If you feel sad but you’re not sure if you are feeling depressed, you might find yourself asking – what does depression feel like?
By now you’ve probably completed a number of depression questionnaires and self screening tests but you realise the symptoms just don’t really “click with you” and your symptoms. In our experience the symptoms and causes of depression can vary widely from person to person and a generic questionnaire simply can’t accommodate such diversity. With questionnaires some of the criteria is general, and if you’re suffering from depression, specifics are often easier to understand.
If you’re looking for a way to self diagnose yourself often a list of symptoms is enough to provide you with the knowledge you need to start looking for traits in your own personality.
Nonclinical Symptoms
Below are a list of some of the non clinical symptoms you might suffer from if you have Depression.
- Things just seem right, everything feels “off”.
- You don’t feel joy – you’re not hopeful or happy about any aspect of your life
- You’re crying for no reason
- You feel like the world is moving in slow motion
- You feel like you’re disconnected from your own body.
- You can’t find a reason to get out of bed in the morning.
- You feel like you can’t fit in or carry a normal conversation
Clinical Symptoms
- Difficulty concentrating, remembering details, and making decisions
- Fatigue and decreased energy
- Feelings of guilt, worthlessness, and/or helplessness
- Feelings of hopelessness and/or pessimism
- Insomnia, early-morning wakefulness, or excessive sleeping
- Irritability, restlessness
- Loss of interest in activities or hobbies once pleasurable, including sex
- Overeating or appetite loss
- Persistent aches or pains, headaches, cramps, or digestive problems that do not ease even with treatment
- Persistent sad, anxious, or “empty” feelings
- Thoughts of suicide, suicide attempts
Depression and sadness mean two different things. Sadness is a normal emotion and if something bad was to happen then you may feel sad, but that sadness will lift after a few days. However, if you’re suffering from depression it means you’re dealing with a persistent sadness that can last for weeks, months or even years.
It can affect you in various ways such as changing your personality, interests and the way you see the future.
How Depression Feels For People With Depression
If you really want to know how depression feels then the best way to find out is for those that are currently experiencing it or have in the past. Huffington Post put together a great article which surveys depression sufferers explaining how depression makes them feel. Here are 25 of those responses:
- Depression is seeing no future, and no answer for any of the problems in your life.
- When you have depression, nothing is enjoyable. Nothing can make you smile.
- It feels like you’re a ghost … not a part of the real world.
- It’s like drowning … except you can see everyone around you breathing.
- Depression is a dark, inescapable place. It’s like being locked in a room with no light, windows or door. It’s so dark you can’t even see your hands in front of your face let alone find a way out.
- Depression is the inability to construct or envision a future.
- Slipping into depression feels like falling down a dark bottomless shaft, wondering if and when your fall will ever be caught. And as you look back to where you fell from—which is where you know you need to get back to—you can see it receding further into the distance, the proverbial light becoming dimmer and dimmer.
- Depression to me is like having your mind replaced by another one that makes me feel worthless and numb to life—even to my own husband and son.
- It’s like being stuck in a box that you can’t get out of—a very dark place where you feel so low that even simple tasks are difficult. You feel completely alone.
- A total loss of who you are.
- Standing underneath a floor of glass, screaming and banging on it trying to get the attention of the rest of the world going about their lives without you. The problem is no-one can hear you or even knows you’re trapped there.
- Depression is like the heart or the mind breaking.
- Depression is a state in which nothing tastes, smells, or feels right and you are unable to think or make decisions—yet you still have to carry on doing all those things. And so much of the time you just don’t have the energy or the desire. But you still carry on anyway.
- The belief that you just don’t matter.
- Like the death eaters in Harry Potter have caught you and sucked all the goodness from you.
- Swimming through treacle.
- Multiple emotions: fear, despair, emptiness, numbness, shame, embarrassment and an inability to recognize the fun, happy person you used to be.
- Depression is losing the desire to partake in life.
- It’s like trying to breathe when you’re covered in tar.
- Depression makes you feel like you’re an actor playing you—one that’s always forced to smile.
- Being depressed sometimes feels like tunnel vision—regardless of anything going on in your life, you can feel miserable and overwhelmed for no reason at all.
- Nothingness.
- Cancer of the soul.
- Torture.
- It’s just like being inside a wheel that’s spinning and spinning and you don’t know when it’s going to stop.
Source Huffington Post
Can Depression Be Treated?
Although depression can be challenging to overcome, the truth is that you have every chance or recovering and doing so naturally and drug-free. Doctors are often quick to prescribe medication** or psychotherapy or a combination of the two but there are other ways.
Firstly we’ve put together a great article with amazing tips on how you can treat depression naturally, so check that out first.
However, if you’re looking for an alternative and drug-free solution Blissiree Pty Ltd specialises in depression and mental health issues, with a 98%* success rate in treating mental illness of all types. We use a proven, drug-free and efficient treatment that is personalised based on your unique needs.
One thing is certain though and that is if you are experiencing some of the many symptoms of depression you should seek professional help immediately.
To talk to someone about your depression, call Blissiree Pty Ltd, or find out more on our treatments for depression.
**Note that the advice given in this article should never be viewed as a replacement for medications or other recognised treatments and/or therapies without qualified medical advice from your doctor.