Most of us feel lonely, sad and depressed during different situations. It is a normal reaction to the struggles of life, to loss and sometimes to hurt self-esteem. However, there comes a time when all these feelings will become overwhelming and will later on lead to physical and mental health symptoms. If these symptoms last for a specific time period, they can bar you from spending an active and normal life. This is when you should know that it’s high time to seek medical assistance.
Seeking help of a regular doctor is the best places to start where the doctor will take a clinical depression quiz. They will soon test you for depression and manage your symptoms. If you thought that you would leave your depression untreated, this can later on lead to serious and graver consequences. So, here are few of the ways in which you can understand that you have depression.
The most common symptoms of Depression
Few of the common symptoms of depression are:
- Trouble or difficulty in remembering details, focusing and concentrating and in making decisions
- Tiredness and fatigue
- Feeling of worthlessness, guilt and hopelessness
- Helplessness leading to a negative attitude towards life
- Early morning wakefulness, insomnia or too much of sleep
- Restlessness
- Irritability
- Loss of appetite and overeating
- Loss of interest in things which gave pleasure once upon a time
- Headaches, pains, aches, cramps which don’t seem to go away
- Empty, anxious and sad feelings which don’t tend to go away
- Suicidal attempts or thoughts
How is depression diagnosed?
There is no such thing called depression test which can be used by a doctor to check whether or not you have depression. Hence, figuring it out will begin with a thorough physical exam and history. Your doctor will wish to know since when the symptoms of depression have started, for how long they lasted and the extent of severity it had. The doctor will also want to know whether or not mental illnesses were a part of your family illness and if you have a history of alcohol or drug abuse. Did you face similar symptoms of depression ever before? These are few of the questions that the physician will ask you before assigning you to a therapist.
Therefore, if you’re suffering from any kind of mental illness and you suspect it to be depression, you can watch out for the above mentioned symptoms.