Depression Signs and Symptoms (go back »)

Sometimes you may not realize the one you love is dealing with depression. You should learn how recognize these signs. If you know someone how has depression, then you will find an article on dealing with depression and how you can help a loved one.

1. Lack of interest or enthusiasm in what they used to love or do every day.

This one is kind of tough. If the person is seemingly just going through the motions of everyday life without looking like they have much of a reason to do it, then that could be an issue. A lack of enthusiasm is generally indicative of a depressive type dysphoria.

2. Appearing to be sad or down

Most people have a general demeanor that is somewhere around being a good mixture of sad and happy. People who are depressed usually stay within the realm of being unhappy a lot longer than the normal person, and would carry on for weeks or months.

3. Sense of impending doom or hopelessness

Everyone feels at some point that a situation can be hopeless. People who are not depressed will usually know that life can move beyond this situation. Depressed people will feel there is a need to shut down because their world is potentially coming to an end.

4. Random crying

No one cries without something triggering it, and most people don’t cry unless something evident is happening right around them. A depressed person will cry because their situation is on-going, therefore the crying seems to happen randomly.

5. Insomnia

Feeling sad about a situation is what would keep a depressed person up at night. Mourning a loss or feeling betrayed can and does disrupt sleep and you’ll see evidence of this by the person being extremely tired when they would normally be awake or active.

6. Difficulty maintaining focus on work or school activities

It’s really difficult to push the sad thoughts out of someone’s head who is depressed, and this will continually enter into their mind and prevent them from doing their best at school or work, or even in a social setting – such as watching movies or shows.

7. Sudden weight gain or loss

Some people deal with depression by not eating, while others will feel the need to keep the food coming so they can try to fill the void or pile food on top of the pain. Neither is good, of course, and can drastically change someone’s physical appearance.

8. Abnormal irritability or easily provoked

Someone who is dealing with inhibitive sadness will generally not have enough of an ability to deal with aggravating stimuli. Things that would normally mildly irritate someone would seemingly make the person ridiculously and unreasonably “fly off the handle” because all of their coping power may be devoted to not breaking down and crying constantly.

9. Inability to be still; constantly needing to wander or roam

Racing thoughts in a depressed person will sometimes make them want to just get up and change their environment, only to find out the internal struggle still exists no matter where they go. They may feel a change in location helps, but only temporarily, and this temporary relief is sought after.

10. Weakness/fatigue

Depression can take a lot out of someone, so they can be physically drained. This is also true if they have insomnia.

11. Loss of self esteem

Depressed people will feel there is no one that can help them or that they are not worthy of help. Maybe, in their mind, they don’t measure up to the standard they have set as what they believe other people have set. This is delusional, but exists in a lot of depressed people. Examples of self-esteem loss could be in cases of sexual assault or infidelity.

12. Loss of libido

Sex usually isn’t the first thing a depressed person will want so their desire is mitigated significantly.

13. Suicidal thoughts

Wanting to “end it all” is a common thought process for depressed people, especially those that feel they have reached their maximum threshold for coping with their pain. For most people, the survival instinct kicks in and therefore prevents people from even attempting it, but when in a depressed enough state , they may no longer care. This is truly dangerous.

14. Self-harming behavior

For some people, dealing with physical pain is better than dealing with mental or emotional pain. This is usually evident by cutting hidden areas of the body, such as the arms which would be covered by sleeves or legs which would be covered either by pants or socks.

15. Inorganic physical problems such as pain

When people are plagued with depression, they will probably put themselves through physical stress. When that happens, the body works overtime and ignores other areas, resulting in pain in different areas, but no physical stress was present.