mood.
- It may be hard to make decisions.
- There may be aches, pains and physical symptoms the doctor can find no cause for.
- It may feel more like stress than depression – the two overlap a lot.
- There may be feelings of guilt, shame and failure.
- Sex drive and appetite may be low, and there may be weight loss. At the same time, comfort eating when you are depressed is common and may lead to substantial weight gain.
- Sleep is commonly disturbed, often with early waking or perhaps no desire to get out of bed.
- Life seems meaningless.
- The person may feel like a failure.
- The very fact of being depressed may feel like a failure, as the person thinks “my life is fine, I have all these advantages, I ought to be OK”
- The person may feel unmotivated, empty, hopeless and despairing. They just know there’s no way out.
- A depressed person may have suicidal thoughts.
And all of this is way beyond the normal ups and downs of life.
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If you come to recognise that “I am depressed,” then take heart – modern therapy can help depression enormously. I use a combination of some of the most effective forms of therapy, solution-oriented brief therapy, hypno-psychotherapy, cognitive-behavioural hypnosis and emotional healing. These have realistic potential to help you bring back the joy, energy and motivation into your life. They can even help you cure depression of long standing. To find out how I can help, give me a call today: 0845-3510604 / 0117-955-0490. I’m happy to answer questions or arrange, in Bristol only, a free, no-obligation half-hour initial meeting.